Jo of "Life Afloat Our Dream Come True" writes today of her weekend at the annual Roger Fuller boat gathering. And she had a wow of a time, she says, and finishes off the post with a recipe, the first I've seen on a canal blog.
I didn't realise there was a Fuller gathering last weekend. No one else reported it. Jo's planning a new Roger Fuller boat, a trad to be called 'Hadar'. Lucky gal; wish I could get a Roger Fuller - it's one of the most prestigious of replica traditional 'canal cred' craft. I asked him for a quote for a 60ft josher (shell only) back in 2001, and a back-of-the-envelope price was £26,000.
Jo called Roger's annual gathering 'Fullerfest'. I've not heard that term before. But it's not exclusive to Roger. Indeed, Fullerfest has been celebrated in Memphis' Fuller State Park for quite a few years, and also in Fred Fuller Park in Kent, Ohio.
On balance, I'd rather have been at the Fullerfest in Stone this weekend.
Incidentally, the last time I passed through Stone, the week before last year's Burton National Festival, I was struck and captivated by the marvellously detailed and meticulously shaded signwriting of Tina Paramore. I read somewhere that she's self-taught; whether or not that's true, her work is impressive. Have a look at these photos I took at the time.
Astonishingly, for work of this quality, the phrase "Tina Paramore" is still a Googlewhack. (OK, a Googlewhack is technically two words, but for work of this quality it's still surprising she has only one mention). The solitary mention of her name is on the Waterways Crafts Guild site, where she is listed as an humble 'journeyman'. Well, when Google finds this post there's be two. Welcome to public life, Tina.
Actually the work featured in the pictures above is not Tinas, it was done by me, Tina was at the time, still learning the craft and now does take on signwriting and boatpainting work at Rogers yard so it would have been an easy mistake to make
Dave Moseley
Sign Design
Posted by: Dave Moseley | Tuesday, 15 January 2013 at 01:32 AM