Remembering the Day

It's been 4 busy days now since the Flute Gathering on Saturday, and still I am having fun remembering all of the wonderful things from the day.

First of all, thanks to everyone who attended and helped make this a successful fund raiser for KFOK. The radio station cleared more than a thousand dollars thanks to all of your generous donations and support of the evening concert.

I really enjoyed meeting and chatting with all of the vendors. There were some beautiful crafts for sale. Bill Timothy (Central Coast Flute Circle) had some beautiful beaded wraps for sale. This is skill which I didn't know that Bill possessed, and unfortunately he didn't have a wrap which matched the size/leather of my new flute, but I'll definitely be working with Bill to make some custom wraps for my other flutes.

Vance Pennington (Walking Spirit Flute) drove down from Oregon to show his inventory of beautiful flutes. Vance is a consumate craftsman and has an amazing attention to detail. All of his flute are turned and most share a unique construction technique to join the various woods used for the flute. I would say that Vance stands alone in this method of construction. The other unique feature which Vance demonstrated is an innovation tuning mechanism available on his flutes which allow you to change the pitch of the fundamental note of the flute. If you are interested in a 'tunable' Native American style flute, then I encourage you to contact Vance and check out this flutes.

Stephen DeRuby had two new models of his Gypsy flute available for sale. Both models feature the same construction and Native American style flute block as his River and Trail flute series. He had an A model available which features inline finger holes. He also has an E model which features the same offset holes as the D model.

Colyn Peterson (Woodland Voices) flew out from the mid west to join us for the first time at an NCFC event. I had never met Colyn personally so it was fun to get to know him throughout the day. Colyn had some beautiful flutes for sale, many of which featured the painting and woodburning of his wife Kitty. Since this was Colyn's first visit to NorCal, his booth was busy all day.

I also had the chance to met flutemaker Igor Sedor from Las Vegas. Igor drove up with some other members of the Loping Wolf Las Vegas clan. Igor had a smal inventory for sale.

Jeanne and Jim Callaway (Eagle Heart Flutes), came down from Clear lake area to join us. It's been about 4 or 5 years since I've seen the Callaway's. The last time was at the now defunct (but notorious) DeAnza Pow Wow. Jim had some wonderful inlaid flutes for sale.

Becky Olvera Schultz, a Native artist from the Bay area, had some beautiful art and masks for sale. I had fun talking to Becky and enjoyed her artwork. I hope that some of these beautiful pieces found a new home last weekend.

Loren and Lonnie from FairyRingMushroom had a huge inventory (they've been busy in the shop lately), and I noticed a fair number of folks in their booth throughout the day. Loren and Lonnie are our local flutemakers in the Sacramento area.

Our very own, Brian Revheim (Napa Valley Flutes) had a small collection of flutes for sale. Brian's unique construction method had lot's of folks checking out his flutes thoughout the day.

Lew Price was his usual self, sharing his collection of flutes and spent the day talking about flutemaking with anyone who had questions.

Of course I can't forget Russ Venable, who I think spent more time bouncing around talking to every one in all of the other booths, than he did in his own. I also enjoyed Russ's playful spirit and enthusiasm for everything flute. I did happen to be present when Russ delivered Dan DiCicco's new spalted mango, double barrel flute. It was a beauty, and Dan's a happy boy...

Unfortunately, Geophrey Ellis couldn't make over for the day. We missed him.