The EBPC are very excited to be attending and supporting one of Europe's premiere shows, and one of our personal favourites - the EBBS in Saulieu France next weekend. This is an open hall exhibition with everything in one enormous room. The ex-cattle market has imposing vaulted ceiling beams and ample light flooding in, making it an ideal venue. 
This exhibition has improved year on year and the standard of trees, demonstrations and traders is superb. The organisers have also done an incredible job creating a show with a warm friendly atmosphere. 
With many of Europe's finest trees on show, and demonstrators on the level of Bjorn Bjorholm, Mauro Stemberg, and Jan Culek, including many other attractions (superb new EBPC pots for example!) this is a show not to be missed!  

A beautiful handmade EBPC trophy kindly made by leading ceramist Sabine Besnard of France will be awarded to the winner of the category 'Best European Bonsai Pot and Tree Combination'. ​ The trophy is of an Ume branch in flower ,with a matching bowl on wood, and is laser etched and has both the stamps of Sabine and the EBPC.

As with each year, the EBPC will also donate a prize for the increasingly popular 'Tombola raffle'. This year a stunning pot by the fantastic and highly skilled artist, Ian Baillie of Scotland will be donated and taken home by one lucky winner. 

We are especially excited about the EBPC trade stand this year, as we ave had some fantastic new pots in especially for this event, by some of the most sought after artists in Europe! .. Be sure to stop by the stand and say 'hi'!

Thank you for reading and we hope to see you there! 
Alex

The U.K. National Bonsai show is a bi-annual event based in Bury near Manchester, England.
This year the demonstrations were some of the best I have seen, performed by leading artists from around the world, including Bjorn Bjornholm (USA), Rafael Torres (Spain), Anthony Smith (S Africa) and Hugo Luna Zamora (Mexico).
​The Exhibition of trees was of a very high quality, with Bjorn even commenting that some could have made it into the Taiken-ten, and possibly even the Kokufu-ten in Japan!
One highlight was the well thought out and compelling 'Lord of the Rings' themed display by Steve Hale. A magnificent Trident maple on 'legs' in pot by Ian Baillie, sits on a dragon carved table by leading U.K. maker Doug Mudd, and with an accent Kusamono through which Bilbo Baggins and Frodo are wading. A additional small accent to the rear contains the ring. Such adventurous displays can be risky and are difficult to get right. Each element was ingeniously designed and beautifully balanced within the composition. 

An exhibition of high quality bonsai ceramics from around Europe, ​displaying the increasing levels of talent in this part of the world. 

The EBPC had some superb pots, EBPC stamped and freshly made for the event by EBPC potters including amongst others: Maria Jose Gonzales, Roman Husmann, Marc Berenbrinker, and Erin Pottery, which proved extremely popular with the buyers during the event.

I am constantly surprised how the standard of the exhibitions and quality of trees continues to improve, and the U.K. Nationals was a prime example of this. Thank you to Tony Tickle, his wife and team for a tremendous weekend. As always, thank you to our fantastic customers, without your support the EBPC would not be possible. 

​The EBPC are proud to be supporting this wonderful event.
..Trading.
Lecturing.
​Presenting an epic display of Chinese, Japanese & European bonsai pots. ​

''Alex Rudd of the European Bonsai Potter Collective will contact several collectors of bonsai pots to build a historic ...

Every year in Japan, shohin lovers gather in Kyoto for the annual ​...

Spain is one of the leading European countries in the field of bonsai. This November 2018 marks the 1st ABE National show in Madrid, Spain and the EBPC are proud to be ABE member and have been invited to attend and support European Bonsai &  its Pottery in Spain.

We are very proud to have been asked to judge for the category of 'Best Chumono Conifer'. The winner will be awarded with this beautiful trophy made by EBPC member Maria Jose Gonzales.

If you are attending this great event, please come and say hi! We look forward to seeing you there! If not, we will get as many photos as possible! 
Thank you,
Alex

More information can be found on the ABE website here. 
 #MareaABE  #CongresoABE  #EuropeanBonsaiPotterCollective  #EBPC

The EBPC has supported this show since we formed in 2016, and with over 200 pots and 28ft of trading space, we were sure to arrive early as setting up takes quite some time. Heathrow show has a large main room for the exhibition and tree sales, and another room for traders of pots and dry goods. 

As always the EBPC pots proved extremely popular and some superb pieces were snapped up by customers old and new. Some great new pots were also collected from some of the potters, which will be available in the EBPC shop soon. 

I was also display trees with Maidstone Bonsai Society. Below are a few of my trees in our display, including my Olive which took joint 1st place in the exhibitor's vote. (The other joint 1st went to another Maidstone club member, Dean, with his beautiful Kokonoe Pine that can be seen behind.)

This is certainly one of the highlights of the year for me. This picturesque and historic town of Saulieu, is in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, south-east of Paris and was built on the crossing of two Roman roads, and the surrounding countryside is a pleasure to behold. The venue is superb! Everything (except demonstrators)  is in one very large room (an ex cattle market!) which makes for a wonderful atmosphere, and this show to me, is the most 'friendly' I have been to. Natural light floods in from the roof windows providing the perfect setting for the display of trees and pots! 

The award was won by Jean-Paul Polmans with this wonderful Carpinus Coreana, in a superbly matched pot by Bryan Albright. ​We felt that the pot complimented the tree perfectly without overpowering it. The masculine trunk with delicate well ramified tips go superbly with the soft incised corners of an otherwise more masculine shaped pot. The harvest glaze also brings harmony to the light tones of the tree. 

As he couldn't make it to the show, the trophy was awarded by Alex Rudd of the EBPC to Danny Use on Jean-Paul's behalf. 
Danny was also awarded a trophy himself for his enormous contribution to the show,  including displaying a few trees from his incredible private collection, such as this approx. 2 meter wide Seigen Maple in the largest (Derek Aspinall) pot you have ever seen!

The EBPC was also trading at our usual great spot - and had over 200 pots for sale by 30 of Europe's most accomplished bonsai potters. 

We were accompanied at the stand by EBPC potters; Tom Benda, Sami Amdouni and Pierre Rousseau, all of whom brought many incredible new pieces for EBPC customers! As well as these guys, I must extend a big thank you to everyone else that helped out as well, including amongst others; Mark & Ming, and Richard & Marilyn, and to our many customers for their ongoing support of the EBPC and European Bonsai Pottery. 

Some fantastic new pots were also selected for the EBPC shop and there are many that will be added very soon!
​
Below for example are a few of the pots Sami Amdouni brought with him. Sami's work is constantly improving and his attention to detail and mastery of glazes is very impressive. 

... Whilst we improve the shop, and add all the fantastic new pots, the EBPC online shop is now closed but will be open again very soon! 

A huge thank you goes out to the organisers Fred and Stephanie, and their fantastic team for all the hard work and passion involved in creating such a wonderful event for European bonsai enthusiasts. It is shows like this, that show off European bonsai at its best, which keep the art alive and booming. If you haven't yet been, then a visit next year is strongly advised, and we look forward to seeing you then! 

We are thrilled and honoured to be supporting the Bonsai San 2018 exhibition in France this October. In addition to trading some of Europe's best pots, we are also contributing to the Tombola raffle, and presenting the trophy for 'Best European Pot / Tree Combo'.
The trophy is now finished and these great pictures from designer Nino in Croatia show the trophy off in all its glory. Nino does a lot of design work for Harry at Bonsai4Me.com and for the EBPC and as always, has risen to the challenge and smashed all expectations!