Showing posts with label S One Expo Stuttgart Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label S One Expo Stuttgart Germany. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Biergarten Sonntag (Part 2) - Wood Figurine Workshop

Read Part 1.

The man at the Wooden Figurines booth was carving little animals, such as pigs, horses and sheep for painting during the workshop.
The little animals we were going to paint will look like the animals on the wooden man's rack (top left)
At about 1145hrs, the event staff came and set up a table in front of the booth. So Tante and me sat down. Next to me was this mother and her little girl. I am not against children per se, because it is their parents' shitty efforts in bringing them up nowadays, that's the problem. The little girl was too little to take part in painting such intricate items, so she should be sat at the corner of the table, not the middle where she was likely to knock over the water and other things on the table.

As it was, I didn't pay attention to her, as the man was telling us what to do. First he set up the items (so methodical so german) along the table. Paint brushes, water for washing the brushes, acryclic paint (Payne's grey, white, red, brown), paint palettes, sawdust (for sheep's wool), pins to handling the animals while painting and glue. And how can I forget the little sheep ears? Or the two darling sheep samples he put on the table?
"Baa Baa Have we any wool?" Onkel's sample sheepie.
Each of us could choose 2 animals from a menagerie of woody sheep, piggies and horses. I chose a sheep and a pig. I loved the Onkel's brushes. So smooth ... *drool* (paintbrushes are expensive and I am very unforgiving on them). I took my time to choose the paintbrushes.
Piggie and Sheepie - Before
Onkel helped us to poke them from underneath
Onkel's instructions were pretty clear. Paint the face first, then apply glue to the body and stick on the sawdust. You can then choose to paint the sawdust.

I made a booboo, I should have painted the feet white as well. In the end, I had to scramble and dodge between the sawdust bits to paint my sheepie's little feet. While waiting for the sheep's face to dry, I set him aside and mixed some red and white. I wanted my pig to be a radical hot pink. After that I saw Miss Pig to dry on the tray while I started to apply the glue to the sheep's back.

I was busy concentrating on the sheep, so I didn't pay any attention to the little girl even when she spilt some water. Until I decided to let the sheep's body dry... then I noticed my pig had gone missing. I was quite annoyed. I asked the little girl and her mother if they saw my pig. The little girl did not say anything. Her mother ignored me too as I looked around, pushing the table cloth back (it touched the ground) to find my pig resting on the dirty floor between mother and daughter.

"My pig..." I tried to reach down to get my pig and the mother still blocked me, trying to reach for glue. zzz. She obviously took my pig and dropped it. I don't know whether it's because I expect too much, but I felt that the mother should apologize for her daughter's misbehavior. But she apparently only cared when she was inconvenienced not when others were.
I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I realized that Mr Sheepie was bald on top...

Piggie and Sheepie - WIP
But I digress. I used the pins to dot some eyes on the animals. I finally realized that by not applying sawdust to the top of the sheepie's head, he looked more like a dog wearing a jacket.
Piggie and Sheepie - After
Anyway now they are stuck on the top of my monitor with bits of blutack. Cute!!!

Biergarten Sonntag (Part 1) - S One Expo Stuttgart Germany Expo

I saw the bus before I knew about the event. A pretty blonde girl in dirndl, gingerbread, wooden figurines against a light blue backdrop...Germany!!! The "germanophile" in me was immediately intrigued and I googled the words I saw.

"S One Expo Stuttgart Germany".

I have been meaning to go ever since, however there was always something that we had to do, e.g. wedding banquets last weekend. Even last Saturday, I couldn't haul B1 out of bed so we did housework all of Saturday instead and made our way there on Sunday with Tante, it being her birthday.

We went there a bit early because I wanted to participate in the workshops. We were a bit mad because we had a bit of problems looking for the place (I had assumed Reflections showroom was the furniture showroom further down the road, but realized that it did not look right, and we had a fun time looking for the car park). Next the shuttle bus actually zoomed past us waiting at the car park's bus stop, which was specifically set up for the event. My client told me the next day we were supposed to flag the bus, but I think it is a bit superfluous especially since the bus driver could clearly see 8 people waiting there. Anyway B1 drove us in instead, and actually the place was only a scenic 5 min walk across the bridge to the Keppel Marina. Oopz :D

Leading into the main area, there were many little beautifully created spaces, for visitors to better understand German technology and her famous sons. One of the most pretty ones was the Schiller Haus which was a reproduction of the actual house in Weimar. Friedrich von Schiller had actually fled to Weimar from Stuttgart, which made me very surprised as to why he was showed at the Stuttgart expo, given his horrible experience there. Fascinating. I think the man is of the same wavelength as me (though it is more of a coincidence) since I love the color and architecture of this house.
Actual Schiller Haus in Weimar
Schiller Haus at S One Expo Stuttgart

But I would not be distracted from my objective, so I didn't stop to check out the exhibits but made my way to the registration area (not before telling a bunch of bewildered-looking staff that the stupid bus did not stop for us at the car park). The place was quite pretty, even the registration area. I for one, think that this display is really pretty, though a bit out of place. I would love to recreate this for my apartment. *drool*
I noticed this on my way out later
The event planners are pretty friendly. They give you S$5 free coupons upon registration, and we even got a free hotdog or bier option later in the afternoon (no need to tell you what B1 chose). Of course the food sold there was rather expensive, e.g. the S$5 ba ku teh that does not come with rice, or the fried noodles S$4.50. Don't even think about getting the German food. Well to maximise your S$5 coupons, I think you can buy the S$2.50 nasi lemak and S$1.50 soya bean milk.
Orchard Road und Koenigstrasse
Anyone can sing Martina's "Toy Soldiers"?
Why are there local food options? Well... because the exhibition hall is neatly divided into two. One side Singapore "Orchard Road", the other side Stuttgart "Koenigstrasse". In the middle there is a pretty pavilion where performances are held throughout the day with lots of tables set up in a biergarten setting. *love love love*
Swiss Alpine Lions in Lederhosen (I prefer pretty boys wearing them...)
Cute uncle boogieing to Claressa Monteiro & the Brian Benson Trio
Needless to say, you know which side I was more fascinated by...
Gingerbread booth
Cuckoo Clock Booth
Shopping!!!
Wooden Figurines

Dragging my Tante, we hovered around the wood figurines workshop till it was time to start...(continued part 2)

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