Unfortunately I was unable to obtain pics of Trevors 3 labours of love for this story before the Bulletin was published so I have them included them in the story this week.....ed
Last Monday evening I gave a presentation describing some of my personal interests, they were – calligraphy, luthiery and martial arts.
Calligraphy:
the art of ‘beautiful writing’. I’d always been interested in calligraphy, don’t known why, but I started to take it seriously in the 70’s and attended a number of residential seminars with top International ‘masters. While working as a Graphic Designer at Deakin University I wrote the names of Graduates on their Testamurs for a number of years which amounted to many thousands! I was asked by the Vice Chancellor to design and produce hand-written Honorary Degrees which were awarded to prominent recipients each year and included Malcolm Fraser PM, Sir Arvi Parbo, The Honourable Justice Asch and others. I also produced similar items for the Geelong CSIRO following awards for bio-science innovations. My calligraphy now is directed towards one-off creative pieces as computers appear to have taken over the general requirements of certificates etc.
Luthiery:
having played guitar for many years I decided to have a try and making one of my own and started off with a kit from America. The main items – sides, back, soundboard and neck were already cut and shaped to size but having to put it all together including fine inlays and fretting taught me a lot about the actual structure that I thought I already knew!! Some time ago I decided to build one from scratch including making all the molds and jigs required for shaping the timber and construction. It has been a great learning experience and the instrument is now at the stage of finishing (varnishing/polishing) – it looks good just hope it plays well!
Martial Arts:
after watching friend training in Karate I questioned why people needed to be ‘athletes’ in order to defend themselves, not everyone is capable of training to such a high degree. By chance I found Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu which does not rely on strength or fitness but uses your attacker’s energy against themselves. There is so much to tell about this particular martial art but will just keep it very simple. We don’t need to be strong or fit as the techniques rely on balance, throws and arm locks which are very effective and painful. We do not compete, we simply learn the techniques. I started training in 2005 and gained my first Black Belt 7 years later, I am close to grading for my second BB but Covid has thrown us all out of kilter but I’m sure we’ll be back to training very soon.
I hope my presentation was entertaining and gave you some insight into my interests.
Trev. P
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