Distant mountain stone

Understated elegance from Willi Benz. This stone hails from Pennsylvania.

Both Willi and Gudrun had suiseki on display, I've only managed to capture Willi's entry. Also, as Gudrun already has her pic in an earlier post, and as I didn't get a chance to nab Willi for a photo op, I decided to post a photo of his suiseki instead.

That said, I believe it was Gudrun's stone that won a prize at Lorca.

Piedra abstracta

The title says it all.

Stone is from Cantabria, Spain, as is its owner. The shoku or what would be its display table is a piece of roughly textured wood, this looks like it had a glossy varnish.

The dai is also (to my untrained eye) a diversion from the traditional dais, in that it is a roughly textured piece of wood in an organic shape that seems to cup the stone rather than a base carved to fit the shape of the stone.

Piedra de Tunel

I really enjoyed this suiseki, even if I found the display table a bit too classical for the shape of the stone (I'm sure an expert would shoot my argument to pieces easily). I'm wondering if a simpler table would have proved less distracting from the lines of the stone, although that could be a function of dissecting a photograph rather than viewing the suiseki in display conditions.

Still, I liked the stalactite-y looking bits on the left. Way funky.

Provenance of this stone is Liguria, Italy. This is probably another Spanish-owned suiseki that may not get exhibited much outside its home country. Although there are a lot of collectors who were willing to travel to an international show within the country, travelling abroad while carrying a couple of hefty pieces of rock (+ display tables, dais or suibans with sand) is an onerous undertaking at best.

Montana de la Sombra

Origin of this suiseki is Youlan, China.

Meditating Buddha stone

This suiseki is Chinese in origin, classified as a sugata-ishi. (Will find out more about that tomorrow.) It's not very big, standing about a total of 7 inches high from the base, and apparently weighs a ton (no, not literally).

The amount of suiseki in Spain is outstanding. Will post some more tomorrow. I suppose it's not surprising that these viewing stones don't travel very far out of their home countries, because of the weight and the hassle of moving them. This one is not very large, but others on display here are quite voluminous.

Mrs Benz told me that they have travelled to shows by air with a couple of stones, and the customs people have thought that a little daft. I can just imagine the conversations that went on...

Ever since the demise of the Suiseki association in the UK, there really hasn't been a platform for increasing the profile of this hobby, which is really our loss. This part of the EBA and other European shows makes it worth the journey for me.

Accent mame

This isn't the central feature of the display, but I just had to take a picture of it.

The cascade stands about 5 in from highest leaf tip to base of pot. I couldn't find the owner so will have to give a best guess. I'd say a mulberry. The accompanying planting is about 2 in high (including the pot) and the same across, it could be a pennywort or a very, very, very small geranium. To give an idea of scale, the rectangular wooden display stand is about 8 inches in length.

What is really notable is that the whole composition is an accent to a suiseki. The stone is lovely in its own right, but this was the first time I'd seen a mame + accent together used as an accent. The suiseki itself is rather large, so I wouldn't be able to fit the entire display in a single photo. Will try and get through the crowds tomorrow to take a photo of the stone.

The Gang's All Here

Well almost, as we're missing Willi Benz. But I collared Gudrun Benz and Vito di Venere for the 'before' photo of the suiseki area. The stones get set up this evening; if you look closely at the tables, the skirting still hasn't arrived.