fantatstic photos... were you allowed to film maybe some of the twists and turns on your mobile? it would be cool to have some first hand to hand show of how to twist some of those things....

I only went to two out of four classes on the Saturday, first up was Jimmy Leo on character developement. It was interesting to see and hear Jimmy's thoughts on this and how you can play with varying idea's but for me and others that I spoke to after, the class lacked something or it may have been that his other lecture which was for me one of the highlights of the convention was just too dam good and he had no where to go with this one.

Fantasy Flowers, Janice Whitehead.

I was looking forward to this class as I had bought the DVD from Janice about this subject a few weeks previous. Janice and I'm assuming her husband set up a video screen as most of the work is very detailed and they both went through this assuming we had some basic idea of the subject. I thought more explanation was needed as she jumped ahead sometimes and even I was unsure of some of the steps. I would like to see more detailed explanations with not such a wide range of flowers being talked about. So then it was time to try and make a carnation in class, I was very pleased with my first effort and wore it to the gala awards ceremony in the evening and had many many nice comments made. So thanks Janice for your efforts
We are hopingJanice will be doing the star interview soon on the forum.

Let's try this for the second time, just spent fifteen minutes writing up all the other lectures and then is dis-appeared
This is the list of classes on offer that I never managed to attend;

Kris Cope, Put on a happy face, The everybody
Ralph Dewey, Kingdom Twisters, Balloons with heart
Robbie Firman, Introduction to deco twisting, Deco weaving, Business side of deco twisting
Ed Chee, Improve your yield, New and Advanced twisting techniques
Patrick van de Ven, For the birds, Apes and primates
Bidou, 5" Prints. King of new twisting elements
Jane Driscoll, Art of the story
Jan Iimes and Ken Stillman, Awesome twacking
Ken Stillman, Beat the hard times with awesome balloons
Nina Dees, three face painting classes
Patricia Bunnell, Beyond twisted critters
Colin Myles, Small table centrepieces
Russ Sauve, Special event coordination
Julie Coheley, Start making more money

So there was definately something for everyone with plenty of choice, possibly too much though as it was not possible to see all the instrutors. Rather than one teacher doing 2 or 3 different classes it may be better to have them do the one class and teach it a few times throughout the week at varying times so that it would be possibly to see everything that is on offer as plenty of work is being put into the classes by the instructors and it's a shame when the classes are poorly attended due to so much choice being on offere and registration/numbers on the low side.

The awards ceremony on the last night of diamond jam was well attended due to this being the cross over day and start of ballooncamp.
I will add all the winners at a later date for all the competition winners etc.
Ralph Dewey's world record winners,
Braided hat, Stuart Gutter with 38 hats made in 30 mins (can you do better)
Buttercup flower, joint winner's, Ed Chee and Mellisa Condillez with 20 flowers in 30 mins (can you beat this?)

Large Sculpture winner Mark Verge
Medium Sculpture winner Benny Nieves

Stage performer, Tony Cooper
Busking, joint winners, Sheldon Blake and Roger the balloon wizard

Gus the new owner of T. Myers compered the final night show very competently while performing some good strong magical effects with a comical twist thrown in. Zanie Janie then did a little spot with about eight helpers on stage including myself. I think I was type cast as the beautiful princess and enjoyed the experience although all the helpers were a little unsure about what we we're expected to do and the story did seem to go and none of us knew what it was all about. It received a mixed reaction from the audience.

Ralph awarded four special prizes this week, two for up and coming to Tonya McNeill and Jack Mattson who are both members on this forum and twister of the year went to Debbie Stevens.
There was also a trailblazer achievement award that went to Leo Verlinden from IBS balllons and who runs the millennium jam for all his hard work over the years in promoting our balloonart to the world, this was well deserved and I had the honour of picking the award up for Leo and saying a few words on his behalf. This also gave me the opportunity to plug the new DVD that has just been broughtout called "Friends od David" which has 12 top names from within the industry giving there time freely to help raise funds for David Grist's family. I will have a few of thses for sale when I get back at the end of the month.

1, Empty jam room
2, Jenine's work
3, Zanie Janie

1, Monkey, unknown
2, Bidou's team entry, link o loon ride in car
3, Our 20 minute competition rock star entry, Graham Lee, Harvey and Jenine

1, Zanie Janie playing games at the award/gala night with Jimmy Leo and Jack Mattson
2, Cricket in the busking competitio
3, Roger the balloon wizard also from the busking competition

The last thing to write about is the balloon fashion show so when I get a few minutes I'll sort some pictures out as I took over 200 just at this event, but it was amazing, the dresses, words would fail to do this event justice. Everyone that made a dress and competed should be congratulated as I got tingles at this event and to be in the room where the majority of the dresses were being made during the day was a great experience and very interesting to see how everything was put together.

thanks for posting so much Graham, I haven't gone thru all my pictures yet, but I have noticed that not many of my pictures turned out so it's nice to see some of the figures here. The elephant hat is Jack's. I'm not sure who made the other unknowns. Glad you are having a good time, it was great seeing you. I can't wait to see all the fashion show pics, sounds like there was some amazing dresses again.
thanks again Graham for all the updates Have a safe trip home.

Great write up Graham!
I very much enjoyed Diamond Jam this year, even though it seemed so much smaller than past conventions. I actually felt like I was on vacation. I came away with some really good ideas, and some designs I know I will get a lot of use out of (especially that woven heart).

It was great to hang out with both Tonya and Graham.

And Graham, you DO make a lovely Princess!

~Jeanine