So the first day we arrived for the build-up I met the GRS team as well and over the next 14 days we spent a lot of time together. The responses of the visitors, other demonstrators and the GRS team were very positive and I had a great time working on the knob during the show. Towards the end of the fair I was asked by the president of Glendo if I was interested in doing trade shows for them directly in the future. Because the last couple of days working on the show were a ton of fun for me I straight away said yes. I kept in touch with the GRS team when the show was over and in 2015 I did my first show directly for them in Birmingham, UK. Since then many more have followed in Europe, Asia and America. At this point I was, including the course, 1.5 years living and working in Antwerp as an independent contractor with Alexander, and I felt like moving on to something new and learn some extra skills. During the Basel show I met Andrew Biggs from New Zealand, who did hand engraving demonstrations for GRS. This got me fascinated with hand engraving and I wanted to learn a bit more about it. I spoke to him and to Alexander and
they both recommended Sam Alfano as the person to go to. So that’s how I ended up doing a private course with Sam in Covington, Louisiana in 2014, which was a great experience! From then on I traveled quite a bit for work and to learn more skills. During my time in Antwerp I met many different people from around the world, and with some I stayed in touch. Through those contacts I flew to Singapore and worked and lived there for a couple of months, after I packed everything up in Antwerp. From there I traveled to Perth, Australia, and worked there for a couple of weeks, also at a former student’s private workshop. Both were great experiences! (I traveled back to Singapore for many more multiple month trips afterwards). The week with Sam was such a good experience I felt like diving deeper into it. After discussing it with Sam he recommended that I contacted Martin Strolz, from Austria, to see if he was able and willing to teach me more about hand engraving. After many e-mails, phone calls and a personal visit I started as a private student of Martin at the beginning of 2015. I stayed with him for a little
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