New bamboo
- Thread starter Jmcj1984
- Start date
She's got a great website with a nice fishing and fly tying video and another video of her working on bamboo rods. Looks like she's making 3-7 weights of 8' and less, inspired by Payne tapers.
Says she's one of the only professional female bamboo rod builders in the country.
Says she's one of the only professional female bamboo rod builders in the country.
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Met her at the informal gathering some of the WFF cane folk had at the Lady M this fall - she apprenticed under a outstanding builder (Dave Dozier). If I was a buyer, would definitely consider her.
Cheers
Cheers
When I met Dave on a visit to see his beautiful rods and rod workshop a year ago, he told me about his young apprentice who was very promising and added that she was a hard worker, spending long ours working on bamboo rods after putting in her shifts at the guitar company in nearby Sisters. Being an even bigger acoustic guitar junkie than bamboo rod junkie, if possible, I asked about the Sisters guitar company. I knew Breedlove Guitar was down the road in Bend but had never heard of a Sisters guitar maker. Dave said it was Preston Thompson and they made high end acoustics starting as low as $5k and going up from there. That piqued my interest so I looked them up later...sure enough, Preston Thompson Guitars is now considered by the flatpicking world as possibly the best of the best. Kudos to Olivia Elia who is talented and on the path to creating terrific works of art that also happen to be great tools for fly fishing and making music.
She seems to be a very talented young lady, and real old school; film photography.
cheers
Dave Dozer
Smolt
Thanks guys for giving some great kudos for Olivia. Yes, she has been working with me for a while and is building some fantastic bamboo fly rods. Her skills are awesome, not only with her bamboo rod building but also her guitar building and her photography. It's so refreshing to see a talented young woman jump into the world of bamboo rod building. If any of you are thinking of picking up a bamboo rod from a new, talented young builder, look her up.
Dave Dozer
Sisters, Oregon
Dave Dozer
Sisters, Oregon
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I was visiting Sisters last week and wrangled an invitation from Preston Thompson Guitars for a visit. Graciously, they gave us a full tour of their guitar making operation from A-Z. The first stop was at Olivia's work bench where she was busy assembling and finishing the body of a guitar that had the most expensive tone woods I could imagine ("Sinker" Brazilian Rosewood back and sides, Adirondack "red" spruce top). She explained how she had "voiced" the top by carefully changing the thickness of the spruce in sections to bring out the optimal tonal qualities, combined with precisely applied and scalloped spruce bracing on the underside of the top. The stunningly beautiful Sinker Brazilian Rosewood was used for the back and sides. For any acoustic guitar geeks, "sinker" means the Brazilian Rosewood spent 50-100 years on the bottom of some body of water aging silently away from oxygen and under high water pressure...in this case, the Preston Thompson Guitar company procured a batch salvaged from an old shipwreck. The stuff is virtually unheard of in the guitar world, is the rarest of the rarest tone wood and is considered the best sounding material possible, period, making every square inch wildly valuable. Olivia explained how water, heat and a forming press is used to turn the side pieces from straight planks to the curved edges of the guitar model ordered by the client. The kurfing is applied and the parts all assembled and sanded to prepare for the decorative edge bindings and inlays. Being as much of an acoustic guitar groupie as bamboo rod groupie, I was amazed by what I was witnessing. This was in the context of Olivia being THE body making luthier in a guitar maker shop which arguably makes some the finest guitars in the world. This guitar with its rarest of rare tone woods will cost its owner over $16k and 1-1/2 year's wait time after ordering due to the long backlog of client orders. So yes, Olivia is in the thick of things in the ultra-high-end guitar world, clearly earning her chops in that business and I was floored by it all. Thanks Dave Dozer for telling me about Olivia and Preston Thompson Guitars when I met you last year. There's amazing stuff going on in Sisters, including your own rod building and Preston Thompson's guitars. I'm a huge fan of both and look forward to Olivia's future rods making. No doubt they will be great.
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Dave Dozer
Smolt
Thanks Ron. Next time you're back in the Sisters area, please stop by my shop and we can chat about bamboo.
Dave
Olivia Elia
Smolt
Wow, I am absolutely speechless. It filled my heart to read these comments. I had no idea that I was actually forming a reputation (haha)
Thank you so much Justin for creating this thread. I cannot wait to get started on your bamboo rod.
It was also an absolute pleasure to meet Ron. It was so cool of him to stop by the Thompson workshop!
I am so excited to be a part of the bamboo community and I can't wait to see where this journey takes me.
Thank you so much Justin for creating this thread. I cannot wait to get started on your bamboo rod.
It was also an absolute pleasure to meet Ron. It was so cool of him to stop by the Thompson workshop!
I am so excited to be a part of the bamboo community and I can't wait to see where this journey takes me.
What can I say? I am impressed. Someone so young using a typewriter, a camera with film and talent with several activities. While I was raised in an environment full of craft and trade, my father wouldn't teach me the skills I wanted so much to learn. I was left to learn on my own and that could only take me so far. When I watched her video and looked at her photos, I saw a wonderful blend of art and craft. Been a while since I acquired a new rod, hmmmm.
