his year there will be three Florida Knap-ins in February. Thunderbird Atlatl is planning to attend all three events. These are great opportunities to learn about flint knapping, the atlatl and other primitive skills.
GATOR-KNAP ’08- Prehistoric Technology Show February 1 to 3
This inaugural Knap-in will take place at the Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida. Admission is $4 per vehicle. The knap-in is in collaboration with the Osceola National Forest. There will be demonstrations and classes in technologies such as flint knapping, ceramics, cordage and carving of stone, shell, bone and wood. Featured speakers are: Dr. C. Andrew Hemmings who will speak on Tools of the Trade: Clovis Stone, Bone and Ivory Tools from Across the New World and Donna Ruhl, MA,who present a program entitled “Beyond Newmans’ Lake: The Timucua’s use of Prehistoric Dugouts in North Central Florida Waterways.
Also featured will be an ISAC Atlatl competition, flint knapping competition and late night knapping sessions for campers. For further information call Mitzi Nelson at (386) 397-7005 or email mmones@fs.fed.us.

KNAPPER & PRIMITIVE ARTISTS FESTIVAL Friday-Sun, Feb 8, 9, 10 at Ochlockonee River State Park

This event is dedicated to Stone Age Technologies and primitive arts such as flint knapping, primitive ceramics, shell, bone and wood carving, old and new world bow and arrow construction Atlatl construction or other prehistoric art forms. The aim is to show case these ancient art forms and educate the public on the world’s rich prehistory. The sale of Knapping tools and materials will be available. Fees: Park entrance fees will apply. Contact: (850)962-2771

FOURTH ANNUAL CENTRAL FLORIDA KNAP IN & PRIMITIVE ARTS KNAP-IN & PRIMITIVE ARTS FESTIVAL February 16 to 17
Withalacoochee River Park, 12449 Withlacoochee Blvd., Dade City.
For further information contact: Betty Walters, 727-856-7506.

We are looking forward to meeting some of you this year at the various shows we attend. Otherwise, we hope to hear from you by telephone or email.

Our shop is busy getting ready for three upcoming shows in Florida – not a bad place to go when you live in the snowy Northeast! The shows will be the first three weekends of February. We will be posting more information on the shows in the next few days.
Interested in an atlatl or upcoming events, give us a call or send us an email and we will try to help you out.
Happy New Year!

To all, we at Thunderbird Atlatl want to wish you a happy holiday season! We wish you the best for the new year and hope that it will be a good year full of promise and new adventure for you.
We will be posting our upcoming shows in the next few days. We will be at three programs in Florida beginning the first weekend of February.
We still have gift certificates available if you don’t know which atlatl you would like to give. Give us a call at 1-800-836-4520 or email us at contact@thunderbirdatlatl.com
Happy New Year!

Thunderbird Atlatl has gift certificates available if you cannot figure out which atlatl to purchase!
Give us a call at 1-800-836-4520 to order a gift certificate. We can deliver the gift certificate by email if you want.
We wish everyone a happy holiday season!

It looks like December 20th is the last day we can ship via priority mail through the post office and Dec. 22 for Express Mail. Please try to get your orders in by Dec. 19th if you want to make those deadlines! We do have gift certificates available which we can email to you!
THUNDERBIRD ATLATL DESIGN Part of TED Conference

In January 2006, we shipped an Osage Otsiningo Atlatl to Bix Biederbeck of Thinc Design in New York City. Two months later, the atlatl was part of the 2006 TED Conference in Monterey, Calif.
We recently ran across a blog about the conference which commented on the atlatl. The link is below. “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out”, according to the TED web page, ” (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
“The Otsiningo Atlatl designed by Bob Berg of Thunderbird Atlatl was part of a display at the 2006 TED Conference entitled: “Behind the Scenes: Collecting objects of the future” The 2006 TED Conference’s theme was: “The Future We Will Create”. According to the blog on the TED website, “the stage and lobby at TED2006 were accented with a collection of distinctive objects, each representing a vision of the future. Thinc Design principal Tom Hennes led the curation effort, and talks here about how he chose.
“The idea of what is futuristic is one of the most mutable memes — nothing gets older faster, yet some objects (and ideas) seem to remain ‘futuristic’ for a very long time. When we decided to populate the stage with objects that signify the future, we thought it would be interesting to include not only things that feel like today’s future, but also a number of things that are from futures of the past. And a number of objects that represent the multitude of things that once changed the future. Or tried to.
“The yellow Atlatl, made by Thunderbird, is a modern rendition of a uniquely American spear-throwing device used about 12,000 years ago across the continent for efficiently – and lethally – hurling neolithic spears at wooly mammoths. Sustaining hunting and gathering bands for a couple of thousand years, it most likely also contributed to the extinction of the largest megafauna in the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene, about 10,500 years ago. The Atlatl isn’t part of our present future, but the message is clear enough”…

To learn more about TED, check oaut the blog and web page at:
http://blog.ted.com/2006/03/behind_the_scen.php