19 | September | 2013 | Bonsai Eejit

Sunday saw the start of the last group workshop, this time at a little less frantic pace with only 4 taking part by design. Stephen was still wiring, I think he spent the night in the garage after finishing his Indian 😉

As usual we started with a talk through of the main trees. I was going to be working on a root over rock Itoagawa Juniper. Sharon was joining us for the day and was also working with a Chinese Juniper and Phil was back with his one from Saturday and another shohin one too. Peter therefore spent some time talking through Juniper care.

A rare sighting of Stephen not wiring, needless to say he was doing his next favourite thing, drinking coffee.

Sharon happy at her work.

Phil’s finished Juniper

He then moved on to the shohin one. Again Peter and him couldn’t agree on how many branches to remove.

Is that Stephen still wiring??!! 🙂

This is my Juniper from the workshop. We had an interesting discussion about design option for this tree. Should it flow over the rock or could it be tilted to go the other way. Here you can see what we opted for. The branch to the left will need to fill out and be a little longer. The apex was an issue as there isn’t a lot there to work with at the moment. We also had to work without removing too much foliage to ensure continued strong growth next year.

Before

Some roots were removed to try and emphasize the fact that the tree is on the rock and not beside it. The root crossing over was reduced by half by removing wood from the back. This will allow the tree to get used to reduced sap flow from that root and I will hopefully be able to remove it at the next repot.

Some of the deadwood was reduced as it was hiding the flow of the live vein. A large branch has also been removed from the front of the tree to show the strong movement.

Drum roll please, Stephen has finished wiring!

Phil demonstrating what wire Stephen was using in his own special way.

The Scottie before tweaking by Peter

and after

The proud daddy

Showing you Stephen’s wiring.

That’s enough for one post, I’ll share a few extra bits from the Sunday workshop tomorrow.

Saturday saw the first of two weekend workshops with Peter Warren. We started off with the traditional talk through of one tree from each workshop participant. Phil’s Itoagawa Juniper was one of the first to be discussed and here you see Peter removing a front branch to allow us to see the quality of the trunk on this tree.

These are a few of the trees being worked on.

Everybody into action. Once the wiring started you could almost hear the little brain wheels turning 🙂

Come on Ben look interested!!!

Phil having a hoke

Stephen wiring, a common theme for the whole weekend, he might actually still be out in my garage now wiring away 🙂

Stan in is usual spot at the back bench working on a San Jose Juniper.

Valerie working on her cascade Pine.

Ben B in action, and please note Stephen wiring in the background.

I got to work on some of Mario’s trees with Peter, a remote workshop between Dubai and Belfast! This is his little Itoagawa Juniper after wiring and at a new angle. More for Mario on his trees later in the week.

Peter dispensed a lot of wisdom regarding Junipers over the weekend, both scale foliage and needle foliage varieties. That is what workshops should really be about, gaining the knowledge to improve the trees over the next few years, not over working them in a workshop to achieve a nice photo at the end.

Phil’s Juniper at the end of day one but still to be further worked on during the Sunday workshop.

Valerie’s Pine now in need of a new smaller pot. Calling Mr Snart!!

Ben B’s Juniper, another pot on the horizon.

Stan’s Juniper, note foliage not over pinched or pruned for the health of the tree. Pruning this back now will slow the development of the tree and take twice as long. Problem branches removed and the rest placed, shari also extended.

The heavy bottom branch was split slightly from the truck to achieve the proper angle.

Ben F’s Squamata Juniper. This one was an eye opener for me as regards Peter’s approach. I have often seen these gutted and fine wired in a workshop to create an image, but we all know just how many branches can die after this and foliage that stops growing and goes brown within the year due to over pinching. Peter set the basic branch structure on this one but left far more foliage than I thought would be the case. He said that the foliage on this variety is far from ideal in is habit and a different approach is needed compared to a Chinese Juniper. As the young branches harden off in their new set position then further pruning can take place. This method will result in a quicker finished image but still have decent branch structure underneath. A lot of carving now required young Ben 🙂