Feb 23 2013

School Set Up

It’s our Clubs first Bonsai School Session of 2013 this weekend and some preparation was required in my garage. Peter Snart of Willowbog Bonsai will be over to get 2013 off to a good start.

It’s to be cold but hopefully dry and we have taken a few steps tio make the garage a little warmer this time around. A new heater has been purchased. The roof space area has been closed off and we even managed to get a bit of carpet to help keep the wee feet warm 🙂 Should be a good weekend. We are expecting more than 5 but we still have to get the rest of the chairs 🙂

Feb 21 2013

Gafu Ten 2013

In for a penny as they say, here’s more from Jonas, this time from the Gafu Ten 2013. I just love the wee ones. I will definitely be making more of an effort this year to develope more shohin bonsai in my collection.

Feb 20 2013

Kokufu Ten 2013

May last offering from this years Kokufu Ten, this time courtesy of Jonas who has kindly shared his shots with me. Jonas is Chemistry Student in Japan but hopes to take up a bonsai apprenticeship this year at one of the leading Bonsai Nurseries in Japan. You can check out Jonas’s Blog here: Katsuraleaf Bonsai

Enjoy the Gallery

Feb 16 2013

More from the Wessex Bonsai Society Auction

Carrying on from yesterday, here are a few more that caught my eye from the Wessex Bonsai Society Auction.

A few more pines. Click images for details.

Junipers

Some Flowering trees as well, including this Azalea.

and some raw material if you are looking for something to get your teeth into.

Feb 15 2013

Bonsai Auction at Wessex

I think this might be the UK’s best kept secret! Which is a shame as all these trees need to be sold and as many folk as possible need to attend to make it a success. I never had the pleasure of meeting Manuel before his passing, but every single person who has had contact has had nothing but good things to say about him. His widow simply can’t look after such a large collection and all these trees need new homes. A rather large legacy.

I was chatting to Dean, who has done a fantastic job of getting these trees up on the internet for everyone to browse before the auction on 2nd March. I offered to plug the auction here and also show some of my favourites from the list. He was delighted that I would be helping to raise the profile of the auction. So here you go. In each case, click on the image for further details and guide price.

I love this little clump of Chinese Elms, so natural looking.

Another great value forest.

A very nice Trident Maple

A nice natural looking Scots Pine

I think this big Scottie is a bargain at the price. It looks as if it is growing on a British hillside somewhere.

A bargain shohin Cork Bark Elm if it goes that cheap.

Nice to see an Oak making an appearance.

A nice example of a broom Zelkova

A nice Korean Hornbeam.

A really nice Maple group

I’ll post a few more tomorrow but for further info visit the auction site HERE

Feb 9 2013

Club Night

One of the most pleasing things I have seen in bonsai in the last few years has been the growth and transformation of the club I belong too. The Northern Ireland Bonsai Society has been around since 1986, but the last few years has seen a swing to workshop based meetings and a drive to bring in knowledge from bonsai professionals to boost the knowledge of all members.

This year is shaping up to be a great year. We have Peter Warren coming over in September, Robert Porch next month and we are delighted to be entering into our third year of our Willowbog Bonsai School. We also are breaking new ground with our exhibition moving to a new location and date this April.

Feb 5 2013

If you are Not, you should be!

If you are not currently following Peter Warren’s blog posts from the Green club and Kokufu Ten, then you should be.

with his usual pithy comments he has been showing us some interesting bonsai both in the exhibition and also on the sales tables at the club.

Here is a selection of the photos he been posting.

Feb 4 2013

Ryan Neil Willowbog Bonsai Demo Video Part 1

I sat down yesterday morning to try and edit the demo day video with Ryan at Willowbog into something shorter without missing out the interesting bits. That proved to be a hard task! Ryan keeps up the commentary, questions, and stories pretty much the whole way thorough! I have therefore got Four parts to share with you totalling 3 1/2 hours of footage! I’ll share as I get them uploaded.

This is a lot of viewing and I know that many will not want to be bothered wading through it, however, others have asked to see the complete session. Down the line I might upload some of the individual learning moments or pearls of wisdom given by Ryan.

I had a nightmare with the video camera and was missing the first few hours of footage but thankfully Phil the fingers had it recorded on our backup/closeup camera and I have edited both together.

Feb 3 2013

Sunday Workshop – Me

and then is was me 🙂

As previously posted, I had opted to work on this Scots Pine.

Ryan asked about its history and what way I saw the tree going. I pointed out it’s problems as I saw them, namely the roots, heavy branches in the apex and the position of the secondary trunk in relation to the main trunk.

After a look Ryan suggest that the tree be tilted to the right to change the level of the roots and solve the nebari issue. One root can be removed at repotting. He removes a few heavy branches and started me off wiring the mini apex on the right and the secondary apex in the middle with heavy wire. This allows us to change the angle of the secondary trunk more to the front.

Ryan impressed me greatly by his ability to move around the room keeping everyone on target at the right time and make adjustments when required. Peter Warren is the only other person I have seen manage this. Must be something to this Japanese apprentice carry on 🙂

As I moved around the tree wiring Ryan was able to point out a few different techniques in wiring. That 45 degree angle thing you read about in all the books and hear preached by most bonsai guru’s can be safely shelved especially when wiring with copper. I haven’t done a lot of copper wiring, strange after 18 years in bonsai, but I found it OK to be honest. Gauging the weight of the wire was the new bit for me but a few branches in, it was straight forward. Towards the end of the workshop Peter Warren stepped up and gave me a hand to get all the wiring complete on time. Cheers Peter 🙂 It was a good chance to chat about …. nah I’ll keep that conversation to myself 😀

Throughout the workshop, Ryan would appear and do a little placing of branches or adjust branches that I had placed. Then at the end he sat down to make the final adjustments. I think the whole feeling of the workshop is captured in these next photos, just look at all the smiling and laughter, a great day in good company but still achieving quality work.

Grinning like a complete eejit 🙂 why the hell not, working with Ryan Neil. Peter Warren and Peter Snart, hard to beat it I think.

and the final image

As usual the photo just doesn’t do it justice.Here is a side by side before and after.

Those left at the end got together for a wee memento photo. Good times.

Feb 2 2013

Kokufu 2013

It would appear that Mr Warren is teasing us with live posts direct from Kokufu! He will probably stop now that he knows folk are looking, he’s fickle that way 😀

If you’re interested, click on the image blow to link to his blog post.