Jan 9 2016

Trident Maple Adjustments

Looking at the branch structure of these two Trident Maples I decided to make a few adjustment especially in the lower branches.

A hidden adjustment on the Root over rock is a branch that was previously lying on the top of the rock to the left. This has now been dropped to the back and when in leaf will help add to the depth of the image. With a little work this year and a new pot, perhaps this is an option for Europa 2017 😉

As you can see I have gone through a major Walsall Ceramics faze in recent years 🙂

Jan 5 2016

Esprit Bonsai – My 15 minutes of Fame

I love this magazine and not just because they published a photo of my Escallonia in issue #79 It’s a great addition to what’s available in the current market.

Anyway, did I mention that they published a photo of my tree 🙂 In case you missed it, see below. Not just my tree, but also another tree from here in Northern Ireland, my good friend Stephen’s Raft Japanese Maple. These where both exhibited at Bonsai Europa back in October (was it that long ago!) What I liked about the article was that they highlighted what Europa had that was different that other European Exhibitions, namely more deciduous bonsai. I’ll be honest, that’s probably the only reason my tree was featured in the article when so many other top quality trees were available. However it was a very pleasant surprise to turn the page and see my own tree, a first for me.

Jan 4 2016

Happy New Year Eventually!

Happy New Year everyone. 2015 was a roller-coaster of a year for me with many changes in my private and work life, I won’t bore you with the details. As a result I had to put blogging about wee trees on the back burner and my posts have dropped away considerably as a result. 2016 will see some major changes in my life, hopefully in a good way and I hope to get back into the swing of it all again. No this isn’t a New Years Resolution, I’m just trying to show resolve at a time of the year that coincides with the turn of the year 🙂

I’ve been busy working on trees for the last week and have been trying out a new technique to help me with this. It’s called a Tens Machine 🙂 It seems to have worked as well.

To start the ball rolling I’ll share this one with you. A Cork bark Chinese Elm that needed some more structural work done, so this is it before and after pruning and wiring.

Nov 30 2015

Eejit Artwork

A big Thank you to ‘Jurgen’ 🙂 at Makisada Ceramics for sending me the original Artwork for my Bonsai Eejit logo. I was delighted to receive this in the post. Just need to find the right frame now.

Make sure you check out Robyn and Veerle’s fantastic pots at www.makisadaceramics.com

Oct 25 2015

Shohin Larch Autumn Colours

Sep 19 2015

Image

Root Over Rock Cotoneaster

Sep 18 2015

Maples

Trident Root over Rock

Shohin Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple

Trident Maple

Sep 17 2015

Crab Apple

Aug 1 2015

Image

Spirea

Jun 10 2015

Cedar Time

I have been working on this Atlantic Blue Cedar for a few years. I wanted one in my collection just for the colour and managed to salvage this one from a garden. It was originally 25 feet tall and it stall has a very tall feel to it but then those that know me know that I like tall trees. Not much taper, a bit of a fence post but I have always liked a tall tree with dropping branches.

This is it before I started work, branches had sprung up a lot since being dewired last year. The tree had fallen from a bench about 18 months ago and lost a large portion of the bottom branch on the right. This will take time to fil and now needed to be brought further to the front again.

This is it after wiring and styling. I added a few fine shari to the branches that had sprung the most. I’m hoping that this helps set them more permanently. I compacted the apex more and have used foliage to break the trunk line a little more.

Back on the bench adding that splash of colour.

For scale

I like the fullness of the restyled image. Almost shows the tree at it’s peak before it starts to go down hill, it happens to the best of us! It has put out decent growth since the last restyling and will hopefully continue to improve as an image.

Some older photos:

2009