On Saturday and Sunday, May 21-22, 2016 the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York will be hosting their 43rd annual exhibition at the Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester, New York. Members from western New York as well as Pennsylvania will be displaying some of their finest bonsai. Each member is encouraged to display so bonsai in all stages of development will be on display. Approximately 100 bonsai will be on display.

For the first time this year the Upstate New York Suiseki Study Group will be having a special display to introduce the public to viewing stones. Antique stones as well as those collected during the past 50 years will be shown.

As in the past Ikebana International will have a display of their lovely flower arrangements. Many different schools will be displayed so the subtle differences can be enjoyed.

On Saturday at 2pm award winning bonsai artist Mark Arpag…

Just uploading photos from last firing of accent pots.

Happy watching:-)

Best regards,

Maciej.

Just few photos of my favorite accent pots from last firing.

Happy watching:-)

Best regards,

Maciej.

Few photos of kiln opening ,some pieces are still hot but I am happy so far with this batch as all of the pots survive the firing without cracking or warping and the glazes look good too. I am  especially happy with the big blue oval pot which  is 56 cm x 42 cm x 10 cm. when all of the pieces are finally out I will post more photos.

Best regards,

Maciej.

Just uploading few photos of 3 pots, that i started making. They still need feet to be added just waiting for clay to stiffen a bit. More photos to follow.

Best regards,

Maciej.

There’s a storm of confusion around these two techniques…and it’s one of those things we don’t want to get wrong. Pines take a couple years to get back on track, once off track, and so they make us look at our mistakes for a long time.

I’ll try to make this short and sweet. For starters, how do we distinguish decandling from breaking/pinching?

Breaking/Pinching means taking part of the shoot off, usually with fingers, as the shoot is extending in early to mid-spring. This is before the needles have come out.

Scots pine candles, before pinching.

With the fleshy part of the fingers, pinch the candle according to its strength, taking more off for stronger ones, less for weaker, none for weakest.

Right candle pinched approximately in half.

Left candle pinched.

Decandling means cutting off the entire pine candle off in late spring. Often the new needles have come out already.

We often think of cliff or rock faces being the place where cascade bonsai get their inspiration. And they do. But there’s another commonly seen growth habit in those steep, rocky areas…

I collected this Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) on Vancouver Island several years ago, where, coincidentally, it was growing off a boulder. The leaves were tiny and yellow from the water and nutrition stresses of boulder life. In less than a year it had rebounded and was growing green and vigorous.

The lace rock used in this experiment was purchased without an intention in mind, driven only by the impulse of ‘What a cool looking rock, maybe I’ll use that someday…’ It had several possible inclinations, one of which proved useful for this composition. And so last Thursday turned out to be ‘someday.’

Enjoy the photo essay!

This is what we started with…a chunk of lace rock and a Western…

Today I woke up to a cold, rainy day in Tokyo, not the best weather conditions to visit Kunio Kobayashi’s Shunka-en Bonsai Museum. But I did not let a little rain stop me from taking a bus, train, subway and taxi to get to see his bonsai. I’ve visited gardens to see bonsai in the sun, rain, snow, ice, sleet, slush, mud and even in the remnants of a typhoon in Japan a couple of years ago. The rain stopped just before lunch, but it was still cold, 41F compared to the 90F I left in  Manila.

Each time I visit this beautiful garden I see more and more bonsai, all beautiful and large and well maintained too. Last month during I my visit I saw a new rooftop addition holding mostly maple bonsai. Well, at the top of the stairs there is the foundation for another addition to the…