Feb 16 2012

Back To School 2012

Just spent a few hours in the garage with the Bonsai Baker getting it sorted for this Weekends Bonsai School.

I can’t believe that it’s been a full year since our club started this event. Basically we bring Willowbog Bonsai to us three times a year. The Saturdays are a school based set up followed by a workshop on the Sunday. All the club members get to have a browse through Peter’s pots, tools, trees etc. This is no small thing for us as Northern Ireland doesn’t have anything even remotely approaching a Bonsai Dealer.

Anyway, here’s the garage after a little work, already to rock and roll.

Feb 11 2012

Club Night

Last night was club night and it was great to get out and de-stress a bit and play with trees.

A great bunch of folk and getting bigger by the day.

Feb 8 2012

Bonsai Friends

Following on from my post about Phil, I have to complete the triangle. Stephen and I met back in 1995 when he appeared at a club show and signed up. We have been firm friends ever since, which is the only reason I can get away with what I’m about to post 🙂

This is Stephen back at a workshop in the 90’s. I have to admit, he hasn’t changed that much. He’s a little grey on top now and he certainly hasn’t grown.

This is Stephen sleeping off a bender at the EBA Congress in 1999.

I always give him stick about his lack of height, this one bears me out..

He is my regular walking buddy on a Sunday.

There’s a few things that Stephen excels at, Drinking coffee…

Supervising…

Note the coffee cup in this shot..

Posing…

Marching on the spot

Stand in garden gnome

Helping out…

and friendship…

Stephen recently started his own blog, Bonsai Baker, and he promises to post more soon. Just had a major garden revamp so he’s got plenty to share.

Jan 31 2012

Forest Inspiration

Last Friday, when Graham brought this Larch Forest to my house for some work it was admired by some of the other guys there.

Hugh was one of them and a few days later he sent me this photograph that he took in Connemara. It’s a Pine wood growing on an Island at a place called Lough Clare. Hugh said that the larch group reminded him of this photo and he looked it out for me. If you want to view a bigger image just pop over to my FlickR account, link on the side bar.

As much as I like Graham’s larch Forest, it has a ways to go before it matches this beautiful scene. I feel a Summer trip to the West of Ireland coming on 🙂

Jan 24 2012

Redburn Ramblers

As usual, here are some photos from my Sunday walk looking for trees to inspire when creating bonsai.

These were taken at Redburn Country Park overlooking Belfast Lough.

Two strange blokes wandering around taking photographs of trees 🙂

A very old Rhododendron hedge that has collapsed on itself. Spooky looking!

A Beech with fused branches in all sorts of shapes. Some really nice Beech here.

Again, spooky. Wouldn’t want to walk up there in the dark!!

Some of the beautiful Beech.

Rooting into it’s own decomposing stump hollow. How about that for recycling

We spotted 5 different Rafts on the walk. Some lying side by side. They all look to have been blown flat at the same time many years ago.

Side by side rafts

This one might even be worth digging up!

Old Scottie with his head in the sun.

Long uro on an Ash.

Grain in an old rotting log.

Through and through

This beech has obviously been eroded away by some sort of infection. Nice hollows on the trunk now.

Wouldn’t be a walk without fungi 🙂 This old stump looks as if someone has been throwing frisbees about!

Ivy Seed heads

Hill streams

Miniature world under foot.

Peek-a-boo fern

Stenna heading out of Belfast Lough

Hope you enjoyed the walk.

Jan 22 2012

Gallery

Noelanders Trophy Trees

This gallery contains 71 photos.

A big thank you to Harry from the Netherlands who follows this blog and has kindly sent me his photos from his visit to the Trophy yesterday. Here is a Gallery of his photos including some from the demonstration. Hope … Continue reading →

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Jan 20 2012

Left or Right?

I read a post on the Bonsai Tonight Blog a week ago that intrigued me. It looked at a particular tree and posed the question, What direction was the tree facing? This is important when displaying the tree and in some cases, having balance within the image.

Then a few days back Michael from the club posted this tree on his blog.

This tree poses that same question, is it moving to the left or right? It a Common Juniper that Michael is bringing over to my place next week for some work. I asked him if it was ok for me to share my views on it here as a learning exercise, for me, not Michael 🙂

To start with I just want to say that I rather like this tree and what it could become in the next few years. The two deadwood spikes pointing to the right, marked in red, give it real character and the larger one is nicely carved. It seems to have enough branching to create a nice image as well.

The bit I don’t like is the curve marked in white. This looks rather man made. Also the other branch marked in white is rather an odd angle but this should be fixable.

Now, if you look at the green triangle outlining the foliage mass, it currently points to the left. If you add the bend in the trunk and the lean of the apex, both marked in yellow, the the left looks quite strong. However the deadwood all points to the right and does so very strongly.

I decided to do a few tilts to see how that changed things.

Here you can see the original angle in the middle and a tilt left and right either side. The one to the left just looks wrong. The one to the right however has possibilities. Below I removed the two jins just to prove a point that without them the tree is rather ordinary and lacks the original interest.

I opted to do two quick virtuals adding a little foliage and a pot. The first at it’s current potting angle and the second tilted to the right.

When I was done I wasn’t happy with the quality of the virtuals to be honest, but time has been against me. I would like to see a shorter tree with more definition within the foliage. This will be achieved when we actually get wire onto the tree. If I had to pick a favourite, it would be the tilted right one but I would want to try and disguise the bend a bit better. This could be done with foliage or even a continuation of the shari.

To be honest, I think that a change of front with a different viewing angle will make for a better tree. The bottom two branches can be moved into a better positions and more importantly, a new angle will alter the shape of that man made bend.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this tree in the flesh before. I’ve been to Michaels place a few times. For the life of me I can’t remember it!! I will however be looking forward to seeing it next week. I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for letting me dissect your tree Michael. 🙂

Jan 18 2012

Slab Larch Virtual

Following on from my last post about Roy’s Larch group and the comments made, here is a slab virtual that retains the rock element.

and with part of the rock removed for better lines.

The original pot virtual.

and the original

side by side…

Jan 17 2012

Larch Forest Pot Virtual

Roy C brought this Larch forest to the club meeting on Friday. Roy has been creating bonsai for many years on his own, learning from books and his own experiences. About a year ago he heard about the NIBS and made contact through the Website. He has a bit of a drive to make it to the meetings but when he gets there, he always has something interesting to see.

This forest was created from young Larch seedlings that had self seeded into the guttering on a shed roof at his farm! When he put this group together, he added the white limestone as it reminded him of his local landscape. I quite like this sentimental idea but in it’s current form, the white rock over powers the image and the rocks are a little too angular.

We chatted about the group at the meeting and I made a few suggestions that in my opinion would make for a better image.

Firstly I felt that the stones should go. The rock to the left look as if they are holding the trees in the pot and are very distracting.

Secondly I felt that the height of the soil mass should then be reduced. It sits very high in the pot in its current design. This may be more sustainable in a wider pot.

Thirdly, a change to a larger, shallower oval pot would greatly improve the image. The current rectangle is too deep and inappropriate for a group.

Lastly, I felt that a few of the trees should have their height adjusted to give a more overall triangular over view. This could be enhanced by adding a further small tree or two at the edges.

I took a photo and said I would play about with a virtual to see if helped explain my views. Here is what I came up with.

A smaller tree could still be added to the right hand side during repotting. If Roy still wanted to include some white stone, a well weathered piece with a more worn appearance could be added in the space to the right as well. It would need to be low lying, mostly buried, just visible on the soil surface. Two trees to the right have been shortened as well.

With a few more years of ramification and a little wiring here and there, I think this will be a very nice little group indeed. Moss would be nice but the sparrows on the farm do major damage, but the less said about the sparrows and Roy, the better 😉