Jan 30 2014

New Horror Movie

You heard it here first, Jim Carey is starring in a new horror movie where he uses a Makita Die Grinder to hollow out the insides of unsuspecting bonsai enthusiasts heads. He infiltrates clubs and gains the confidence of members. He is even know to gain a seat at the committee table before he strikes 🙂

Ok, not true, but Ben does look like Jim Carey and this photo of him carving in my garage last Saturday is pretty darn scary 😀

Ben was here to play with my carving tools and gain a little experience using same. He spent most of his time on a raw material pyracantha stump but also managed a little work on an Elm and a Lonicera clump.

Stephen came down to give me a hand removing wire from a Larch I have and to make sure Ben behaved.

Always good when you remember to put a towel down to stop copper wire getting into the potting mix.

I played about with a raw Collected Scots Pine. I wanted it to resemble some mature trees near where it was collected. It will take a few years to fill and develope but I think it will make a nice image. Nice bark and better character than the photo shows.

This was the lonicera stump that Ben carved. First photo from a few months back.

An enjoyable afternoon.

Jan 17 2014

Good News….

It looks as if photos from Noelanders will be making it onto the web after all 🙂

A few press passes have been issued to some of us keyboard warriors 🙂 Sadly I’ll be too busy in Cork to do much but if you want to see photos then keep checking in to Xavier’s Blog Petit-arbre.com where he will be posting photos over the weekend. Click on the image below to visit.

Having just looked at Facebook, I think most of the UK bonsai community is heading to Noelanders!! Have a great time folks.

Jan 15 2014

This Weekend Part 1 Noelander Trophy

Europe’s Premier Bonsai Exhibition with be held this weekend, The Noelanders Trophy has become the standard for Europe’s bonsai.

Click on the image below for the Full Brochure.

I have yet to make it over for this sadly but plans are afoot for next year 🙂 I have, in years past made it to the old Ginkgo Award which was truly magnificent.

This year’s Noelanders in slightly different, NO PHOTOGRAPHY. Funnily enough, so was Ginkgo, indeed the camera police there were evident, making you check in your camera at the door!

I do appreciate the issues around this, and we all know that people take liberties, before you know it there is 6 tripods set up in the middle of the crowd blocking access! There is also a beautiful book produced each year showcasing the exhibits.

Xavier, over on Petit-arbre.com posted about this very subject recently in this article linked here. He even received a reply from the organisers that can be read below:

___________________________________________________________________

Why?
Due to the increasing number of visitors and because we want visitors to enjoy the beauty of our bonsai exhibition in the quiet, we decided not to allow photographs.
Watching a bonsai takes longer the click clack of a camera. All trees will be photographed by a professional photographs that will be available in a colour book for less than a memory card prices. We are sure that every visitor appreciate the new atmosphere.

Exception
Professional photographers acting on behalf of magazines or newspapers can get a map at the entrance of Press Noelanders Trophy.

Where?
prohibition relates only to the exhibition hall. Everyone is free to take pictures at demos in the professional market and during the gala dinner.

Why not on the web?
Professionals and bonsai enthusiasts spend a lot of time creating their works of art. We should all respect their vision and taste in bonsai.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and we wish you a wonderful weekend Noelanders Trophy.

Bonsai Association Belgium
committee.

___________________________________________________________________

For the last few years a friend has attended the show and kindly shared his photos with me to place here on the blog. I will really miss the excitement this year of seeing the images pop into my email account and the rush to get them up. I know from the hits that I got on that day [45,000 last year] that I’m not the only one. We can’t all get there and many from around the world crave to see what the standard was like this year. The world gets to see the trees showcased adding even more kudos to the event.

Will web snaps affect book sales? I guess that’s hard to ascertain. I personally like to buy the book anyway, hard to bet a quality gallery book to flick through. I’m sure there are some out there who will go the other way though.

It will be interesting to see how things work out this year. I’m pretty sure that folk attending will have a better viewing experience, but banning tripods would probably help in that regard as well. Will book sales go up? Again we will have to wait and see , but we probably won’t be privileged to that information anyway.

As far as the web images go, I personally think most artists are happy to see their trees showcased to a mass audience, probably 10 times more than will ever visit the show or buy the book.

What I am sure about is that this will yet again be an amazing event, not just because of the quality of bonsai exhibited, but because of the dedication, enthusiasm and professionalism of the event organisers, Bonsai Association Belgium

Hey maybe next year they’ll let an avid bonsai blogger get a press pass 🙂

For those attending, have a great weekend and I look forward to hearing the stories about the ‘Goings On’ emerge 🙂

Jan 12 2014

Image

Belvior Forest Walk

Took our regular Sunday walk in Belvoir Forest Park in Belfast this morning. It was one of those days when you see unusual things. When we reached the river a seal popped up and followed us for a while, I think it was fascinated by my dogs. The feeling was mutual 🙂 It must be a good few miles up river from Belfast Lough as you can see in the map below. We left the river and came back past it later on but on the other side and low and behold, there it was again.

While we where watching in a Kingfisher flew past, Stephen first even sighting which made it special. Add in some other local wildlife and it was a great walk.

Won’t be walking for a while now as I managed to wreck my ankle in the kitchen on the return home! It never ends lol

Lagan to Lough

Jan 7 2014

Image

Shohin Larch

I posted about this Larch recently. It’s the latest addition to my collection. Originally a landscape with a rock in the pot, I removed the rock and have now wired the tree into it’s new shape. Next step will be a repot. I can see a few problems with the roots and fitting them into an appropriately sized pot. I think I have one for the job but time will tell.

This is the before shot

Rock removed

This is it after wiring and shaping. I have removed a heavy front branch that was blocking some of the real character exhibited in the trunk line. A small jin created but this may be removed soon. I’ve just left it for now to consider.A lot of thinning out done and many smaller but overly heavy branches removed.

A slightly different angle that shows the trunk line a little better.

Jan 6 2014

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Escallonia Winter Work

I did a little tidy up on some late shoots on my Escallonia. This is it before the trim and shows the old front.

After a trim

The new front.

The back showing another live vein

Jan 5 2014

Stephen’s Cotoneaster

This is a Cotoneaster that Stephen brought to my place a few weeks agao to do a little carving and eventually restyle. It had lost two weak branches at the back and was placed into this tub to regain vigour for the last year. This seems to have worked.

Stephen cover this session on his blog HERE

Yesterday afternoon Stephen came back to do the wiring and styling. We also did a little more carving. This was it before we started wiring.

After some wiring this is the image that Stephen preferred for the tree.

I found this older photo of it from back in 2011

Jan 2 2014

Elm Adjustments

I have been making a few decisions with this field grown Cork Bark Elm. It was styled a few years ago and since then I have been building up ramification and girth to lower branches.

This year saw a lot of growth but a lot of this wasn’t in the right places. The wire had been removed last Winter and during the year they have risen out of the desired profile. The finer growth is too dense in places to the detriment of inner areas.

I spent an hour the other afternoon wiring the primary and secondary branching and thinning out the dense areas to create proper structure. Although this has reduced the size of the overall tree, in a negative way, the structure left is correct and I will be able to quickly replace the ramification. I did manage to snap a little branch near the apex. Didn’t see that pruning wound from last year which had created a weak spot. At least at the apex it can be replaced quickly.

The foliage mass needs to be at least twice as much as it is now, but that’s part of the enjoyment of deciduous bonsai, no quick fixes.

Dec 30 2013

Valerie’s Hornbeam

Another one from Valerie’s collection, this time it’s a Korean Hornbeam that has great ramification but was in need of some structural pruning.

This is it thinned out a bit. Needs a few branches wired to get things into position.

Dec 29 2013

Valerie’s Larch Group

I’m doing a little Winter care for Valerie at the moment and have her collection here with me. This Larch group is one of my favourites. Bought about 6 years ago from Willowbog Bonsai and had previously been part of a large collection of larch owned by an enthusiast in Scotland.

For personal reasons Valerie wasn’t able to get near her trees too much in recent years but is now all guns blazing and is determined to make the best of her collection. I saw this group a few months ago and told her it would need to be wired over the Winter. She took me at my word and had it fully wired for the December meeting. A great effort made with the wiring. A few issues with it as I pointed out to her on the night, a little too much wire and some not applied correctly but the biggest compliment I can pay her is that it was functional, I could place every branch without changing the wire. Many struggle to get this right.

I did a little shaping and pruning and this is what it’s Winter image looks like now.