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.
On our trip over to Willowbog and also on our way back we popped into Mike’s place for a look around his trees. Mike is an old mate from bonsai days past and after a break from the hobby for a few years, he jumped back in with both feet.
You’ll have seen Mike in the photos of the Sunday workshop. Hard to miss, a long haired biker covered in tattoos. Here’s some of the photos I snapped on the way out and the way home.
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.
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.
Starting with Phil’s tree, this rather large Scots Pine was selected by Phil for a particular reason. Most people who had done the workshop wanted direction with their tree or refinement. Phil however was more interested in learning techniques, most notably bending techniques. This Scots Pine was always going to need bending in some way to make it a viable bonsai sometime in the future.
This is the tree before we started.
Ryan asked for ideas about its future, some said put it back in the ground and one said put it back in the van 🙂 Ryan said that there is always something that can be done.
After some discussion about styling options with everyone there, Ryan opted to remove two of the trunks initially and set Phil to work creating jins using hand tools and a bit of rip and tear.
The next step was how to bend such a heavy branch/trunk. Ryan demonstrated the technique of sawing into the trunk and removing a very small wedge. This was then bend down to meet again and sealed. This was done in two places on the trunk.
Phil describes what the top of the jin looks like.
The branch that was to make the new apex also needed a severe bend. Ryan removed some of the thickness by creating a shari and then running copper wire along the length of the shari before Phil applied the raffia. This allowed the branch to be bent at almost 90 degrees.
Phil gets on with wiring the remainder of the tree.
Ben lends a hand with the wiring.
Ryan’s guy line setup.
Feck’n eejits the pair of them. Apologies if you find them offensive, but you try getting a photo of them without Phil the fingers getting his way!!
The spare branch which was under consideration as an apex is now jinned.
and after Ryan places the branches as a skeleton of it’s future design.
The wire team
It fitted in the van a lot easier on the way home 🙂
and just to prove it made it home….
before and after..
While at Willowbog I took some photos of Peter’s own collection and some sale trees over the 3 days. Not an easy task in heavy snow. I even took a few several times as the snow changed during our stay.
Here’s a gallery.
On our arrival at Willowbog we sought out the boss to let them know we had arrived. As we couldn’t find Jean, we had to make do with Peter Snart 🙂
The Friday workshop was coming to an end with a few members already away but the die-hards with four wheel drive were still there finishing off their session with Ryan Neil. I didn’t want to be in everyone’s faces with a camera but did manage a few shots of how things had gone on the day.
A general shot of what greeted us at the door. Phil the fingers strikes again! 🙂
Peter greets us and looks like he’s had a hard day on the digger clearing the snow. Must be nerve racking worrying about a big event being cancelled due to the weather! Ben seeks revenge on Phil for a long long van ride 🙂 The demo tree for Saturday can be seen in shot, already lifted into place.
We had a quick look at some of the trees that had been worked on during the Thursday and Friday workshops. Some impressive trees.
As soon as the workshop cleared we got to work to help Peter set up the demo area for the following day. Work for your supper if you like. Peter was putting the three of us up and we were keen to help out as staff as much as possible during our stay.
Peter’s big Yew wheeled into place and ready to go.
Dave Jones of Walsall Ceramics was also staying and had a great stand ready of any sales.
Ok, ready to start adding my photos from the weekend. Spent a good bit of time today recovering, but also thinking about what I saw and heard this past weekend. I have been sorting out my photos and trying to decide the best way to add them here. I have opted for a chronological order but with one or two aspects left out, but to be mentioned later. It’ll take a few days to get them all together so keep stopping by for a look. It will be photo heavy as usual. With bonsai, photos always say more.
First up is the road trip. Phil Ben and I set out early on Friday morning for what proved to be a challenge in getting to Willowbog Bonsai. The ferry crossing was straightforward but as we approached our destination the snowy conditions steadily got worse. Along the road I managed to snap a few photos of interesting landscape features and trees. here is a gallery showing a step by step of the journey.
Anybody who was at the Ryan Neil demo today will no doubt back me up when I say just how enjoyable and educational a day it was.
Ryan certainly is every bit as good as the greater bonsai public say he is. I will be adding many of the 100’s of photos I have taken so far during this coming week. Just not possible to do it now with this internet connection. I will however share the before and after shots of the Taxus Cuspidata that Ryan worked on today. No easy option for Ryan, he wanted the best possible outcome for this year which involved seperating the live vein from the deadwood to allow the image to be compacted more bring the green bits closer to the wonderful deadwood.
Compare where the foliage in in the before photo to were it is in the after. Use the deadwood as a reference. As usual a photo does not do this tree justice.
Workshop tomorrow, after more red wine tonight 🙂
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