This little San Jose Juniper got a refining on Saturday at a one to one session. A few more issues to address next year but it’s coming along nicely for it’s owner.
Before
After
Tag Archives: workshop
Sunday’s Two to One
Sunday saw another workshop session, this time a Two to One with two of the guys from the Leinster Bonsai Club. It was a busy day with a lot of trees examined and a lot of time spend looking at what makes a good bonsai.
When we got down to work this heavy-trunked raw material Hornbeam got some carving to remove dead stumps and some problem branches. What’s left will make the basic structure of a nice tree. The final trunk line at the apex will be reduced further next year. Left for new to allow buds to pop to see when the best chop point should be.
The material
Some major chop points to be worked.
More pruning wounds.
Some chopped roots also needing work.
Owen at work. Think this was his first time with a makita and he loved it 🙂
and the new front after removed of unwanted branches etc. Tree will be a little shorter, just below those top branches, however after the chop just below that pointed I opted to keep it a little taller to draw sap in the Spring. As more adventurous buds appear it will be reduced by about 3-4 inches.
Rear view of the chops after basic carving.
Owen also brought this little Blue Spruce, picked up for 10 euros and bought for practice. He got some wiring practice out of it at any rate.
As the tree fills out a few more branches will be removed.
Another tree worked on was this beast stump of Berberis stump, a two man lift. Some adjustments were made to the deadwood and then the young branches were placed at the right angles and movement added. This has to be done at this stage before they harden further,berberis are brittle when they thicken. We were only concerned with the first few inches, after that the tips were pointed upwards to give vigour.
Before work.
We opted for a twink trunk image but to make it convincing we had to removed a significant portion of the second trunk to make it look thinner that the main trunk line.
Some block carving carried out on the sencond trunk. No point doing any refinement at this stage of the trees journey.
It was a busy day but the guys seemed to enjoy it as can be seen on Owen’s blog HERE.
Saturday’s One to One
I had a one to one workshop on Saturday and as part of the session we carried out a little work on this Maple Raft. This is the front before we started.
End on view
Back view
and from the other end
Over the Winter and into next Spring we planned to reposition the last branch on the right of the tree. In it’s current position it stopped the flow. The branch when viewed end on, or even in the back view above, turns almost 90 degrees towards the front and brings the flow to an abrupt end. We raffia’d the branch and wired it to allow us to bring it around into a more suitable position. This was done in stages during the afternoon. We opted to use a bar to act as an anchor point to give us more control of the branch. The tree had a few other branches wired at the same time. The wire will need close monitoring in the Spring as this tree is a vigorous grower. Hopefully the wire can stay in place until the tree is defoliated in late May early June at which point it can be removed.
Some work was also carried out on a deadwood hollow in the main trunk. Some wood was rotting and in a few places deadwood was stopping the rolling in of the cambium layer. The hollow will be darken down to catch the eye less when viewing.
The tree after work.
Video – Burrs 2014 Part 3 (Final)
Video -Burrs 2014 Part 2
Video – Burrs 2014 Part 1
One to One – Larch
I had Ben here for a one to one session today. He brought this big Japanese Larch with him. He collected it with us a few years ago and it had grown strongly under his care. This is the tree as collected.
This was it at 12pm today. The session saw us having to make a few decisions.
Ben was keen to make a twin trunk image but the two main trunks were both similar in size and thickness. We talked through the options and eliminated the faults leaving everything else for wiring.
A few bends were added to improve the trunk line to the apex and we shaped it to create this first styling image, and as you can see, it’s a twin trunk, just not the trunk that was expected.
This was it at 5pm.
Before and after
Dublin Bonsai
Leinster Bonsai Club had their first workshop on Saturday with myself and Phil trying to keep them in line. A great bunch of guys. Two of the Munster Club members came up for the day as well even though we had a workshop with them three weeks ago! We must be doing something right 🙂
We are a tough lot, an open air workshop in October in Ireland, great when the sun was out but Baltic when it dropped behind the house.
A big thank you for John for hosting the day and to Owen for organising it. Owe was gutted when he had to miss the session due to something called work on some remote Scottish Island!! Unlucky mate but we survived without out you. [Stop it Ian that’s cruel, he feels bad enough as it is 🙂 ]
Busy Day….
I played host to the Clubs Bonsai School Session today. All very enjoyable with good friends and bonsai learning at the top of the agenda. Just how many times can Ben photobomb!!
Youth to the right age to the left 🙂
Munster Weekend in Photos
Here’s our exploits from the weekend in photos. A great atmosphere for bonsai, fun but hard work getting done as well.
Crossing the Boyne in the dark
Misty morn
Catching up
Ray raw Pine
Kieran’s Juniper before
Piotr’s Juniper before
Work begins
Mark starting a wiring frenzy
wee doomed heed
clean clean clean
Kieran’s Juniper after
Piotr’s Juniper after, top to be removed in stages
Ray’s larch in for advice
camera shy
there he is
Another Ray Pine for work
Marks Pine after
Mark looking board
Motley crew
another Mark Pine
Piotr’s mame juniper
Ray’s Pine after
Kieran’s pine after
garden shot
Mark’s Gingko Autumn colour
Amazing dogs
Mark’s display
guard dog
Autumn
Cilling before the end
wired out…
good craic
That it, Piotr has left the building
Bonsai Eejit 