STYLING YAMADORI PINUS SYLVESTRIS TWIN TRUNK

During the last 2 days I styled this yamadori pine twin trunk, which I wrote about some time ago here, and I expressed my intention to style it as naturalistically as possible.
And when I got to it finally, I missed.
And I made a bonsai.
I hope I will figure out how to fix it and give it a bit more naturallistic (or penjing) look as time goes by.

SLOVAK NATIONAL BONSAI EXHIBITION 2017

My video report from national exhibition that took place at the Botanical garden in Košice and was organized by SBA, Bonsai centre Košice and Bonsai club Košice. It was actually 2 exhibitions in 1 - the first one consisting of member´s trees and the second one of trees from Bonsai centre Košice.

Background music is my original instrumental composition called "Wind in my bonsai garden".

MY PENJING HEAVEN ON A RAINY SEPTEMBER MORNING

Filmed today.

SECOND WORKSHOP OF BONSAI CLUB KOŠICE 2017

It took place at Julo Kolesár´s place and it was a really nice day :)

I styled this juniper that was on sale for 15 euros in the garden centre and named it in a tribute to my newly born girls Bea and Rea - Mother with twins.

Karol and Julo were working together on another juniper

Milan Miko´s juniper have been discussed 

some other works

and random pics from the day

Milan Miko´s goulash is LEGENDARY!!! 

DEFINITE FRONT AND POT CHOICES




I have chosen the definite front for recently styled juniper.
It has better overall movement.
But since the tree was styled for the front that now became back of a tree, the crown will be edited a bit as time goes by and backbudding kicks in.


I am thinking about 2 pot styles for it, first would be to take it in chinese penjing direction following the styles of Wu Chengfa, Chen Chang and other penjing masters

or more common flower or round pot that is frequently used by another penjing master Qingquan Zhao too, and nearly always for japanese literati bonsai.

I like them both pretty much and can´t make up my mind.
But I have lot of time to think about this ahead so hopefully I will choose the one that will make me happy at the end. And if not I can try the other one after some time so this is not a real problem :D

FIRST STYLING AND CARVING OF JUNIPERUS CHINENSIS


After a season of nice growth in a new plastic training pot I started working on this juniper on a friday morning. I considered this side as a front for a more like "bonsai" looking tree, or ...

the other one, but from this one I would see more of a "tree" bonsai, some informal upright of a sort in it.

I am very hesitant to do this kind of decisions, but in a few moments something starts me on and I cut and cut ... and then I am like - f..k, I shouldn´t have done that. :D

But once it is done it cannot be undone and I have to continue with the final decision.

So I went for the first idea.

After some cutting and making deadwood I had to go to work, but left early in the evening to continue working on a tree, casue once I start, I cannot think about anything else.

So some pics from late evening work:

 

There were 2 branches left with the foliage, the one for the main design was broken some time in the past and fixed itself and healed. And then it came to my hands. And I broke it again when I was messing with it and moving it around to see how I will position it. So I fixed it back with a glue, wrapped it in a tape and made sure it won´t be moving during the styling with few circles of a thick wire.

and then my girfriend rang the phone and asked if I am not gonna sleep tonight.

So I went to sleep, setting the alarm for early start on saturday morning, eventually waking up half an hour before it went on.

So back to work to our summer kitchen located across the yard.

I finished wiring the branches an moved them to the positions and when it was brighter and warmer outside, I came out with this:

Jins were a bit awkward but I kept them for the time being, no more cutting before I think about it for at least 24 hours is my new rule I want to go by.

What was bothering me was the long straight part and the only fix I could see because of it´s thickness would be carving it significantly to make it look more interesting at least.

So I turned the dremel on and went to give it a try.

I only carved 2 little trees so far with not a great results, but studied lot of pics on Harry Harrington´s Bonsai4me page since then, as well as other works by other artists and I tried to put in practice what I thought I got from it.

I made some hollows in the trunk and I will make more in the future, making the trunk more interesting I hope. But first I wanna make sure I see them lifelines where they are.

So after carving I used some wet ash and brushed it in the deadwood followed by applying the jin liquid just as Harry does it to not get the bright white colour on it as I don´t like it like that and consider it more natural when the shade is a bit darker.

And on sunday I did some more carving and sorted those jins out.

After the jin liquid dried in the afternoon I did a photo session and here are some resulting pics.

Please consider it "work in progress" cause much more carving will be done on the trunk in the future.