• Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
I am not one for doing “instant Bonsai”. It’s really just not my thing. However I was asked a few weeks ago to participate in our club event called the three ring circus. I displayed the results of the program in an earlier post, but I wanted to show the tree I had to work with.
Shimpaku Juniper Pre-bonsai
As you can see there were about four trunks all going in different directions, and to make things worse all the foliage was at the end of the branches.
Raffia and trunk line
The trunk line wasn’t obvious by any means, but the way the base of the tree flowed, it just seemed to want to be a cascade of some sort.
Semi Cascade Shimpaku Juniper
After a lot of bending this was the results. I hope to get one more picture in a bonsai pot to really show the propoer angle, and maybe a few more bends.
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• Saturday, May 09th, 2009
The program at the last Central Florida Bonsai Club was something that we refer to as a Three Ring Circus. Not that it is chaos, but because there is some much going on at the same time. Three artist (or in this case 4) were asked to work on similar material at the same time without looking at the others for inspiration. It is a nice program because it allows club members to interact and make suggestions during the demonstrations. It always amazes me how different each of the trees turn out, even though they are so similar to begin with.
This time it was Shimpaku Junipers, and not one of my favorite trees to work with. These trees were pretty challenging with no growth close to the trunk and long thin branches to deal with. It required some creativity and some raffia to bend and twist these branches into shape.
Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers always does an outstanding job with his trees. As I was putting my second wire on my tree I glanced over to see Mike had practicially finished wiring. No fair!
Adam Lavigne
Adam Lavigne also went with an informal upright. His trunk pretty much dictated the way this tree was going to be styled. He was a last minute participant, and he did a very nice job on stying it out.
Rick Jeffry
These trees were challenging and Rick’s tree was no exception. However he was able to harness the wild growth of the tree into a wonderful windswept.
Paul Pikel
My tree took a different turn all together. The first 3 inches of the tree indicated to me that it wanted to be a cascade or semi cascade. The raffia really allowed me to bend the branches very far. The apex of the tree is pretty much a corkscrew to get the growth low and close to the trunk.
All of the trees will require new growth to pop out and fill in. However I think this year’s auction next month for these trees will bring in a nice amount. If your club hasn’t tried this program you may want to try it. Its a lot of fun and a really eye opener.
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Category: Club Events
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Tags: 3 ring circus, adam lavigne, bonsai style, cascade, informal upright, Mike Rogers, Paul Pikel, rick jeffreys, semi cascade, shimpaku, windswept Comments off
