Sunday, August 15, 2010

2 Friends + 2 Trees, Part 2 of Juniper Bonsai Styling

So Aaron and I revisited our junipers that we worked on together last year, and decided it was time for a 'real' sculpting of these trees to prepare for placement into a pot sometime next year.    Their beginnings are better detailed here.

Aaron decided to put more motion into his tree and enhanced it's upwards motion and balance with wiring and pinching.  Here's where his tree began, and where it ended after our session:




As you can see, both lower branches were removed to help reveal it's strong trunk, with a nice jin worked into the left branch (lime sulphur applied.)  Aaron I think has given this tree many promising directions for it's next working.  At this point, I will begin pinching the new buds and begin it's ramification, something we did not attend to this past year after their initial styling.

My tree took a completely different turn as I realized my amateur thoughts last year of forming the tree into something it naturally would not hold without great work, was not the best approach for this tree.   For better or worse this tree is headed into a Bunjin future.

A few before and after photos:






Couple of options in my mind:  Take the top branch upwards and turn the lower into another jin, or, make the top a jin (leave a little green growth at center for now I think) and take the lower towards the trees center and really bend it into a new beginning.    This was really fun for me to do, I feel the tree felt better and found it's true shape buried in the odd 'decidious' shape I was trying to force on it.

Another fun evening with my best friend - next time we style these, they will also get worked into training pots I do believe.  Shohin size are for both, with mine potentially becoming a Bunjin.  (Are there shohin bunjins?)   :)

1 comment:

Home & Garden Blogs submit to reddit Blogarama - Blog Directory blog search directory Hobbies Blogs - Blog Rankings Blogs lists and reviews Blog Directory Bodhisattva Bonsai - Blogged Blog Ratings Web Directory Top Blogs - Increase SEO of Your Blog, Blogging Resources Gardening Blogroll Center Award Winning Home and Garden Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory