A few shohin privet bonsai of mine

Just some things I'm toying with, that have helped me learn a few techniques.   Before and after shots.  

 Shohin Privet  - future bunjin shohin?  (Is there such a thing?  Does there 'have' to be for it 'to be'?)   

 Another angle, still not sure where 'front' is.   The pot was made by my best friend Aaron, and fired here at home.

Bonsai artist's cheap 'measuring tool' after defoliating and some wiring.

Nothing special, except for this one branch on the side..   :) 

Flipped the 'front' around, just going to see what I can do with it from here.  Pot is one of the first I fired for bonsai in late 2008 I believe.  A bit deep, decent for training shohin though.

Again nothing but a training 'tree' for me, simple pot I made a few years ago.  A bit deep, decent for training shohin.

This one I'm curious about, can't really see here but it's roots, or nabari - are really decent.  (Really loose soil allowing for a great deal of radial root growth).

This was the fun tree.  At it's base, it appears as if the tree began to fall from some past event in it's life but only went so far - and then lived from there on.  It's up to me to figure out what else to do as it's not that great further up.

 Close-up of the trunk.   Need a bit better lighting to really see, it's really interesting as it leads into some deadwood in the crease.

First use of raffia - ran a wire down the back for a 'spine' then wrapped with raffia that I soaked for 30 minutes prior.  Slapped on 2 more wires, gave it a few good bends.   Will see where it leads and wire further after I'm assured it's going to survive the beating I gave it.

All of these will go into more shallow/smaller pots this year as the work into ramification rather than accelerated growth begins.

Spring is really here now, lows in the 40's and high's in the low 70's.  At least for now things are really starting to wake up.   Alot of work ahead of me this weekend as it's time to 'turn the crops'!