San Jose juniper bonsai - big steps forward

This is a San Jose Juniper; it's nursery stock tree that I've trained since last summer.  This is her first major working since initial reduction and making a few branch decisions; it looks to be going the way of windswept, the branches all have natural movement from left to right.  Difficult to find a path for this one, time will tell (alot of time!) if I'm going the right way or not.

The tree's initial history can be found here.

Here's where things are after a few hours work today.

As always, poor man's measuring stick (lighter).  If you view the tree's history above first - you can see the large amount of new growth it's showing this spring.

 

Some carving to do at the bottom.  I want to save the branch on the right and turn it into a large jin to resemble a 3rd trunk that has 'failed' in the tree's past.

There we go, a little Dremel action.  The dremel is a new toy I got for Christmas, I have a few wood carving bits for it - enough for me to learn the basics then figure out what other bits or tools I may need.

 

Closer view.  Not completely finished, but it's still 'damp'.  I'd like nature to dry things out and do some of the weathering on her own.  It's a good start for me, I think. 

So..  Time to get some motion into these large branches.  Time to bring things closer in!

A few hours later.

Little more of a turn to the left - I think I like this as the front a bit better.  Will have to reduce the right trunk jin a little to accommodate the new front, since it crosses the trunk from this new angle.   Time to let this tree rest until Fall, then do a little adjusting of wire; remove some add more, etc.   Next season if all goes well I will continue working on the 'top' which right now is pretty vacant!    Not too worried about moving this into a pot yet - not until I"m happy with the design, and get a decent apex on there and the pads a bit more appropriate for the size of the tree.

Tree Story: This tree's protective bigger sister succumbed to the strong howling winds of a cliff side where they both perch.  Now with the winds hitting this tree directly through the crumbling remains of it's once protective neighbor, the branches bend, or break away in the tree's struggle not to join it's sibling.

Anyhow, that's the story and I'm sticking to it..  :)

Good find - now what?

Found a species and a bush that I don't normally see here in the southeast, but I see and hear about all the time from West Coast bonsai'ers.   San Jose Juniper!   Take a look at what I started with and also where I am now - not sure where to take it from here (either way, alot of bigger branches will need to be bent).   I'm thinking I may take this to the Warren Hill bonsai class I'm attending later this month at Plant City Bonsai - to see what sort of ideas others could give me.

So you can see what I started with - pretty healthy tree - what you can't see until you move some branches, is the very nice trunk that it has.

Lots of possibilities to my eye - It needed a trimming bad, but I left enough branches for selection down the road.    Any insight from other bonsai artists would be appreciated.  There are alot of techniques I will need to use on this tree to get it where I'd like it that I really need to practice first before I apply to this one. (Raffa/wire bending of big branches, and some Jin carving here and there).  Really excited about this considering the age/girth/price I paid for the material.

Would love to hear your ideas about where to take it at this point.