Bonsai Bark Has a New Home & We’ve Got a New Website

I cropped this Ficus microcarpa for a close look at the sheer power and beauty of the trunk, pot and stand (the uncropped original is below). It’s by Huang,Ching-Chi of Taiwan We’ve got a New Website & Bonsai Bark has a New Home (right there on our New Website)! You can go directly to Bark with this link, or you can go to our New Website and scroll down just a tad and there it is Today we’ve got three bonsai from the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website. It’s the … Continue reading Bonsai Bark Has a New Home & We’ve Got a New Website

Abstract Bonsai Art & Carving Deadwood, Sidiao Style

Abstract bonsai art. I think there’s a temptation to judge trees with elaborately carved deadwood (like this one). But maybe it’s best to just appreciate the the skill involved and not worry about too much deadwood or whether the result looks natural or not. Yesterday we featured Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s colorful side. Today we’ll touch upon his famous Sidao carving method and some results. Hopefully this will peak your interest. If it does, you can visit his website for more. Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s Sidiao method in a nutshell. There’s a lot more where this came from. Just another Shimpaku with … Continue reading Abstract Bonsai Art & Carving Deadwood, Sidiao Style

Silk Carving & Some of the Best Bonsai in the World

I believe we’ve shown this remarkable tree before, but it’s worth another shot. It’s easy to be impressed by a tree like this; it’s massive girth and equally massive spread alone compel our attention. But there’s more of course; the strong nebari that helps create an overall sense of stability and balance, the texture and movement of the trunk and lower branches, the lush thick canopy with just enough open space to keep it from being too heavy, and so on. Altogether a world-class bonsai. This tree and the rest in this post are by Cheng, Cheng-Kung, a world-class bonsai … Continue reading Silk Carving & Some of the Best Bonsai in the World

Vacation Gallery & Scratch Prizes

This kind of monster tropical bonsai is not all that uncommon in Taiwan. It’s a Ficus microcarpa by Chen, Wen-Zhong. It won the Superior Prize at the 2010 Taiwan Bonsai Creator Association. Height: 100cm, Style: Raft. Vacation quickie I’m supposed to be on vacation (if only…) so I’ll make it quick. Here’s a gallery of monster bonsai from Taiwan that turned up on facebook. I hope you enjoy it. $1,000 Bonsai from Scratch deadline Don’t wait much longer. You’ve got one week to send us your final submissions (no later than Oct 15th). Here are the details. Two more gift … Continue reading Vacation Gallery & Scratch Prizes

Sculpting Deadwood

Francios Jeker‘s finger and dremel power carving tool. From Bonsai Today 105 (still available). It didn’t used to be this way Have you noticed how almost everybody carves deadwood these day? It wasn’t always the case. I just thumbed through Kyuzo Murata‘s classic Four Seasons of Bonsai (first edition 1991 and long out of print) and could find only 3 or 4 bonsai that had some carving (out of over 100 trees). The same goes if you look back through other older bonsai publications. New horizons Even though it’s overused, carving opens up whole new horizons for us bonsai hackers, … Continue reading Sculpting Deadwood

Fantastic Trees, Fabulous Pots

Malpigia glabra (Barbados cherry) by Hsieh, Cheng-Hua. More Taiwanese Bonsai Here are three more bonsai from the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website. It’s the pots, as well the trees, that really grabbed me. Ficus microcarpa by Huang,Ching-Chi. Variety unlisted. By Tung, Wen Chi.

Wild and Wonderful Bonsai

Wild! There’s so much going on with this delightfully crazy tree, that you could spend a long time looking at it and still see something new. It’s a Chinese juniper by Yang Hsui. Taiwanese Bonsai The three bonsai shown here are all from the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website. Cheng is one Taiwan’s most famous, and most innovative, bonsai artists and teachers. This one is more wonderful than wild. But take a look at the size of the pot relative to the tree and particularly the trunk. Could the tree … Continue reading Wild and Wonderful Bonsai

Voila!

Much Better! Here’s the tree that is featured in our last post, in focus this time. It was sent by Ferry Freriks, who BTW submitted the first tree to our Unique Bonsai Contest. Ferry has done his research and here’s what he came up with: Hello Mr. Schoech, I tried to post a comment on the post of the Taiwanese tree, but after submitting it, the site told me it was “Too spammy”. So instead I’m sending it by e-mail. Here’s the full size picture of this tree: http://sidiao.myweb.hinet.net/2004htm/p13.htm ;-) According to the website (http://sidiao.myweb.hinet.net, the personal website of one … Continue reading Voila!