FREE FERTILIZER! We are giving away our favorite fertilizer over on Stone Lantern.
Just for the fun of it (and to encourage you to place an order and to  feed your bonsai!)

Happy white Easter from Walter Pall. This morning Walter posted a whole bunch of photos a lot like this. There’s even some scary photos that shows fully and partially leafed out maples covered with snow. Here’s the good news from Walter: “While I am posting these photographs it has stopped snowing and even the sun is coming out. It seems that this nightmare is over and has caused no harm.”

Marco is coming to Montreal. Marco Invernizzi, Italian bonsai superstar, will be at the Vendredi le 4 mai, à l’auditorium du jardin botanique à 19 h 30 (that’s the Botanical Garden auditorium, May 4th at 7:30pm, for us linguistically challenged folks).

Delicious! I think we posted something about this a while back, but now I can’t find it. Anyway, as you can see, it’s a mame bonsai pot. The artist is Horie Bikoh. The photo is from Albek Bonsai Studio, which is Morten Albek’s blog. Morten is, among other things, the author of our Majesty in Miniature, Shohin Bonsai.

Restarting a Trident maple by Peter Tea. From bonsai pot, back to training pot.

What’s a uro (besides an overpriced currency)? If you like to find out what a uro is and how to create uro on your deciduous bonsai, bonsai4me has an excellent post on the subject.

Celebrating Spring (snow, rain or sun). New England Bonsai Gardens 25th annual Spring Members Day Celebration is coming very soon. And you don’t have to be a member to go.

Bonsai Hungary blog

In our last Weekly Wire I originally posted the wrong dates on this one. I corrected it soon after it was posted, but just in case: the dates are June 21-24.

Much more than just corn, soy and pigs. The Iowa State Fair Bonsai Show will be held July 1 in Des Moines.

Speaking of eccentric bonsai. From Cliff Chong’s photo album.

Whatever it is, it’s wonderful. We just featured this ‘bonsai’ in our last post. Turns out it’s a fabulous fake. Or, maybe fake isn’t the right word. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that it’s a wonderful clay representation of a bonsai. The artist is Paul Finch, according to Nik Rozman.

There’s two Progetto Futuro Bonsai Schools. This enlongated photo is of a workshop at the Progetto Futuro UK Bonsai School. The original Progetto Futuro Bonsai School is in Italy (as you might guess). Now Tony Tickle has teamed up with Enrico Savini and Ivo Saporiti and created Progetto Futuro UK Bonsai School.

Digging in. It just so happens that I’m in Mexico at the moment. Nothing to do with bonsai (more or less), just a little sunshine R&R. Still, why not dig in just a bit to the local scene. Here’s what the first shovel full turned up.

Bonsai Tonight, bonsai last night and bonsai tomorrow night. This sweet Kifu shimpaku is from Bonsai Tonight. Rather than say more, I’ll just encourage you to visit this exceptional blog for yourself. Should you wonder whether it’s worth the considerable trouble of a single click, you have my word.

There’s something afoot in Nebraska. Okay, I’m on vacation and trying to stop working for today at least, so I won’t say much about my discovery of the Nebraska Bonsai Society website, except that, at a glance, it looks pretty good. Maybe there’s something afoot in the great state of Nebraska.

Buy this book. Okay. It’s time to reveal one of my favorite books of all time. But first, a question: why don’t bonsai enthusiasts show more interest in full size trees? It’s not that there aren’t some tree lovers in our bonsai community, I’m just surprised that we aren’t all tree lovers (or am I missing something?). Anyway, enough with that. This book is the best tree book I’ve ever seen and almost the only tree book I ever use (I even read it for entertainment). It features over 700 varieties with over 2,000 color photos. It’s chock full of great info, including identification tips, range maps, abundant general info on trees and tree identification. And it has a waterproof cover! It’s a remarkable deal at 19.95, and an even more remarkable deal at Stone Lantern’s low price of 14.97. Go ahead, buy it. You’ll be thanking me for years.

For those of us who make mistakes. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth at least one more mention: Andy Rutledge’s thoughtful and thought provoking  Artistic Foundations of Bonsai Design is work a look. In fact, it’s worth repeated looks. The photos above are from a section titled ‘Compositional Mistakes.’

2011? That’s so last year. Here’s one we missed. It featured Walter Pall and I’d love to hear from someone who attended. Meanwhile, you might want to check out The North Caroline Arboretum for future events.

San Antonio. I don’t know why San Antonio popped into my mind, but it did. Here’s what I found after a five second search. I couldn’t tell how current the site is, but it’s a start if you’re interested.

Just a little taste. The two spreads below are from the tree book (above) that I want you to buy.

Marco Invernizzi, Bill Valavanis and Isao Omachi

Your generosity comes to fruition: I received this note and photo from Bill Valavanis the other day.“This afternoon, Saturday, November 19, 2012 Marco and I met with Isao Omachi to present him with several checks in the amount of US $55,000.00 received from the generous donations around the world. Isao was very appreciative of the gift which will assist his family to re construct their lives.” Isao’s house and bonsai collection were completely lost in Japan’s devastating earthquake/tsunami.

Just got this postcard in the mail from my friends and compatriots at the NBF. The tree is a formal upright Japanese White pine. Decent formal uprights are rare and this splendid samurai is far beyond just decent.

This is shot taken from a video that shows the Bonsai displayed by the Bonsai Societies of Florida at the Epcot.

Bonsai from Scratch Honorable Mention Winners

A heartfelt thanks to all of you who entered our contest. Your efforts made for a high-quality, dynamic and enjoyable experience. And thank you also to our great panel of judges. Your participation added richness and depth to the contest. Lest I forget, thank you also to those of you who donated prizes (Robert Steven – artist, author & teacher, Todd Hansen - Sanctuary Bonsai, & Paul Stokes - ofBonsai Magazine). Your generosity is appreciated.

First, second, third, forth & fifth prizes have already been awarded.
Now for the Honorable Mentions.

Congratulations to Ryan Wagner. His Juniper pro-nana won the First Honorable Mention prize in our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. Ryan’s prize is a $50 gift certificate to Stone Lantern.

Congratulations to Johnson Teh. His Yaupon holly won the Second Honorable Mention prize in our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. Johnson’s prize is Robert Steven’s ground-breaking book, Mission of Transformation.

Congratulations to Steve Ristau. His Japanese yew won the Third Honorable Mention prize in our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. Steve’s prize is Robert Steven’s classic book, Vision of My Soul.

Congratulations to Robert Spencer Sencer. His Cedar of Lebanon won the Forth Honorable Mention prize in our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. Robert’s prize is $25 gift certificate from Cafe Press, the ofBonsai Magazine store.

Congratulations to Jeff Doyle. His Echiniformis White spruce won the Fifth Honorable Mention prize in our Bonsai from Scratch Contest. Jeff’s prize is $25 gift certificate from Cafe Press, the ofBonsai Magazine store.

Prize winners: Please contact me so we can make sure you get your gift: wayne@stonelantern.com

Speaking of Bonsai Masters: We almost never use the term here on Bonsai Bark or at Stone Lantern. In fact, I think we’ve used it only for Masahiko Kimura and Kunio Kobayashi. This is not to say there aren’t others in their league, it just that it’s such a tricky term that’s so often misused, that it’s easier to just avoid it and stick with Bonsai Artist.

Joy of Bonsai. Kawa Bonsai (member of Bonsai Societies of Florida) is hosting the 10th Annual Joy of Bonsai in January. Our favorite shohin artist Suthin Sukosolvisit (Royal Bonsai) will be there. This is not to say that Suthin does shohin exclusively. His skill with larger bonsai, like his skill with Shohin bonsai, place him among the elite bonsai artists.

The best Holiday gift just might be a Okatsune hand tool.
I think Okatsune tools are the best garden tools in world (barring individually hand crafted tools). We’ve got them at Stone Lantern, and they are all discounted. Take a look for yourself. You’ll like what you see.

This world class Okatsune hand pruner is discounted from 79.00 to only 59.00 at Stone Lantern.

Bonsai from Scratch results. We are waiting for the results for one more of our illustrious judges. Don’t worry, as soon as we have them all, we’ll post them here and we’ll send out a newsletter.

More fuel for the fire. A couple posts ago we broached the subject of highly sculpted more abstract bonsai and naturalistic bonsai (it’s an old topic on Bonsai Bark). Here’s an excellent example of the former. It’s a Juniper procumbens by Marco Invernizzi, who is, among other things a student of Masahiko Kimura.

Shohin 2012. The famous California Shohin Seminar is scheduled for February 4-6. As usual, it will take place in Santa Nella.

One big bad Poderosa pine. That’s Ryan Neil of International Bonsai Mirai tackling an almost incomprehensibly massive Ponderosa that was collected by Randy Knight. The photo is from a slideshow on International Bonsai Mirai. BTW: Ryan is, like Marco (above), a student of Masahiko Kimura.

Bonsai in Chile. Exposición y Concurso Achibo 2011 takes place Saturday Nov 26th en el centro cultural de la reina, más información…

Bonsai Art magazine. Got our copy of Bonsai Art recently. It’s still one of our favorite bonsai mags. The quality of the trees, photography and overall production is the best. I can’t say much about the text (my German is primitive, to say the least), but my guess is that it’s not bad either.

Sound and sight. A sweet mix of music, dance, bonsai and suiseki from the 2nd Japanese Culture Festival and 6th International Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibition that took place this year in Vilnius (Lithuania).

Top dressing. Bonsai Tonight has study of top dressings from the East Bay Bonsai Society’s 50th Anniversary Show.

The Amador Bonsai Society is located in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains (in the Heart of the Mother Lode). Their website won the Gold State Bonsai Federation Website of the Year Award for 2011.

End of the line for Bonsaiautumn. In our last post we featured a remarkable hornbeam by Andy Doerfliger. Andy is a key player in Europe’s Bonsaiautumn show. This year featured the 7th, and unfortunately, last show in the series.

Jerry Meislik, author of Ficus: The Exotic Bonsai, presents a wealth of information on Tropical/Indoor bonsai culture and care on his website.

Iowa Bonsai Association‘s meetings are held at the Des Moines Botanical Center.

Green Mountain Bonsai Society‘s next meeting is November 20th.

Doing what we can
Stone Lantern is pledging 10% of all sales of Japanese items to the Japanese Red Cross and several of our contributors and customers have already pledged their help by donating contest winnings (see comments here).

Another shot from the 2nd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibit (here for a post from a few days ago). This one (and the last one in this post) was sent to us by Bill Valavanis; the tireless man behind the whole wild and wonderful thing.

Big, big, big book sale at Stone Lantern
Just trying to squeeze this in to drum up a little business. Mid-summer always requires some extra effort.

All the way from Japan. Kunio Kobayashi was not the only famous visitor (and in this case, judge), but he’s the only one with the title ‘Grand Master’ before his name. Three questions: who is the partially obscured senior citizen? Who’s the dude  staring at the camera? And who’s the lady? This shot (and all but the first and last shots in this post) is taken from a video by Alejandro Medina Ibarra. For more see this previous post.

A famous face from Italy. Marco Invernizzi is a student of Grand Master (and ultimate bonsai innovator), Masahiko Kimura. Marco is now considered one of The West’s most accomplished bonsai artists.

Another famous face. This happy bonsai warrior is Suthin (pronounced su-tin) Sukosolvisit, shohin artist extraordinaire (really bonsai artist extraordinaire).

One more view. See you in 2012.

Mysteries solved
Thanks to our friend Ferry Freriks (you might remember Ferry as the winner of our $100 Unique Bonsai Contest), many of the mysteries in yesterday’s No Name Bonsai Gallery have met the light of day. In Ferrry’s own words:
“Thanks for posting a fine selection of some of the best trees in Europe! Anyhow, I’d like to add some more info: the first tree (an Itoigawa juniper) is from the skilled hands of Carlos van der Vaart: probably the best Dutch bonsai artist around. You can find more info about this tree and his other (near  Kokufu-quality!) trees here:  http://www.carlosvandervaart.com/studio.asp. As you can see the tree started out as pretty mundane semi-raw material. But with the help of some skillful carving and styling and a fine quality pot by Peter Krebs (http://www.peter-krebs.de/) it ended up as an excellent chuhin size tree.

The second tree is a well-known Japanese yew (taxus cuspidata). Formerly owned and styled by Marco Invernizzi and Steve Tolley, but now property of Mauro Stemberger, the chairman of the Italian Bonsai Union (UBI), who refined the tree with a distinctive Italian touch (http://www.italianbonsaidream.com/?attachment_id=142).

The third tree is a Korean hornbeam (caprinus turczaninowii) by either Marc Noelanders or Danny Use, the slanting juniper on the artificial (epoxy-made) pot is form Josef Valuch, a bonsai pot maker at Isabelia from the Czech Republic; the modest mugo is owned by David Hannah from the UK (here’s a pic with a more appropriate scroll: http://www.willowbog-bonsai.co.uk/images/Gallery/mughoTokonoma_lg.jpg)

Only the last tree, the shohin, is quite a mystery to me as well. I guess it was part of a bigger shohin composition from a British artist. Perhaps Duncan Hield, Susan Summers or Caroline Scott, but I’m not quite sure.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

Kind regards from the Netherlands,

Ferry”

Isao Omachi using the part of the Ichiban blade that is designed for cutting wire.

Isao Omachi’s comments
Here’s part of what Isao Omachi has to say about his Ichiban: “Compared to a normal pair of bonsai scissors, these are light and comfortable in the hand; you barely have to raise your elbow. You can multitask with ease, cutting swiftly through branches and wire… In addition to Ichiban’s unique design and efficiency, any level of bonsai student can have fun using a pair…”

Roy Nagatoshi, Walter Pall, Shinji Suzuki and Isao Omachi
So far Marco has sent us testimonials from Roy Nagatoshi, Walter Pall, Shinji Suzuki and Isao Omachi. I expect more as time goes on and more people become familiar with this remarkable new tool.

You can check out Marco’s site for more on the Ichiban…
… or you can order here

Isao Omachi using his Ichiban for fine trimming.

By agreement with Marco Invernizzi, no discounts apply to the Ichiban.

Before you make a decision on what might be one of your most important bonsai investments yet, you can do a little research by checking out Marco Invernizzi’s Ichiban site. In addition to being one of the most accomplished and influential Western bonsai artists, Marco is the designer of the Ichiban.

The Ichiban is sold by Stone Lantern for $350.00 plus shipping. By agreement with Marco, no Stone Lantern discounts apply to the Ichiban.

If you want one (no discounts though)
In agreement with Marco, Stone Lantern is acting as the Ichiban’s U.S. (and beyond) distributor. The one caveat is that this tool cannot be discounted. Your price is $350.00 plus shipping, no matter what discounts Stone Lantern is currently running.

A multiplicity of uses. This illustration and the text below (both provided by Marco), give you a pretty good idea of the Ichiban‘s versatility.

What Marco Invernizzi has to say about his soon to be famous new tool
The follow text by Marco provides  detailed (and enthusiastic) descriptions of the uses and advantages of the Ichiban.

“ICHIBAN is the new revolutionary bonsai multi-use tool created, designed and tested by Marco Invernizzi and produced by hand by Masakuni in Japan.

Why will the Ichiban soon become one of the most popular bonsai tools in the world?

1) Its innovative ergonomic design helps you to assume a healthier and more comfortable back, shoulder and elbow position enabling you to work longer and with less fatigue.
2) Its effective weight is slightly lower than that of a standard tool on the market but, in your hands, its design makes it seem 50% lighter than any other bonsai tool.
3) 7 tools are united in the ICHIBAN design. This will enable you to work faster and remain concentrated on your bonsai and at the same time have a much lighter toolbox. ICHIBAN is: shears for shoots, shears for small branches, shears for large branches and roots, wire cutter, chisel, hammer and pliers.
4) The two ICHIBAN blades are united by a special rivet of new design, 4 times stronger than a conventional one, enabling you to use its blades to create jin, shari, to bend branches and cut aluminium wire and branches even 4 mm (1/8″) thick.
5) The two ICHIBAN blades are also 20% longer than a normal tool, enabling you to have access only with its point where before you did not manage to arrive, thus helping you to keep your hands far from the most delicate parts of your bonsai. Even with more intensive use, the blades length will make it practically useless to sharpen them for many years.
6) ICHIBAN is forged by hand one by one with the best, most sought-after materials available by these artisan blacksmiths who have made Masakuni world leader in the production of bonsai tools for the last three generations. If maintained in suitable conditions ICHIBAN is guaranteed rustproof. When you purchase ICHIBAN you will receive free of charge a blade cleaner specifically created for ICHIBAN which will be very useful to remove resin residues from the blades.
7) The design of the ICHIBAN grip, together with its special rubber coating, will enable people with large hands, women, nervous people and anyone who cares about the health of his hands to use a bonsai tool without annoying finger pain and without creating hard skin. ICHIBAN is a tool that may be used with the right or left hand and its grip enables you to use it in the opposite direction, with the blades pointing upwards, thus arriving where no other shears have ever arrived before.
8) Bonsai tools of different makes, besides being mostly produced by the same factory, are identical, making it easy to lose or exchange them unintentionally with those of someone else. ICHIBAN has instead a specially created space on which to engrave, write or mark its unmistakeable sign. Therefore, from now on, if someone steals your ICHIBAN it will be because he can’t do without it!
9) When normal shears fall, the point often breaks, making them unusable. The same points of the ICHIBAN blades have been designed to make them unbreakable and, if ICHIBAN falls, there is an 80% possibility that, due to its weight, the chisel point touches the ground before the thin point. This point sharpened on one side has been designed to rapidly enable you to use the shears as knife or chisel to cut the bark or scratch undesired residues.
10) ICHIBAN will not tear the pockets of your trousers or the toolbox. Its innovative design will enable you to put it in your pockets even more easily and rapidly than a cowboy’s pistol (Marco likes cowboy stuff).
11) To insert the wire and hold the tool in your hand at the same time isn’t a problem, with ICHIBAN. You need only raise your forearm and open your hand and in a second ICHIBAN will turn 180°, leaving thumb, forefinger and middle finger free to apply the wire. Its position, limited weight and diagonal non-pointed blade will enable you to take, bend and apply the aluminium or copper wire with full freedom.
12) Its wonderful silk-lined wooden box is hand-made by the same craftsman who created the boxes of the artistic objects of the private collection of the Japanese emperor. ICHIBAN is the ideal gift for anyone who wants to improve the quality and pleasure of his work with bonsai.
13) Purchasing ICHIBAN you can enter the ICHIBAN CLUB, a site created to communicate all the ICHIBAN owners all over the world and receive useful news, updates and advice from Marco Invernizzi in person.
14) ICHIBAN isn’t a bonsai tool only for experts. In many years of career Marco Invernizzi has given over one thousand seminars in 5 continents working with bonsaists with the widest range of ability, style, techniques and characteristics. Thinking about all of them, we offer you the greatest, most useful revolution of the world of bonsai in the last 100 years: ICHIBAN. ALL IN ONE, ONE FOR ALL!”

Each Ichiban comes in its own handsome wooden gift box.

If you want your own Ichiban (no discounts though)
In agreement with Marco, Stone Lantern is acting as the Ichiban’s U.S. (and beyond) distributor. The one caveat is that this tool cannot be discounted. Your price is $350.00 plus shipping, no matter what discounts Stone Lantern is currently running.