Every time I open Bonsai Today issue 106 and lay my eyes on this wickedly powerful, dynamic old English yew, my mind does a little double take. It may not look exactly like anything you'll see in nature, but it certainly jumps off the page. It's by Kevin Willson, bonsai artist and deadwood carver extraordinaire. Photo by Simon Carr.
We’ve been flirting with deadwood a lot lately, so let’s keep going. This time we’ll dip back into our archives and resurrect a post that originally appeared in 2011.
A labor of love
Yew wood is very hard. Harder than almost any other type of wood you might carve for bonsai. In this light, take a look at the photo below and then at the photo above. Now imagine all that carving with only hand tools…. Okay, I’m kidding. Kevin used power tools. But still, it’s a labor of love (and considerable skill).
There’s much more
The sequence of steps that take us from what you see below to what you see above is covered in great detail in Bonsai Today issue 106. 13 pages of photos (38 in all) and informative text.
Before.
Getting started.How about yew?
Okay. I know this pun is a little lame…. but if you are interested in deadwood carving (and why not?) we suggest you start with hand tools. Once you get the hang of it (there’s more than meets the eye) you can graduate to power tools.
Hand tools work fine for smaller jobs and to supplement power carving. This set of 5 Bonsai Aesthetics carving tools are on special for only 59.00