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

Pushing Bonsai Boundaries Even Further

Has Nick gone too far and ventured beyond what you’d call bonsai with this early spring larch that promises summer shade for a cheap garden ornament? From Bonsai from the Wild by Nick Lenz. Nick Lenz’ fertile imagination Nick Lenz has been pushing bonsai boundaries for a long time. The planting above is just one example of his fertile imagination. However, a friend of mine says that what Nick is up to is just vain eccentricity and has no real meaning as far as bonsai goes. As for me, well, root-over-tank (below) always makes me smile, and maybe that’s good … Continue reading Pushing Bonsai Boundaries Even Further

Pushing the Bonsai Boundaries

Can you imagine the time needed to develop and maintain the numerous foliage clouds? Does this level of refinement exist outside of Japan? Needle juniper (J. rigida) by Shinji Suzuki. From our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Picking up where we left off Our last post provoked more discussion than any post so far. Roughly drawn, the topic is naturalistic bonsai versus highly stylized and highly refined bonsai. I thought it might be good to continue with examples that exist at the extremes, at least in my view. This Big cone Douglas fir by Dan Robinson jumped out at me because … Continue reading Pushing the Bonsai Boundaries

A Most Unusual Bonsai Artist

Azalea and pot by Nick Lenz. Photo borrowed from The Art of Bonsai Project. A unique American bonsai artist Nick Lenz is an unusual person. On the spectrum from conservative to daring and even outrageous, his bonsai land somewhere beyond the latter. What he says about bonsai (and other things) reveals a unique mind; fascinating, humorous and often quite insightful. Beyond that, you be the judge. Collected larch (Larix laricina). Tree by Mother Nature and Nick Lenz. Pot by Nick. Larch with decent taper are extremely unusual. Chances are, Nick applied a few tricks to help this one along. Photo … Continue reading A Most Unusual Bonsai Artist

World’s Smallest Bonsai?

Micro tree. Is this a Japanese maple? It’s from a facebook posting by Bonsai Guest House. Novelty? Usually, when something is billed as the world’s smallest (see below) or largest, or..?, it moves into that surreal novelty realm. Would you say these tiny bonsai qualify? I’m not so sure. There’s an art to doing this and to keeping the tiny trees healthy. Still….. A place to stay The photos in this post are from Bonsai Guest House in Osaka. I know almost nothing about the place, but you might want to check it out on your next Japan junket. $1,000 … Continue reading World’s Smallest Bonsai?

Bonsai Rafting

Crataegus raft by John Pit. Wow. What a unique and compelling bonsai. A true sinuous raft style planting. You don’t see too many of these and I’ve never seen one quite like this. Great pot too. John Pitt is a well known English potter, so I imagine he made the pot as well as the planting. This drawing is from an article on raft style bonsai on Bonsai Culture Group Malta. I just discovered this site, and haven’t had time to explore it, but on the surface, it looks quite good with a wealth of bonsai information. Stone Lantern’s new … Continue reading Bonsai Rafting

Nature, Picasso & the Hand of Man

Here’s an exquisite, powerful old tree that features some wild twists and turns. I found it here. My guess is it’s a Shimpaku juniper that was originally collected in the mountains of Japan. A further guess is that it fell into the hands of one of the Japanese masters. One more guess; it was professionally photographed and appears in a Japanese bonsai book or Bonsai magazine Okay, I stand corrected (see comments) That Old Question: Naturalistic vs Highly Styled Bonsai Though nature originally grew, shaped and aged this wonderful old tree, there is no pretending that humans didn’t have a … Continue reading Nature, Picasso & the Hand of Man

$1,000 Bonsai from Scratch Contest: For Example…

Before; Buxus microphylla compacta. Actually, I’m not sure this is a perfect example of a before tree. It looks like it has been trimmed a bit already. Anyway, if you look at this and then you look at the ‘After tree’ below, you can still get the drift. This is not an entry In fact, it’s by one of the judges, Bill Valavanis. It is however, an example of what you can do with nursery stock. You can win There’ll be lots of prizes; $1,000 worth of gift certificates, plus some other donated stuff (you can donate something bonsai if … Continue reading $1,000 Bonsai from Scratch Contest: For Example…

Shape Shifting: Robert Steven Transforms a Juniper

Robert Steven’s simulation of a juniper that was submitted by Peter Woosley. Peter’s original is below. A surprising shift Robert fooled me (once again). At a glance I thought the tree had potential more or less as it was. All it needed was perhaps a little lean to the right, some work on the crown and that heavy upper section of trunk (where the first branches come off), and especially on the somewhat stiff feeling branch on the lower left that caused the whole tree to seem unbalanced. However, Robert saw things differently and ended up with a much more … Continue reading Shape Shifting: Robert Steven Transforms a Juniper

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