Pushing the limits, Nana Juniper tanuki thread.

[Sixty’s]

Hi folks, opening this thread to share the new project with any folks that may be interested in scrolling down a few pics.

A short backstory, I can’t afford a nice juniper full of deadwood. THE END

In all seriousness I can’t, this leaves me with the second best option to acquire one. Cheat my way into having a believable old yamadori juniper. I’ve read a lot about tanuki and researched over several channels to gather as much information as possible.
Although I’m hoping to be able to take it an extra step and fake the live vein also.

This build story starts with a old rotted (possible juniper) root that was sitting in a friends garden.



This is how it looked after some initial carving and sandblasting.
Once I’ve started this build I’ve already had a tree in mind from a local nursery, they had a very old p. Nana sitting in a pot neglected for many years and after a lot of begging to remove it from the large unwanted pot and many $$$ lighter I’ve got my straight as a light pole juniper.



No pictures of the plant itself as I wanted to get in planted as soon as.

From here I’ve started looking for inspiration online and to become a believable tree a live vein visible from the front would make it all a little more believable.
This got me thinking and getting the rusty carving tools out.



The result is the above to the left of the deadwood, I’ve just wet the deadwood with some water in the meantime to see if I’m happy with the final effect, got 3 wood stains on order in order to make it more believable.
This is where I am now after 3 weeks of work on and off.

Next steps try out the stains and carve more into the top right of the current deadwood.

 

[rockm]

Nice start but it’s hard to tell how you attached the tree to the deadwood. For instance, did you carve a channel into the deadwood to “accept” the trunk. Some people strip the bark off one side of the living trunk to inset into the channel so the cambium eventually grow over the deadwood

 

[bwaynef]

Accepting that I may've been fooled by tanuki in the past and not known it, tanuki doesn't generally interest me ...to the point that I wouldn't ordinarily check threads like this. I'm not sure what convinced me today, but I'll say that these results far exceeded (my very low) expectations. The composition looks very good. I'm now intrigued as to how it is affixed to the deadwood. (But part of me doesn't want to know.)

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Looks great! My interpretation is that the live vein is a fabrication too? It doesn’t look it in the photo.

 

[Brain Treez]

That is one helluva piece of deadwood!

 

[Sixty’s]

Nice start but it’s hard to tell how you attached the tree to the deadwood. For instance, did you carve a channel into the deadwood to “accept” the trunk. Some people strip the bark off one side of the living trunk to inset into the channel so the cambium eventually grow over the deadwood

I’ve done the usual channel method with stainless steel screws. But hopefully the back will never be seen

This is the part of the tree that will be the new visible vein if it works. It’s all depending on how well the stain will work.

 

[Sixty’s]

Accepting that I may've been fooled by tanuki in the past and not known it, tanuki doesn't generally interest me ...to the point that I wouldn't ordinarily check threads like this. I'm not sure what convinced me today, but I'll say that these results far exceeded (my very low) expectations. The composition looks very good. I'm now intrigued as to how it is affixed to the deadwood. (But part of me doesn't want to know.)

Thank you for the kind words, I’m hopping I won’t have to show the back of the tree as it may disappoint you further.

 

[Sixty’s]

Looks great! My interpretation is that the live vein is a fabrication too? It doesn’t look it in the photo.

Thank you that means a lot, one of my biggest worries and one of the reasons to start the thread was to see how believable the vein would be although not fully finished just yet.

This is a more up close shot of it took me almost a full day of carving to get to this point.

 

[Sixty’s]

That is one helluva piece of deadwood!

Still needs a lot of carving should be much smaller once finished

 

[Sixty’s]

Fake it till you make

 

[pandacular]

There are some excellent deadwood carvers in the UK. I'm sure someone like Will Baddely would love to help take this to the next level.

 

[WNC Bonsai]

I have a very similar chunk of dead garden junipers that I plan to treat the same way. I am just waining for my shimpaku whips to get tall enough to plant with it. Interesting idea to stain the edge creating the impression of a live vein. I plan to carve a channel along the outer edge of the deadwood for the shimpaku trunk creating a true live vein there.

 

[Sixty’s]

There are some excellent deadwood carvers in the UK. I'm sure someone like Will Baddely would love to help take this to the next level.

It’s only a learning project, i would highly doubt that any big names in the uk would like to have their name mentioned in a tree that has so many cheats

 

[Sixty’s]

I have a very similar chunk of dead garden junipers that I plan to treat the same way. I am just waining for my shimpaku whips to get tall enough to plant with it. Interesting idea to stain the edge creating the impression of a live vein. I plan to carve a channel along the outer edge of the deadwood for the shimpaku trunk creating a true live vein there.

Looking forward to see how your project develops, I’ve made one before with a real live vein as you mentioned but it was sold fairly quickly, on this one was just to see if I could make a fake live vein that could become somehow believable to the eye of the spectator.
Just a way to have some fun with the hobby, once finished it will be living in a friends garden.

 

[Sixty’s]

I’ve come to the conclusion that I will keep it as it is for now, done some Yakisugi to age the wood a little, from here I’m going to wire brush and lime sulphur then let it be for a while.

 

[The Barber]

Definitely an interesting way to create the illusion of an old yamadori on a budget. Never seen someone make a fake live vein, and you did a great job on making it believable. I probably would have gone ahead and made a channel and tacked the live tree into the channel, but that is me personally. Do what makes you happy though, looks like it has been a gun project.

 

[Ruddigger]

The undulations in the trunk of the procumbens really sells it. Usually tanuki trunks are straight and obvious.

 

[Sixty’s]

Definitely an interesting way to create the illusion of an old yamadori on a budget. Never seen someone make a fake live vein, and you did a great job on making it believable. I probably would have gone ahead and made a channel and tacked the live tree into the channel, but that is me personally. Do what makes you happy though, looks like it has been a gun project.

It’s not been a bad project, I’ve spent around 600$ so far to create something that looks ok so far. The pot and the plant have been the biggest cost in this project.
Personally I’m happy with how the vein turned out.
If the vein was real I could afford this tree and to be honest this size trees don’t exist in the UK. (Deadwood is 6ft)

The contrast should look better once the lime sulphur goes on the tree.

 

[Sixty’s]

The undulations in the trunk of the procumbens really sells it. Usually tanuki trunks are straight and obvious.

Thank you

 

[Sixty’s]

The stain looks better today, in the red square I’ve pointed out where the fake meets the real vein