The rebuild seems to be going well, Brian. Wasn't it necessary to really grow out some areas to thicken them up?
Yes, it’s been a slow go. The challenge is the compromise between keeping the good areas refined and healthy; while growing out the replacement branches without letting them take over. A lot of that big grow-out work happened in 2015-2016. They were left to run 15-18” each year before being trimmed back.
Branches traced in red were pruned away in 12/14, and replaced them with the branches you see in green; one of which is a thread graft that is still not ready to separate. The left image was taken 3/14, 6 months before it was shown at the US National Bonsai Exhibition. The right image was 4 years later.
Looking back, it was not a bad move to prune it, but should have done it a little earlier in the tree’s development. It probably has another 3 years before it will be ready to exhibit again on a national level, making this an 8-year makeover.