Bjorn on Bonsai Design

[Adair M]

A week or so ago, we had a lively discussion on whether apexes of trees should extend towards the viewer. And there were a. Purple other aspects of bonsai design brought up as well.

I came across this video published by Bonsai Empire that is a preview of one of Bjorn’s video tutorials. I thought it was excellent.

It’s primarily on the design aspects of conifers, but much of what he talks about is universal.

It’s well worth watching.

 

[Adair M]

A week or so ago, we had a lively discussion on whether apexes of trees should extend towards the viewer. And there were a. Purple other aspects of bonsai design brought up as well.

I came across this video published by Bonsai Empire that is a preview of one of Bjorn’s video tutorials. I thought it was excellent.

It’s primarily on the design aspects of conifers, but much of what he talks about is universal.

It’s well worth watching.

Hey, @bleumeon! You keeping Kaya busy?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

This is a excerpt from Bjorn’s Advanced Online Course which is available at Bonsai Empire here:
https://www.bonsaiempire.com/courses
They are all excellent courses.

 

[markyscott]

This is a excerpt from Bjorn’s Advanced Online Course which is available at Bonsai Empire here:
https://www.bonsaiempire.com/courses
They are all excellent courses.

Agreed. I especially enjoyed Michael Hagedorn’s Fundamentals course and Bjorn’s Advanced course.

S

 

[choppychoppy]

I'm here at Eisei-en for deep study again this weekend. Getting it from the horse's mouth

 

[Adair M]

I'm here at Eisei-en for deep study again this weekend. Getting it from the horse's mouth

That’s the best way!

 

[Deleted member 21616]

@Brian Van Fleet @markyscott can you recall if there is much content on maples? i recently unsubscribed from mirai because of that lack, and i’ve been hungrily looking for more online learning material! i somehow never came across the bjorn or michael courses until now!

 

[justBonsai]

Hey, @bleumeon! You keeping Kaya busy?

Of course, abusing my senpai privileges

Don't have much time to post nowadays but I still lurk and pop in time from time lol. Apprenticing has definitely been a challenging experience in several aspects, but it's great to be able to learn from very skilled senpai's and work on trees everyday.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I'm here at Eisei-en for deep study again this weekend. Getting it from the horse's mouth

Enjoy. Our session 2 was canceled because he was stuck in Japan. Our make-up is next weekend...also our spring break, so I’ll be missing it.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

@Brian Van Fleet @markyscott can you recall if there is much content on maples? i recently unsubscribed from mirai because of that lack, and i’ve been hungrily looking for more online learning material! i somehow never came across the bjorn or michael courses until now!

I’ll check later. I have the beginner and advanced courses, but I bought them more as “supporting the cause” since I get to work with him on a somewhat regular basis.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

I’ll check later. I have the beginner and advanced courses, but I bought them more as “supporting the cause” since I get to work with him on a somewhat regular basis.

lucky!

I looked at the table of contents for the diferent courses. The word maple is infrequent, but maybe I’ll also support the cause, and just sift through it all

it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to listen through the conifer stuff too for general knowledge’a sake

thanks Brian!

 

[markyscott]

@Brian Van Fleet @markyscott can you recall if there is much content on maples? i recently unsubscribed from mirai because of that lack, and i’ve been hungrily looking for more online learning material! i somehow never came across the bjorn or michael courses until now!

Bjorn’s course is roughly broken into a generous piece on design (an excerpt of which Adair posted previously) and several pieces an various tree categories. The design piece has some insightful thoughts about the connection between bonsai form and the cultural and environmental influences on aesthetic. The tree categories are roughly split into equal parts on junipers, pines, opposite leaf pattern trees (maples), and alternate leaf pattern trees. Bjorn tends to focus on refinement of highly developed trees and most of the footage is taken in Japan. There are certainly techniques like grafting and nebari development that are discussed, but it doesn’t quite close the huge gap in US knowledge about development of stock trees most of us have. The “how do you get there from here” piece would be a great add to that (or any) curriculum.

S

 

[choppychoppy]

Enjoy. Our session 2 was canceled because he was stuck in Japan. Our make-up is next weekend...also our spring break, so I’ll be missing it.

Yeah ed is just gonna maybe stay all week he's here for broadleaf this week

 

[choppychoppy]

Bjorn’s course is roughly broken into a generous piece on design (an excerpt of which Adair posted previously) and several pieces an various tree categories. The design piece has some insightful thoughts about the connection between bonsai form and the cultural and environmental influences on aesthetic. The tree categories are roughly split into equal parts on junipers, pines, opposite leaf pattern trees (maples), and alternate leaf pattern trees. Bjorn tends to focus on refinement of highly developed trees and most of the footage is taken in Japan. There are certainly techniques like grafting and nebari development that are discussed, but it doesn’t quite close the huge gap in US knowledge about development of stock trees most of us have. The “how do you get there from here” piece would be a great add to that (or any) curriculum.

S

We get that and then some

 

[markyscott]

We get that and then some

I have no doubt. Bjorn is a skilled artist and a practiced teacher. I’ve worked with him a number of times and have always enjoyed it and felt as though I’ve learned a lot. It’s more of a general complaint, really. The literature available to people generally teaches techniques out of line with the overall level of development of trees in the US. There are loads of introductory texts and videos and tons of articles about refinement techniques such as how to pinch Japanese maples or decandle black pines. There’s just very little in the way of teaching resources (save going to someone like Bjorn or Boon) focused on the vast middle ground of development techniques more appropriate for the trees most individuals own. Most of the black pines I see posted here are not nearly ready for decandling and most deciduous trees need a lot of work before they’re ready to be pinched. Something targeting that niche would be a very nice add to an online curriculum shuck as that offered by bonsai empire.

 

[Adair M]

I have no doubt. Bjorn is a skilled artist and a practiced teacher. I’ve worked with him a number of times and have always enjoyed it and felt as though I’ve learned a lot. It’s more of a general complaint, really. The literature available to people generally teaches techniques out of line with the overall level of development of trees in the US. There are loads of introductory texts and videos and tons of articles about refinement techniques such as how to pinch Japanese maples or decandle black pines. There’s just very little in the way of teaching resources (save going to someone like Bjorn or Boon) focused on the vast middle ground of development techniques more appropriate for the trees most individuals own. Most of the black pines I see posted here are not nearly ready for decandling and most deciduous trees need a lot of work before they’re ready to be pinched. Something targeting that niche would be a very nice add to an online curriculum shuck as that offered by bonsai empire.

The difficulty with that is it takes several seasons of repeated application of appropriate technique to complete that transition from “advanced bonsai stock” to “bonsai”. So a video that would show that complete transition would have to time span several years using the same tree as a model.

The best I’ve seen are the progression photo articles they put in Kinbon, the Japanese language magazine. Where they show the development of trees over several years. Even without being able to read the text, the photos are great.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

The best I’ve seen are the progression photo articles they put in Kinbon, the Japanese language magazine. Where they show the development of trees over several years. Even without being able to read the text, the photos are great.

Agreed. I miss the translated versions of these articles Bonsai Today used to publish. International Bonsai does a good job with including some of these, but it seems Bonsai Focus phased them out until I gave up on it a few years ago.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

thanks for your responses @markyscott

what you mention is precisely what i have been looking for, and it best describes how a lot people frame their question.

i emailed mirai a while ago, and sent them the two attached photos (1st tree mine, 2nd posted by bill valavanis). I asked “how do i get from pic 1 to pic 2?” in terms of everything (trunk thickness, nebari, trunk taper, etc)

i don’t think such course material would need everything to be shown on the same tree, especially since there are sometimes multiple ways of going about things. But the discussion should take place with 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, year old trees, or something like that, on the table all at once so that all the stages of a given process can be demonstrated. Such a video would be worth gold!

I guess we’d need a bonsai pro who continuously starts new cutting every year for the past 30 years, so that their current colection would have trees in all these stages?

i’m gonna sign up for the bjorn videos anyways, looking forward to them

 

[Adair M]

thanks for your responses @markyscott

what you mention is precisely what i have been looking for, and it best describes how a lot people frame their question.

i emailed mirai a while ago, and sent them the two attached photos (1st tree mine, 2nd posted by bill valavanis). I asked “how do i get from pic 1 to pic 2?” in terms of everything (trunk thickness, nebari, trunk taper, etc)

i don’t think such course material would need everything to be shown on the same tree, especially since there are sometimes multiple ways of going about things. But the discussion should take place with 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, year old trees, or something like that, on the table all at once so that all the stages of a given process can be demonstrated. Such a video would be worth gold!

I guess we’d need a bonsai pro who continuously starts new cutting every year for the past 30 years, so that their current colection would have trees in all these stages?

i’m gonna sign up for the bjorn videos anyways, looking forward to them

Bill Valanis has published a book showing the development of his trees over a 50 year timespan. I have a copy.

It’s called “Classical Bonsai Art: A Half Century of Bonsai Study” (or something like that). You may be able to find it on Amazon.

 

[Deleted member 21616]

@Adair M haha ya i’ve heard — wanna sell it? It sells for something $500-600 USD on amazon, ebay etc. i (and a lot of people i’m sure) are waiting for Bill to release a second edition or release a second printing of the current edition