Here is the tree I did with a student at the beginners workshop. Forgot before picture and ran out of time to do the fine detail wiring, but lots of fun had. Just imagine a bushy version of the same tree. The workshop material provided was very nice with lots of movement, some nebari, and many usable branches.
Cleaning, branch selection, and jinning of oversized top and lower branch. We cleaned all of the foliage before removing all downwards and weak/dead growth. Tree was tilted forward about 50 degrees or so. We cleaned the tree together and I showed her how to wire and the criteria for branch selection. After cleaning it was clear the direction we should take and methodically went through each section of the tree.
View attachment 179189
The little plastic trainers the workshop provided were immensely shallow and small. Especially given that we changed the angle of the tree, a lot of roots were exposed upwards. I told her it'd be advisable to keep the tree in the trainer for now, but if she was really interested we could buy a bonsai pot on the spot at the show.
Found a round within her budget that was deep enough and as close to what we were looking for. In the future the tree can always be upgraded into a better and more appropriately sized pot.
Apex was built out of an upper back branch that was bent forwards and to the right. I really wanted to detail wire to make all the lines very clean and have the tree "pop" but it was a short workshop and we ran out of time. At least all the bones were set.
View attachment 179191
Happy student. Glad I decided to volunteer. It was fun talking to everyone and I was able to apply my skills learned through the trial and error of many projects.
View attachment 179190