Bonsai-A-Thon XXII, San Marino, CA February 24-25, 2018

Bonsai Nut

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One of my favorite local shows that I always try to attend. Great vendors and a good time! Don't miss the behind-the-scenes tour of the bonsai work areas and collections! At the Huntington Library / Gardens in San Marino. Details here:

Bonsai-A-Thon XXII
 
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justBonsai

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I will be there. Saturday morning I will also be helping teach at the beginners morning workshop. Please say hi if you see me. I like putting a face to the name and have been trying to meet more new people each year in the bonsai community.
 
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zelk

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I’ll be there on Saturday. Will there be a Bnut meet up of any sort like previous years?
 

justBonsai

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I'll be looking to buy some potential carving projects for the Will Baddeley workshop in May. Gonna get there super early and go through all the vendors before the beginner's workshop.
 

justBonsai

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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.

DSC01508.JPG

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.

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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.

DSC01513.JPG
 

CasAH

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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

Nice job Julian, she looks happy with the tree.
 

justBonsai

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Nice job Julian, she looks happy with the tree.
Yeah it turned out pretty well! It wasn't the most challenging material to style. I think these trees were grown with the intent to be used as bonsai meaning I had a lot of usable branches. After the initial cleaning step it was easy to envision a path. She did the cleaning, wiring, and pruning with me after I told her the criteria of what we want to take off. Placing branches was the hardest part to explain and have her do so I ended up doing most of them since we were short on time.
 

Bonsai Nut

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We were talking the other day about whether bonsai is an expensive hobby. Nothing expensive about this show! Admission to the gardens is free for club members. Workshops are $25 - and includes a tree! Tour is free, demos are free, vending area is free. And the pancake breakfast costs $3!

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Always on the prowl... I spotted this interesting Chinese elm growing in a crack at the garage door by the pancake breakfast grill. One wonders how it got there?

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Bonsai workshop! Every table staffed by at least one volunteer - great hands-on personal attention!

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Kids workshop - where the younger children could do a workshop with their parents. Great way to get people involved in the art at any early age!

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Garden tour. Always learn something new about how the gardens are changing and growing.

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From behind the Chinese garden. They are in the process of expanding this area by about 60% - adding a penjing area as well as a new observation pavilion. Things look a little sparce because it is still winter.

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A calm image from one of the waterfalls in the Japanese garden.

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Another view of the Japanese garden.

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One of our own - @maria kapra (aka Peter Macasieb) demoing a shohin JBP.

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Five demos going on at the same time... for those with limited attention spans! Saturday's artists were: Mel Ikeda, Cesareao Perez, Tom Vuong, Peter Macasieb, and David Miles/Gonzalo Rodriguez.

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@Si Nguyen and I were only able to stay about half of the day, so we missed out on the raffle. Got to see lots of bonsainuts and old bonsai friends - and picked up a nice root over rock trident from Ed and Linda Clark. @ColinFraser was busier than even last year - with some sweet (and I thought very reasonably priced) shohin JBP and olives in show-ready condition.

Every year this event seems to get a little larger and a little nicer. Just a great time! If you live in the area try to make it up there today!
 
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