Building a Tree

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Thought some might be interested in the process of Building a tree...

This is a Juniper, nothing fancy. I did pick it up from a Bonsai Nursery... However, one can purely see that it has little in the way of resembling actual Bonsai Stock... It has not been cut to a line to help promote back budding, no cutting of large branching, and for all intensive purposes resembles more what any one would find at just a local non-Bonsai nursery.

Only thing done with it in the first picture is that I removed the bark on one branch that was pretty much dead, so one would be able to see what I was working with.

juniper92.jpg

The first problem right off the bat, is that the first branch is coming straight at us from a kinda weird point in the trunk, and is crossing over the continuation of the main trunk... This branch could be removed obviously, but this would pretty much then leave the design being built off of one branch, the continuation of the trunk. It has a lot of really nice foliage and finer branching that could be used... so the better alternative, would be then to try and figure out how to make it work.
juniper93.jpg
In this photo you will see, that by just adjusting the angle of what will be the planting of the tree... the first branch now works and the material already begins to have a cohesive design. Main problem now is that because the angle of the material, has now been tilted forward, and in essence we are looking at the top of the tree... what will be the back of the new design, there is no branching or foliage, seeing that this was the underside of the tree. So, this will have to be worked out.
juniper94.jpg
I apologize, I seem to be missing a photo, of the interior branching of the tree, before work had begun... Any how... One will see in this photo that Raffia was applied to both the lower branch and the branch making the continuation of the trunk. What I like to often do, when building a tree, is that if there is a natural bend to an area where I would like to see a change, Rather than Fight this natural bend, it is always better, to Work With the natural bend and just accentuate it... Which is what has been done in this photo. the lower branch had a slight curve to the left, it has now been made more drastic, as well the branch that makes up the continuation of the trunk had a bend to the right, that was rather loose, it has now been accentuated and brought in tight. Raffia was also applied to the next area that needed bending, the fork into two branches above.
juniper95.jpg
In this photo, one will now see that wire has been applied to the front branch of where the continuation of the trunk, splits... this branch naturally has a bend forward, towards the viewer, so... one will want to bend in this direction.
juniper96.jpg
In this photo one will see that the branch has been bent forward and to the left. Want to point out something, and that is the use of Guy Wires... when doing heavier bends such as these, often, raffia and guy wires is all that one needs, however, sometimes one will want to add further bends after this area, or even want to pull with the guy wires and put a twist in the branch as well, to add better movement, and to position the branch where needed. Now, this can be done with wire alone, and without the use of the Guy Wire at all, however... when one bends a branch with only wire, often what one needs to do is actually push or pull past where they need the branch to end up being... so that when they loosen their hold of the branch, it will stay where they want it to end up being.

The problem here, is that if one is already doing quite a severe bend, and one has to push it past where they want it to put the bend in the wire, more damage is thus being done to the branch... If one uses a Guy Wire... one can position in the exact spot and tighten, or tighten little by little, examining as one goes, so as to not bend past where is needed.
juniper97.jpg
The continuation of the branch that was just bent, now in this photo, is being bent back towards the front and up.
 
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In this photo one will now see that the continuation of this branch is now bent to the right, and slightly down...
This branch, will end up being the apex of the tree.
juniper98.jpg

A closeup of the area...
juniper99.jpg

Now I want to deal with the smaller branch coming off of the middle of the trunk between the areas being bent. So, in the following photo one will see that this branch has now been bent forward, and down, and to the left. At the end of this branch, which is not apparent, in the photo, is that once it clears the bend in the trunk below, the branch has then been bent back towards the rear of the tree, to start establishing the branching of the back.
juniper100.jpg
In the following photo, I have backed away from the tree, and one can now begin to see that the tree starting to take shape. I now need to deal with the second smaller branch that was wired earlier and is shooting straight up to the right of where the apex will be. This branch, I will use as another branch to fill the back with... so it will be bent down towards the rear of the tree, and positioned in place.
juniper101.jpg
In the following photo, one will see that the branch has been bent down, it is now hidden behind, forming back branching... Also one will see that I have remove another large branch at the right of the trunk where the bend was made on the branch that forms the apex. This branch was the other branch in that formed the section of the split earlier discussed... For the moment, there is a smaller, finer branch with foliage that has been left, in case it is needed, seeing that the foliage is in tight. Lastly, one will also note, That this takes care of all the main branching, so the structure is now in place. It is all about finer wiring now, and one can also see in the following photo, that I have begun to do this.
juniper102.jpg
More fine wiring being done and positioning of finer branching as well as the establishment of Pads. Because quite a bit of bending has been done on this tree, I will not be doing too much cleaning up of the individual pads. When doing so, one removes a lot of foliage, and thus puts even further stress on the tree. So, best to keep the tree, with it's first initial styling with more foliage and also more branching than one might end up using in the eventual design to keep it happy, and healthy.
juniper103.jpg
Almost there!!!
 
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And the Final image for the First Styling... As the tree grows and recovers, the pads will be further narrowed in, and refined, as well as there will be further reductions of branching to better dictate the negative space within the tree... Baby Steps!!! If one reduces to much at one time, one only slows down the tree's recovery, and it's progress! One will also note, that a thin shari has been established, running down to the base of the trunk, from the jin. This will be increased in size and length as the tree grows.
Thanks!
juniper91a.jpg
 
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Thanks for the replies and likes!

Now, with any Art, after the Art is created one needs to contemplate how can then the Art be improved upon , or changed?

Any thoughts???
 

Robertji

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No thoughts about how it could be improved upon, just wanted to thank you for your many recent posts helping us understand the technical aspects of your Art. You are crazy talented when it comes to seeing the tree in the bush and building the vision step by step, it is inspiring.

Jim
 

Robertji

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You know looking at pictures of amazing rocky mountain yamadori and critiquing how they should be properly displayed and what lighting to use is fun but will likely always be beyond the realm of my experience. I am ok with this, I don't aspire to being a professional, I just want to learn and enjoy the hobby within my limits and abilities. One of the things that I really enjoy about your work is that you take material that is readily available to us regular hobbyists and turn it into Art. Your posts help me stay connected with what I can reasonably do and help me to stretch to get beyond my limits.

Thanks again, Jim.
 
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You know looking at pictures of amazing rocky mountain yamadori and critiquing how they should be properly displayed and what lighting to use is fun but will likely always be beyond the realm of my experience. I am ok with this, I don't aspire to being a professional, I just want to learn and enjoy the hobby within my limits and abilities. One of the things that I really enjoy about your work is that you take material that is readily available to us regular hobbyists and turn it into Art. Your posts help me stay connected with what I can reasonably do and help me to stretch to get beyond my limits.

Thanks again, Jim.
Thanks very much for the kind words!
It means a lot! Will keep on truckin' and posting when I am able!
 

Eric Group

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Thanks for the replies and likes!

Now, with any Art, after the Art is created one needs to contemplate how can then the Art be improved upon , or changed?

Any thoughts???
Tighter foliage- grafts?

Looks good overall... Just needs some refinement.
 
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Thanks for the
Tighter foliage- grafts?

Looks good overall... Just needs some refinement.
Thanks for the reply!
One could most certainly graft foliage onto the tree. As is sits, the tree is actually only 14 inches tall x 14 inches wide. So, it would most certainly benefit from tighter foliage.

If one is was to want to graft foliage, which could be done, then really a styling at this point would be secondary, seeing that their would not be a chance of anything on this tree being used other than the trunk more than likely. The branches are really to small to graft onto, and if one was to, they would continue to still shoot out the original foliage long after...

So at least for me, the question would be, is the trunk worth the time and effort to do this with, and long term would the reward be worth grafting? This would be a discussion one would have to make...

This type of material, will actually reduce and back bud really easily. Once the tree has healed from the stress that has been placed on it, and one can get it into an actual bonsai pot with well draining soil, it will aid in the process of this reduction. As well as then one will be able to begin to remove and define padding and open up the tree further.

Really, it is just a judgment call on where one would like to take the tree...
 

GrimLore

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Really, it is just a judgment call on where one would like to take the tree...

I am of a more "purist" and would work existing foliage only using grafting as a last resort. I shudder a bit when people call several different plants Shimpaku as I understand how special a "true Shimpaku is...

Curious as to what that was sold as and share collected information on the one's that people/growers misidentify - Theses are notes mostly taken from Brain;

Juniperus chinensis 'Shimpaku'- Originally native to Japan, they were first collected in the 1850s in Japan.And now damn near extinct in the wild.The Shimpaku was discovered on the Ishizuchi mountain range on the Northern part of Shikoku island, which is south of the mainland.

Itoigawa was named for the city where they were discovered; at modern-day Niigata, which is on the west coast, nearly due West of Fukushima.

Kishu was also named for the city nearest their discovery.Kishu is at the Southwest corner of the mainland.

Sargent juniper is native to the Kurile Islands, Northern Japan and northeastern China.

Procumbens is native to southern Japan. Its exact origin is still under dispute. It is believed to be wild to either the mountain areas of the Japanese island of Kyushu, or the coastal regions of southern Japan and Korea.

As one can see they are different :rolleyes:

Grimmy
 
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