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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The continuation of the branch that was just bent, now in this photo, is being bent back towards the front and up.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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