First styling ever, Scots pine

[Sthlmbonsai]

Thanks.
Regarding the retreat. Thanks for sharing. I do love Älvdalen and Thor makes amazing pots, maybe next year. Not a big fan of the Swedish bonsai society and I don’t have Facebook so I’m out of the loop anyways.

 

[River's Edge]

Very interesting and important info on the Yamadori wiring here. I’ll keep an eye on the wires to not remove em too early OR to soon.

I’ve heard these things about “guy wire” before but have had a problem to finding guy wire in Sweden. Probably looked in the wrong places, what is this wire used for.. other than bonsai? The material I've looked at is too thick.

For Bonsai the term guy wire is used to describe a wire that holds position after bending. Copper wire works well, stainless steel wire is very good as well. For this purpose it is the tensile strength that is important. There are a variety of techniques to anchor and buffer the wire from damaging the tree trunk or branch. In most cases a fairly thin but strong wire is used. The term is also used when pulling down a branch without actually wiring the whole branch. A good technique or some conifers that do not respond well to full wiring or branches that have character and age with special bark characteristics.

 

[Vance Wood]

Very nice job for first attempt. You have done a great job of compacting the design and inducing movement, however some of the big bends are looking a little artificial, like 'C' and 'S' shapes. All is not lost however as when you tweak the design in the future you can address these to try and make more natural. One thing to keep in mind is that you can also compact the design by trimming back to buds that are further down and closer to the trunk. And you don't need to cut back to them now, but sometimes a future leader can be identified and wired into place leaving the rest of the branch as a sacrifice to be trimmed off later.

If that was the case. Scotts Pines are better at producing that kind of back budding but once you go down the styling rabbit hole it is very difficult to look for those kinds of events.

 

[Sthlmbonsai]

Ok, so I did a second styling of this tree. Feels much better to me. What do you think? Lower section looks unclear in this image though, I'll try to find a better background.

 

[MrFancyPlants]

Looks great. I would give it some time to recover and display new signs of growth before working again. Start thinking about what kind of pot to put it in and how the roots will be approached, but then wait a year or two before implementing. Patience is the name of the game.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

Looks great. I would give it some time to recover and display new signs of growth before working again. Start thinking about what kind of pot to put it in and how the roots will be approached, but then wait a year or two before implementing. Patience is the name of the game.

Agree with you.. no more styling ..... just let it rest and let it grow....let it grow......
Slow and steady wins the bonsai race

 

[Sthlmbonsai]

Agree with both of you. I will let it sit now for a long time and figure out what kind of pot it should go in.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

Agree with both of you. I will let it sit now for a long time and figure out what kind of pot it should go in.

Wooden training crate? Two years in that would be good..... so you have 2 years to choose its first pot lol

 

[Sthlmbonsai]

Wooden training crate? Two years in that would be good..... so you have 2 years to choose its first pot lol

Ha ha, yeah. It’s already been in there for quite a while but surely another year of looking for the right pot.

 

[Vance Wood]

Let's see a photo against a decent background if that's possible?

 

[Sthlmbonsai]

Let's see a photo against a decent background if that's possible?

Yes, working on it!

 

[Adair M]

Ha ha, yeah. It’s already been in there for quite a while but surely another year of looking for the right pot.

Don’t try to get the “right” pot for the first bonsai pot. It will take several repottings to reduce/regrow a good root system.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Other than leaving space between trunks as collected not a bad effort.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

Don’t try to get the “right” pot for the first bonsai pot. It will take several repottings to reduce/regrow a good root system.

Exacly! What Adair said! You have a kid who's learning to crawl and you're already buying him a jumbo jet. Work on making it healthy... getting roots in place and giving him a good education.

Also get yourself another tree or you are going to get itchy fingers and literally work this tree to death.
As Darth Vader said "I find your lack of patience disturbing". He might not have used those exact words but ....meh.

 

[Sthlmbonsai]

With better background