WNC Bonsai
Omono
I think this video is exactly what you need to see.
Help me with my wiring? Advice with design?
- Thread starter Tntthunder
- Start date
Tntthunder
Yamadori
How would you support it? Just by holding the shoulder tight against the trunk? Pushing your thumb there? Hold part of the branch and the shoulder? How does it work if you want to bend close to the shoulder if that is a common thing?
Also thanks for the pictures, In my head I was thinking of maybe a mix between the two of those. A little triangle like your drawing but also maybe a branch that kind of hangs a little lower and to the left.
Something like this? Would this be an ok design?
Attachments
Baku1875
Shohin
this thread is jam packed with great advice.
Like OP, im a novice with wiring and making important pruning decisions as well, and when that Bonsaify video came out, I felt like Eric hit it out of the park with the single best piece of advice that could be given. It has already changed my approach to pruning, focusing on keeping the SMALLER branches. And it immediately made me do a homer simpson 'DOH' regarding design decisions in the past year.
Thinking about the ratio of your trunk to your branches, and picking branches that accomplish that objective while simultaneously achieving taper from bottom to top, thick to thin. A trunk that is 4x-5x(or more) the first lower branches on a tree, and the branches taper up to thin ramification at the apex is going to give the impression of a much more mature tree than a trunk that is almost the same size as the first branch. And the trunk can be any size as long as you get the ratio right and use the thinnest branch sequence that you have available on a given tree.
cut/air layer/jin the thick, keep the thinner crotch growth instead, especially up top, and accomplish taper. those rules alone will help you design a tree 'automatically' via logic so to speak.
well executed wiring and pad creation is the icing on the cake.
Tieball
Masterpiece
Nice tree material really. Try to imagine what looks natural for the tree with the deadwood damaged side. Don’t get to hung up on triangles this early in the development stages.
IzzyG
Shohin
Bending it right by shoulder is probably the hardest and should be avoided until your tactile feedback (while bending)improves. It’s much safer to achieve the bend across a wider area/length of the branch. I will typically hold the shoulder in place(either via my off hand thumb or holding it completely with my off hand if it’s a larger branch).
Usually dual apexes are executed when there’s two main “trunks”(either when a primary truck splits):
I don’t believe I’ve seen a dual apex in a manner in which you drew as there’s no “primary trunk” that would be able to hold that distal apex. You could create a main apex and a defining branch further out like so:
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
For sure, this video really blew my mind and changed my view entirely on styling smal junipers, I always see these twisty (cool yet a bit too contorted for my liking) shohin itoigawa’s or kishu etc. and it kind of breaks my heart when some people say it’s the ”right way” to style a juniper; you ”NEED to bend a whip and wait a few years”.
Yet here in sweden and scandinavia and some other parts of europe, our wild junipers are common juniper (communis) and they grow very upright, even the branches.
THEN I SAW THIS VIDEO, not going to spoil it, anyone who hasn’t seen it yet just watch it you won’t be dissatisfied.
(Btw Eric Schrader or “bonsaify” has some amazing videos, huge inspiration)
Wulfskaar
Omono
I normally don't get the deadwood people put in their trees, but this one is really pleasing to my eye! It reminds me of dancers.
Tntthunder
Yamadori
Moi! I live here but from Australia, married a Finn, now trying to pick up a new hobby and learn it in a completely different environment haha.
Luckily found a nice little group around me to help me learn
Tntthunder
Yamadori
I really like it also, funny you mention dancers as this was exactly what the teacher described as he and I were doing it trying to make it all flow like "dancers" and go in the same direction and such.
Kadebe
Chumono
I think the best videos for wiring:
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
Good to hear that you found a group!
Well it was really quite a pleasant surprise to learn that you live in Finland!
My stepdad’s childhood home is on a island far east of Helsinki and I’ve went there every summer since i was 1 years old. I’m 18 now and the place hasn’t stopped feeling as cozy as I imagined when I was younger.
I don’t know we’re you’re from but our place is situated along the coast, so it’s quite chilly especially during night time, even in July.
But since it’s finland houses commonly have an open stove and probably also a sauna.
So it’s very cozy to just sit and watch the fire crackle, drink some tea and listen to the waves crash in the wind.
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
How was the move from hot and dry to cold and humid?
My girlfriend is from northern Brazil and she moved here a year or two ago along with her family. I remember in winter I repeatedly joked around impersonating her voice saying “why this there so much ice cream on the ground”
The joke was that snow in general is so foreign to her and I’d imagine it is for you too, how do you like the cold?
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
Don’t worry man you’ll get there, no stress.this thread is jam packed with great advice.
Like OP, im a novice with wiring and making important pruning decisions as well, and when that Bonsaify video came out, I felt like Eric hit it out of the park with the single best piece of advice that could be given. It has already changed my approach to pruning, focusing on keeping the SMALLER branches. And it immediately made me do a homer simpson 'DOH' regarding design decisions in the past year.
Thinking about the ratio of your trunk to your branches, and picking branches that accomplish that objective while simultaneously achieving taper from bottom to top, thick to thin. A trunk that is 4x-5x(or more) the first lower branches on a tree, and the branches taper up to thin ramification at the apex is going to give the impression of a much more mature tree than a trunk that is almost the same size as the first branch. And the trunk can be any size as long as you get the ratio right and use the thinnest branch sequence that you have available on a given tree.
cut/air layer/jin the thick, keep the thinner crotch growth instead, especially up top, and accomplish taper. those rules alone will help you design a tree 'automatically' via logic so to speak.
well executed wiring and pad creation is the icing on the cake.
As Peter chan says: “the only way to learn is to fail” and at first when I heard that I was like “WHAT?! I think It’s better if I listen to masters and learn from them” -when really I learned a lot just by being unsuccessful with either soil, sun, water or being too harsh on the trees (in pruning roots and/or branching)
Moral of the story; collect some trees WITH PERMISSION, buy some cheap hardy nursery stock and just start experimenting like a madlad.
BUT
It would also be wise to put the tools down on the bench and just look at the tree, as Colin Lewis says, “if you can’t envision the future of a tree you’re not up for the job” basically, look at it from all sides, every direction and let your subconscious take over, just envision the tree and only that.
Once you do those two things the tree will speak to you and you might get thoughts like;
“ouh, that swelling is very ugly, possible air layer?”
“Throw out the part below the layer once it has taken?”
“Sell it?”
“Use this tree as layer or cutting stock?”
“Wait hold on if I lean it this way and cut off all the branches maybe that could make a nice literati”
“ if I lean it this way maybe it could become a semi cascade”
“if i lean it further maybe it could become a full cascade”
“if I bend this piece up could that become a moyogi perhaps?”
“What if i do a trunk chop low and make a fat tapering shohin tree?”
Tntthunder
Yamadori
That is something I really enjoy here it's the beautiful nature and the cottages with them, the stoves and the saunas. Went to my first place like that last year, sauna to lake and back again was great all surrounded by forest. Amazing.How was the move from hot and dry to cold and humid?
My girlfriend is from northern Brazil and she moved here a year or two ago along with her family. I remember in winter I repeatedly joked around impersonating her voice saying “why this there so much ice cream on the ground”
The joke was that snow in general is so foreign to her and I’d imagine it is for you too, how do you like the cold?
Lived here now for 15 months, the snow still amazes me like I'm a little kid playing in the sand at the beach. I hate how long the winters are but have definitely acclimatised better than I thought I would.
Issue comes with in between times. Too hot for winter clothes, too cold for thinner clothes, hate it haha. Also the houses are so air tight and well insulated etc I often get stuffy in them even mid winter, so used to having lots of airflow year round, windows open 24/7.
BobbyLane
Imperial Masterpiece
What can sometimes really weaken a branch is over manipulation as in constantly tweaking, bending a branch until you think its right. Ive been guilty of this many times. styling a tree, not satisfied, looking from another angle, tweaking again and again and again until it looks right. A healthy tree can take it, but sometimes its a little tricky to judge when bending is overdone. you'll know when enough is enough with experience, killing the odd branch might give you an indication how far to push next time. Things like this cant be teached and nobody on here can tell you when you did too much bending.
Any small cracks/tears can be sealed with kyonel.
The yew deadwood work looks good.
Any small cracks/tears can be sealed with kyonel.
The yew deadwood work looks good.
Last edited:
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
Yes the winters are very long.
That’s not the biggest bummer for me tho, for me it’s the shift between winter and spring and how drastically the weather can change during early spring.
From 15c daytime to -5c night time… to then later go down to -2c daytime…
It’s really frustrating sometimes and the “bonsai shuffle” is really prominent here in scandinavia…
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
Feel free to ask me about which species you can use
Tntthunder
Yamadori
Would love some advice on winter protection and species. My balcony is very exposed, on the 3rd floor and the only side that isn't "exposed" is the door from my apartment, it's about 2.5m X 2.5m big.Feel free to ask me about which species you can use
For this winter to just see if I could keep anything alive I got two junipers and a pine, mulched them into a tub and kept an airy, clear cotton blanket over them and pushed the tub against the building hoping for the heat to radiate a little. Only the junipers survived and we got to -28c at its coldest.
I now only have junipers and that yew from earlier pictures, kinda worried about the yew. All my trees are still in the nursery pots and soil.
Any Ideas on how to protect them better?
Viktor’s bonsai
Sapling
Your problem doesn’t have to be the cold, it can be a combination of it AND soil, imagine the soil being soggy and heavy and when it gets frozen it becomes a solid brick trapping all the fine roots. I have so many trees and i never potted them into “bonsai soil” because of my financial conditions.
So now all my trees are in garden soil which isn’t good for trees in small pots at all. Do as I say not as I do basically, pot them into good soil as soon as the time is right.
