How is this done?

[StPaddy]

So I am curious about this pine cascade I saw in a photo online. It appears that in the hard bend the bark has exposed to the bare wood. Is this similar to a shari? Does it occur naturally or is it helped along with cuts etc?
All I know about extreme bends is they are best done in fall, and raffia is typically used from what I understand. I wonder how this look is accomplished as I have two pine cascades in development and plan to do a severe bend come fall.

 

[Potawatomi13]

This very beautiful tree appears as Yamadori. Basic trunk structure created by God and not man. IF manmade is quite masterful job. Dead wood most likely from extreme exposure or natural abrasion of rocks, etc. Upper twisted section could actually be several roots grown together and barked up from exposure. If attempting such moves is best done on very young trees/wood and over likely several years with much patience.

 

[sorce]

It almost looks as if the old branch protruding right from there, was torn off left and brought with it the skin of both top and bottom when it was yanked off at a much earlier age.

As it goes, we are made in the image of God, so once we realize God doesn't use a Makita Grinder we can use our own hands to create more convincing shari and DW features.

Added benefit, you get to help folks () that "see it" appreciate your tree more.

If "Tanuki", or "phoenix grafts" are number one Fake and Stupid, grinder trails, no matter how "thoughtfully" blended, number 2.
Mmmmmm..... calling it number 2 makes it sound like number one....either way, they should be flushed.....out with foliage to hide that ugly, then once one comes to their senses, they should be burned.

Sorce

 

[Shibui]

I can also see the stub of an old branch in the first tree. My best guess is the current trunk was once a side branch hence the abrupt bend. The dead section may be intentional but more likely an accident as it does not appear to go anywhere and no real reason for it being there.
Chopping back to a side branch is a common way to get bends that look far more natural than almost anything created with wire.

 

[StPaddy]

Thanks folks. I appreciate the info.

 

[MaciekA]

Convincing shari and wild-looking bends are achievable on pines and do not necessarily require a wild collected tree.

For bends, the catch is that one needs to be realistic about what they can hope to achieve based on the maturity of the trunk/branch and skillset. For beginners, landscape nursery stock pines are the easiest thing to obtain, but as input material probably generate the most head scratching and questions like "how does anyone achieve that? Do I really need raffia, rebar and 2 other strongarms to help push? How does anyone achieve any of this at all starting with material like this?".

The (hopefully not too deflating) answer is that we don't. We're (usually) not trying to put either subtle/beautiful nor extreme bends into already-thickened, already-established, unrecoverably-boring pine trunks. We're selling or giving that material away in favor of material that can support these goals. You have to intervene before the window of opportunity closes and (when looking for material) recognize where the potential for future intervention still exists.

Fancy bends are wired into younger pine material and then that material is developed from there, eventually turning into trees like the above. For an example of some really sweet bends that will almost never (if ever) occur naturally in young material (even wild seedlings) or in landscape nursery stock, look at the way Jonas wired these pines. But also notice that this was done when it was still completely possible and easy to do.

With pine shari it's a similar story, the earlier you intervene the better, because adding information to that shari every season or three and having the shari evolve year-by-year with the tree can yield some really nice and convincing results that aren't as easily accomplished if you're buying an established pine and trying to put all that in after the fact.

So if you like this sort of stuff a lot, it's good to build up a collection of very young pine material and get very good at early-stage wiring. In SoCal you have the potential to develop seedlings quite quickly, and to witness some pretty rapid shari evolution.