Japanese maple - Wire Practice

[rollwithak]

Hey Guys,

Hope everyone reading this is happy and well. Sitting here on this beautiful spring evening waiting for my steaks to finish on the Traeger and I thought I’d practice putting some movement in to this sapling.

Y’all have any suggestionsideas?

Let me Know!

Peace!

 

[Shibui]

I suggest you get on with it instead of just talking.
It hardly matters what bends you put in this little sapling. I predict that a lot of it will be cut back to give taper as the trunk thickens up. Otherwise you'll just have a bendy sapling with no taper which does not really look much better than a straight sapling with no taper.

 

[Indoor Trees]

I noticed a dogwood in one pic.

 

[jonathanvperth]

You must be so bored. Look at the shohin thread. Many excellent trees with only one photo. Post garbage on reddit.

 

[rollwithak]

You must be so bored. Look at the shohin thread. Many excellent trees with only one photo. Post garbage on reddit.

In case you didn't notice, I'm posting in the "new to bonsai" thread... Hmm I wonder why on Earth that could be? Perhaps next time you could just, I don't know, not respond and keep reading on.....

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Sure, go with it, a little wire would not hurt. If you can, arrange the bends so the branches are on the outside of curves. Remember, left, right, back, and forth, but mix up the order, try to avoid a simple 'S' curve.

Practice, practice. There is an excellent tutorial on Etsy. It is free but you have to register. It is by Colin Lewis, he is the one who taught me how to wire, (I did his weekend intensive, in person Colin is a bit more expensive than the Etsy video, and a good teacher). Books by Colin Lewis are among some of the better bonsai how to books. His writing, articles and books are usually "better than most" in clearly explaining technique.

 

[bluesky]

Just watch out because with such a thin trunk your wire will bite into the trunk before you're ready to take it off and you'll have marked that trunk for a few years. Maple bark does heal over though after a couple of years, so no problem if it does happen. But it's better to not get the bite in the first place, just remove it in 2 months or so, and rewire.

 

[mbunro]

You must be so bored. Look at the shohin thread. Many excellent trees with only one photo. Post garbage on reddit.

i bet i know what the V in your name stands for... first 3 letters anyway