Dorothy and Irene posted a couple virts and showed at least passion enough to try and solve the problems with this tree. Thank you.
Thanks also to those who flatly stated that they could see no possibilities with this material, as well as to those who stated that there may be some possibilities.
I offered a simple challenge, which was to forget the all too common statements of trashing it or planting it and see if you could find a feasible solution using the material as is to create a viable, or at least possible bonsai. I fully admitted that this was sub-standard material and that nothing world shaking would come of it, but the point was that searching for a design in such a piece of material could be a learning experience, far more than with a piece that offers multiple alternatives, and certainly far more than a piece in which the design has already been found and outlined.
As I stated in the beginning here, I heavily fed the material, encouraged elongation of the existing branch and ramification, and resigned myself to the challenge of trying to create something from nothing with this piece.
Not, as some have alluded to, because I lack bonsai, I have many, many of which have been posted on this site and others. I have hundreds of pines and conifers in the ground that far outshine this stick, even years before they will be ready to lift. But because it offered a challenge, because it was a gift, but mainly because of the comments this tree has received from non-bonsaists and the idea it gave me for an article.
Where is that line where wonder becomes cynicism, where awe is replaced by technicalities, where the art becomes so weighted by expectations that only the artist can see it?
How much of what we like is colored by bias, how much of what don't like?
But this is for the article, for now, back to this tree.....so with an elongated branch, some ramification, it was time to play with branch position and direction of growth....
