NBF World Bonsai Day demo--Chase Rosade forest redesign

lieuz

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Compared to last year, I think the show this year was easily more enjoyable. Last year the quality of trees just simply wasn't there, also the vendor's tent wasn't stable and a pipe fell on someone's head. That cause a huge commotion and a few vendors left early. The layout of the show this year was definitely more favorable and the weather mostly cooperated.
 

rockm

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Compared to last year, I think the show this year was easily more enjoyable. Last year the quality of trees just simply wasn't there, also the vendor's tent wasn't stable and a pipe fell on someone's head. That cause a huge commotion and a few vendors left early. The layout of the show this year was definitely more favorable and the weather mostly cooperated.
Great seeing you at the show! Weather is always a factor with this event--some years (and there have been a few notable ones) have been miserable with the vendor tent turning into a swamp or something or other.

I liked the exhibits this year and the effort that went into everything.
 

Velodog2

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Oh, no insult taken. The entire wall with the paintings and placards was sponsored by Gardens Unlimited. I heard they were not part of the overall competition. Interpretation is up to the viewer. There is no "right" or "wrong" to it. I see a message of going against the flow in that skateboard piece, but that's just me. The attention to detail is nice.

As for the stands, having displayed in that competition once, I can say the Arb and museum are very very generous in loaning what they have out to exhibitors for shows. That explains why some stands don't exactly "fit" the trees on them. Stands are expensive, extremely fine stands are VERY expensive. I like some of the stands that are being made by U.S. artisans, however, SOME of that is either too unrefined, or overdone, very little in between...

Typical that there was no explanation for the differences noted that I saw at least, and no credit given to Gardens Unlimited.

I didn’t know the arboretum could lend stands. As someone attempting to develop skills in building these I’ve given the subject thought. I admit to having hopes of helping to someday expand the availability of higher quality stands in this country, although I don’t know if skills or available time will ever allow that.

I can say part of the problem with availability is that the prices obtained for even the better stands made domestically make it difficult to justify the time investment and there has to be a love of building them included to make the equation work. This is true for the European builders I’ve communicated with as well.

A very small stand by an apparently “known” Japanese builder is currently selling on Facebook auctions for a much, much higher price than anything I’ve seen before, and I’ve studied the pictures very carefully as a result. Like many things in this field the differences I can find seem subtle, and include good design and proportions, and also a lot of what seems to have to be hand shaping which leads to the “perfect imperfections” that are very hard to achieve and separates something from a simple craft into an art form.
 

rockm

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Typical that there was no explanation for the differences noted that I saw at least, and no credit given to Gardens Unlimited.

I didn’t know the arboretum could lend stands. As someone attempting to develop skills in building these I’ve given the subject thought. I admit to having hopes of helping to someday expand the availability of higher quality stands in this country, although I don’t know if skills or available time will ever allow that.

I can say part of the problem with availability is that the prices obtained for even the better stands made domestically make it difficult to justify the time investment and there has to be a love of building them included to make the equation work. This is true for the European builders I’ve communicated with as well.

A very small stand by an apparently “known” Japanese builder is currently selling on Facebook auctions for a much, much higher price than anything I’ve seen before, and I’ve studied the pictures very carefully as a result. Like many things in this field the differences I can find seem subtle, and include good design and proportions, and also a lot of what seems to have to be hand shaping which leads to the “perfect imperfections” that are very hard to achieve and separates something from a simple craft into an art form.

There was a sign on the left hand wall crediting the display to Gardens Unlimited. It was small and you had to look for it.

The folks at the arboretum are extremely helpful when you exhibit there. They will ask politely if you have a stand and if you don't, they'll say "psst, over here. Take what you need, be careful with it" and show you a number of options--the selection narrows considerably if your tree is large, though. I made my own to participate in the show, as it was a very large tree
bobandtoddopener.jpg.
 

Velodog2

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I see the sign in your pic. Very typical of me to have missed it! I did notice the granite stand. It worked ok I thought.
 
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