michaelj
Chumono
Okay, my comedy is off tonight. Time to make my ausfahrt.
Pinching Vance Wood: the challenge
- Thread starter Brian Van Fleet
- Start date
carp
Chumono
better than making your auschwitz
mat
Chumono
Haruyosi posted this today: "I removed leaves of Shinpaku.
I usually do this work with scissors.
And at last I arrange the figure with fingers a little."
I usually do this work with scissors.
And at last I arrange the figure with fingers a little."
Vance Wood
Lord Mugo
How was that for you. LOL------ If you did it correctly you will never notice. This is exactly how I use the process. Pinching is not for doing the major reduction of growth that is becoming lignified, any more than scissors should be used to dress and refine the silhouette. If you do either you will get brown ends or worse: In the case of trying to remove lignified growth by pinching you tear and and bruise growth truning it brown and making it difficult to heal. Using scissors to refine the silhouette: You have to be incredibly careful and precise to keep from cutting portions of the growth that in the end will turn brown. The truth is; pinching is more precise for this task than clipping. You don't use an ax to carve figurines in small pieces of wood.
Last edited:
That's fine. I simply choose not to pinch right at the margin. If you feel the need, you can.
Using the ARS scissors I pictured above, they're quite slim, it is possible to do very fine work with them. It probably takes longer to do than your pinching.
I also think I tend to keep mine thinner than you. If you were to look down upon my shimpaku, you can see down through them. I avoid having a solid thick matt of foliage up top because I believe that tends to weaken the lower branches. So, I choose to not trim by pinching or with scissors anything right at the edge of the canopy. I elect to cut a little farther back, removing more foliage, thinning if you will. Like Bjorn did in his video.
Haruyosi is working with a 4 inch shohin. Everything is compacted. There are no "lower branches"! So, he wants that crown to be tight. That's different. His post on Facebook today had one more picture that was not included in the posting here, which shows him using a pair of scissors.
By the way, Haruyosi is also a potter, and produces thousands of shohin. Incredible trees!
Using the ARS scissors I pictured above, they're quite slim, it is possible to do very fine work with them. It probably takes longer to do than your pinching.
I also think I tend to keep mine thinner than you. If you were to look down upon my shimpaku, you can see down through them. I avoid having a solid thick matt of foliage up top because I believe that tends to weaken the lower branches. So, I choose to not trim by pinching or with scissors anything right at the edge of the canopy. I elect to cut a little farther back, removing more foliage, thinning if you will. Like Bjorn did in his video.
Haruyosi is working with a 4 inch shohin. Everything is compacted. There are no "lower branches"! So, he wants that crown to be tight. That's different. His post on Facebook today had one more picture that was not included in the posting here, which shows him using a pair of scissors.
By the way, Haruyosi is also a potter, and produces thousands of shohin. Incredible trees!
Last edited:
PierreR
Shohin
On a side note to all this, I recieved a package from bonsai4me yesterday, a book of bonsai basics essentially. Thought I would add it to my growing library (price was right!) Any way, in the section on pruning and maintanence, He (author/practicioner) clearly describes Vances method. Scissors for lignified wood, pull/twist pinching for maintanence, describing how browning is prevented/non issue if done correctly. His image shows clearly a seperation of the scale foliage identical results in the image posted by Wireme. FYI.
PierreR
Shohin
Adair, in your opinion, what would he be doing in this image? There doesnt seem to be a long shoot hes trimming back, would this be an example of canopy thinning?
It's hard to say, exactly. I suspect it's thinning.
If you look at all the little trimmings he's already cut off, you see each is a small tuft. He doesn't go after individual needles or tips. He removes little tufts. At the base of the stem. As you can see, he's cutting green stems, not just brown lignified wood.
I really think Bjorn's video shows it best.
If you look at all the little trimmings he's already cut off, you see each is a small tuft. He doesn't go after individual needles or tips. He removes little tufts. At the base of the stem. As you can see, he's cutting green stems, not just brown lignified wood.
I really think Bjorn's video shows it best.
mat
Chumono
Wasn't that the first one I attached in my post?
Here is a photo of my Kishu juniper, taken from directly above.
Notice how the very center appears to be rather thin. But it appears thicker around the circumference. That's intentional. The circumference is (are) the lower branches which are normally the weaker ones. To keep them healthy, I allow the foliage there to be thicker.
Up top, I keep the foliage thinner. This allows light to penetrate to the interior keeping interior foliage healthy. Juniper tend to be stronger up near the apex - left to themselves, they would make a thick canopy that would be a solid mass and shade out the interior.
So, I intentionally thin the apex. I don't want to pinch at the margin to induce thick ramification.
And here's the tree, as its viewed:
The apex looks plenty full, doesn't it?
The foliage is balanced. It appears to be the same density everywhere. That is the desired effect.
And it was done with no pinching. Only scissor work.
Notice how the very center appears to be rather thin. But it appears thicker around the circumference. That's intentional. The circumference is (are) the lower branches which are normally the weaker ones. To keep them healthy, I allow the foliage there to be thicker.
Up top, I keep the foliage thinner. This allows light to penetrate to the interior keeping interior foliage healthy. Juniper tend to be stronger up near the apex - left to themselves, they would make a thick canopy that would be a solid mass and shade out the interior.
So, I intentionally thin the apex. I don't want to pinch at the margin to induce thick ramification.
And here's the tree, as its viewed:
The apex looks plenty full, doesn't it?
The foliage is balanced. It appears to be the same density everywhere. That is the desired effect.
And it was done with no pinching. Only scissor work.
my nellie
Masterpiece
Me, too!
But I have to say that "parsing out the noise" is always tiresome and unfortunately kind of... piteous.
Thanks to the three artists for presenting their methods and to all the positive posters.
Similar threads
