Randy Knight Japanese Maple

fredman

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Beautiful. Very inspiring. Love the carving. You did it yourself? If so, you must have a lot of carving experience...?
 

MACH5

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Beautiful. Very inspiring. Love the carving. You did it yourself? If so, you must have a lot of carving experience...?


Thanks fredman! Yes I did the carving with a Dremel. I do not have a lot of experience with carving since I have worked mostly with deciduous species. Currently looking to get more into conifers with more opportunities for fun carving.
 

justBonsai

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Dang that's a sick tree. Probably one of my favorites of the many maples you post on here.
 

Lars Grimm

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Sergio, in looking at the before and after picture the hollow on the right trunk looks smaller. Is that just due to the rotation of the tree or did you get callus to grow over and shrink the size a bit?
 

BobbyLane

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Really fantastic piece this, small detail but i noticed you've positioned some twigging into the negative area in the centre, think this enhances the overall image, ramification looks great.
 

MACH5

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I always forget that this is Japanese Maple, not Amur. It's just so distinctive and stands apart from the Japanese maples we commonly see. This is a good thing!


I forget too and have to remind myself. Even the bark looks different than any other maple I have. We said this before, but again, someone forgot to tell this tree it is in fact a Japanese maple and not an oak. Sorry! :p
 

MACH5

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Sergio, in looking at the before and after picture the hollow on the right trunk looks smaller. Is that just due to the rotation of the tree or did you get callus to grow over and shrink the size a bit?


Lars, yes it is a bit smaller since after I carved it the tree is callousing over it a bit.
 

MACH5

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Really fantastic piece this, small detail but i noticed you've positioned some twigging into the negative area in the centre, think this enhances the overall image, ramification looks great.


Thanks Bobby! I've made sure that twigs pass over this area to add visual interest. In particular, one branch is at the back which helps give dimension to the image. Still developing some of the more forward branches and overall developing denser ramification.
 
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Very pleasing to the eye. That's a nice progression. I'd focus on that straight section of the left trunk apex and the branching just above it. It doesn't fit with rest of the tree right now. I understand its not done, now, today. That's good work Sergio.
 

JudyB

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Do YOU like it? You put a ? behind it so maybe you're not sure... I am not sold on it to be completely honest.
I think it's the shape of the pot that I am not loving almost more than the texture. If it were straight sided instead of narrower at the bottom? Or rounded rectangle? Maybe it's the proportion, just something to me feels not quite right. Maybe the texture is just too strong as well combined with the other things.

But then you always seem to find the right way with your trees, so I am probably wrong here.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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I smell what you're cooking, but it just misses for me.
 

MACH5

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Do YOU like it? You put a ? behind it so maybe you're not sure... I am not sold on it to be completely honest.
I think it's the shape of the pot that I am not loving almost more than the texture. If it were straight sided instead of narrower at the bottom? Or rounded rectangle? Maybe it's the proportion, just something to me feels not quite right. Maybe the texture is just too strong as well combined with the other things.

But then you always seem to find the right way with your trees, so I am probably wrong here.


Yes I do like it Judy but welcome differing POVs. It is a rather expensive pot so wanted to test it out first. Perhaps the scale of the texture is too large?
 

MACH5

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That tree is really something else. I like the contrast from one trunk to the other. The same hollows and other elements are in both trunks, but the scale is different.


There is a bit of a yin-yang between the two trunks.
 

Brian Van Fleet

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Making me work for it, eh? :p Setting aside my bias against textured pots, I feel like the pairing is almost too in your face. The texture of the pot compliments the carving so well, that it becomes a competitive distraction for my eye.

The tree could portray a very quiet, austere feeling of a soliatary tree, out in a field somewhere; if the pot was subtle. I could almost see it on a very wide slab, slightly off-center. I'll think more on what I might pot it in if it was mine.
 
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