Styling Suggestions?

[Shamino]

The photo below is of a "corkscrew trunk" Shimpaku I potted about 20 years ago. It was an impulse buy and I thought it might be an interesting conversation piece. At one time it had fairly thick foliage and was quite attractive but as time went on, it lost some foliage to a Juniper fungus and has come to this point. As I worked on it this week, I got so that I felt it was boring and needed something but I'm stuck. Can anyone give me some styling suggestions that would bring back an interesting tree?

 

[NaoTK]

Can you wrap it in raffia and bend the top half down onto itself to make it more compact? Really crank it down, even minor cracking is ok. You can even split the trunk beforehand. Could make a complex interesting tree once the monotony is relieved

 

[bwaynef]

I have one that started life very similarly. It was transformed w/ 2 bends to take out the monotony of the spirals. Compacted as well.

 

[Shamino]

I have one that started life very similarly. It was transformed w/ 2 bends to take out the monotony of the spirals. Compacted as well.

Do you have a photo?

 

[bwaynef]

There's a lot of time between these photos, but not exactly necessary. I noticed a spider mite infestation shortly after the first photo and it set the tree back. We didn't use any raffia in making the bend. Some tubing, thick hose/gasket material, and copper along with a bonsai jack and the bends were a breeze. Since its already spiraled, it will be easier to bend than if it were straight. As Nao mentioned, some cracking/breaking/splitting isn't the end of the world. I can't find any pictures during the years when the wires were in place to hold the bends.

I'm hoping to tidy things up this fall.

 

[Shamino]

There's a lot of time between these photos, but not exactly necessary. I noticed a spider mite infestation shortly after the first photo and it set the tree back. We didn't use any raffia in making the bend. Some tubing, thick hose/gasket material, and copper along with a bonsai jack and the bends were a breeze. Since its already spiraled, it will be easier to bend than if it were straight. As Nao mentioned, some cracking/breaking/splitting isn't the end of the world. I can't find any pictures during the years when the wires were in place to hold the bends.

I'm hoping to tidy things up this fall.

So then, did you bring the circled branch straight down?

 

[Shamino]

As an alternative, does anyone have any suggestions about using jin and shari to change the look of this tree?