Back on topic:
Day Two of the fall Intensive:
The second day starts off the same as the first with a video and instruction with handouts. If you express an interest in a particular topic, Boon will find articles in Kinsai or Bonsai Today, etc and use those. I had expressed an interest in zelkova, so Boon found some material about developing broom style zelkova and shared it with the class. Boon has one or two zelkova. He showed me a magazine article how someone in Japan developed one over the years. At one point he was offered $1 million for it, and he turned them down!
The afternoon, I started wiring. The more experienced participants (who already knew how to unwire and pull needles) had started wiring the first day. Boon is a stickler on good wiring. I THOUGHT I knew how to wire. Coming in to the Intensives, I probably was better than 90 percent of those who wire their trees. That's not good enough for Boon.
He distributes a handout on wiring every session. I've been to 6 Intensives, I have 6 copies. We go over it in detail. I take notes on what Boon says about the illustrations. I've gone back and looked, and I find different notes. Every time, Boon finds something new to point out about how to wire effectively. Or, at least, every time, I HEAR something new to jot down.
There are two illustrations that we spend a good amount of time talking about: Figure 3 and Figure 15. Every Boon student will know what I'm talking about! LOL!! Figure 3 shows how to wire a fork in a branch. Figure 15 shows how to wire out an entire branch. When we're wiring, and come to a difficult spot, Boon will say, make it look like Figure 15, or "Use Figure 3"... It's "Boon speak".
He gave me a tree that was probably mid way from being raw stock to refined. It still had some sacrifice branches thickening the apex, and other places where it was growing out. Other places, the primary branches, the tree was starting to get ramification. He wanted me to remove and rewire the primary branch.
Unwiring, no problem.
Now for wiring: Boon likes to lay the wire out in a particular way. The coils lay so that two students can have access to the coils and cut off what they need, leaving the coil available for the other student. Kinda had to learn how that process works. We use Jim Gremel's copper. Best wire I have ever used. Boon says it's even softer than the wire he used in Japan.
Boon insists that each wire be properly "anchored". It takes at least 1 1/2 turns to anchor a wire, then the other end is wound. Always wire two branches with one wire. Anchor on one branch 1 1/2 turns, wire the other branch, then go back and finish wiring the first branch. Don't cross wires, you can lay two wires next to each other, the second wire should be more towards the tip of the branch than the first wire. Beginners (like me) are not allowed to "splice". He teaches us how to do it, just not allowed. No "teeter totters" allowed. A teeter tootter is where two branches are wired with insufficient anchor. Think bar branches. If you wire two bar branches together with one wire, then when you move one branch, the branch on the other side will move because the wire moves it. When you're done wiring, Boon will come and test your wiring by adjusting all the branches. If when moving one branch another branch moves, it's "teeter totter", and you'll have to remove all the wire and start over.
I had to rewire one portion 3 times.
I got called a "Bimbo" a couple times! What's a Bimbo? In Japan, a "Bimbo" is a spendthrift. Or someone who wastes money. Copper wire is expensive. So having to rewire the branch 3 times meant I had to remove the wire twice and dump the used wire in the recycling box. Bimbo! Another way to get called a bimbo is to cut too long a piece of wire and have too much extra after it's applied.
Aside: Owen Reich came to town, and gave a workshop at Plant City Bonsai. I was there to "help", but not instruct as it was Owen's workshop. He tasked me with mundane tasks like properly putting screens in pots, and things like that. No problem! But, during the workshop, he also teased me about being a Boonite about wiring. That's ok. He knows Boon is a good wirer. And then I noticed Owen had this little habit: After he wired a branch, and he cut off the excess, he then absent mindedly cut the piece he just cut off into two or three smaller pieces before going on to the next branch to wire.
So, I asked him what's up with that? And he smiled and said that he learned to do that in Japan. If the Master came by and saw there were a lot of 4 to 6 inch pieces of wire, a little too short to be used for anything, he would get mad and accuse Owen of wasting money! So, by cutting them up, it looked like he was using "just the right amount" of wire and not wasting any! LOL!!! Don't want to be a Bimbo!!
Aside over.
On Boon's website, there's student testimonials. One by John Kirby is about wiring, and how he got frustrated trying to wire up to Boon's standards. It's a good read, I fully identify myself with him on that.
We wire at every Intensive. A lot. Boon has a slogan: Bonsai is wiring, and wiring is bonsai.
If you don't want to wire, don't go to a Boon Intensive.
More Later.
