1st Feeble attempt carving a Juniper

[Jester]

Hi there crazy kids !!!

Well here goes !! Thought I'd share this with you all. I just had this "thing" in a very butchered state so I decided to experiment with my Dremel in an attempt to make something out of nothing so to speak.

Any comments more than welcome.

[Gareth]

I think with the elegant look you are aiming for with the small amount of foliage you have, the weight of the deadwood is too much.

Tilting the whole tree over to the right and dramatically reduceing both the volume of the left deadwood, and possibly the trunk/root mass coming from the left, and what is now the top jin (only slightly) i think will play more into the elegant look fo the tree you are aiming for.

When this is done, i think you could have a very mice looking semi cascade.

[Jester]

Hmmm, not a bad idea actually. Thanks Gareth

John

[kcpoole]

where are the before photos? Nice and good fun is it not,

the jin on the eft is too "heavy" but what about removing 1/2 of the foliage?
I think it is far too long and thick for a sparse image you are looking for

Ken

[cuwire]

Well I for one would just leave it. To me it is a perfect sculpture.

The eye is immediately drawn to the very base of the white wash trunk and follows up to the fork and to the left hand dead wood .... at this time the beautifully balanced foliage and higher deadwood on the right kick in.

The fork of the tree gives an amazing center of vision. If you are after a sculpture this is it.

Cheers

[Jester]

Hi Kenny, I was at work and had limited time (light wise) but you are right I should have got a "before" shot. So much to do at the moment with onset of Spring . Don't know if I'm Artha or Martha

Thanks for the feedback mate

John

[Jester]

Thanks Cuwire, I appreciate your comments. Although there have only been 3 responses so far, is'nt interesting how the various views can vary so much. I guess it just goes to show how complex our views of bonsai can be.

[Hackimoto]

All I can say is what I would with it if it happened to be mine. Firstly I would reduce all of that hanging foliage up to just a small triangle of green at the top of what is there at the moment. Secondly I would let the remaining foliage grow longer on the left hand side to eventually form a compact asymmetrical apex, triangle over the first U shaped first division of the trunk. The end result would look like a sharied trunk with a triangular shaped pad of foliage straight above the trunk and two bleached jins arising from the top of the crown of foliage. (I wish I could do virts) I picture this as a very nice little Shohin in the future.

[Jester]

Hi Hackimoto, I had actually considered the Apex your are talking about but definitely had not considered the 2 jinned branches going up. Now there's a thought

Thanks mate

John

[Hackimoto]

No, the two jins would still be coming out of the top of the tree.

[Gareth]

i agree with everything except the drastic reduc tion in foliage.

With such a massive rework in carving, your going to need as much foliage as possible for recovery for 1.

secondly, if you do happen to choose to tip it on the side, and wire the tail in a more horizontal momentum, a semi cascade tree will need more foliage.

so semi cascade, style the tree before you remove the excess foliage, and use as much as you can.

But if you choose to go the minimalist, almost literati style people are suggesting, i would first let the tree recover, then maybe in a 6 months to a year remove the foliage you want.

[Guy]

--lift the tip of the foliage so ti doesn't look so defeated-- then leave it alone to grow for the next year or so--you need to get some branch structure into the foliage mass---

[Andrew Legg]

No, the two jins would still be coming out of the top of the tree.

Draw it Hackimoto, I dare you!