World Bonsai Masters 2019 - The Road Trip

[Ryceman3]

Firstly, I would like to say I just had the best 3 days of my bonsai life, and for that eternal thanks goes to the generosity and kindness of Steven for giving away such a wonderful prize. This was an experience that really was a 'once in a lifetime' opportunity - I pity people who know me well because I will be going on and on about this for months I am sure!

Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the huge amount of effort and time that must have been put in by Leigh, Sam and all at the NBPCA to get this event off the ground. Everybody I spoke to had a great time at the event (including the deomstrators) and all 3 days I was in attendance were very well organised and ran incredibly smoothly. You should all be proud of the way the event unfolded as it was as enjoyable to attend as it was informative and just fun to be a part of.

Thirdly, I'm not going to post the entire trip right now because ... well... given I made myself "unavailable" for work for the past 5 days I really need to get myself out of the mess I have created and actually do some work!

So here is a quick look at Day 1 :

I got myself organised ...QUICKLY... and took off on Thursday for the 7 hour drive to Canberra. My first day involved a workshop with Kunio Kobayashi and started on Friday at 9am so no time to spare. This was the first workshop I had ever attended so to say I was feeling slightly daunted and mildly nervous may have been under playing it a bit. Luckily for me I positioned myself on a table between two great guys so I quickly relaxed as we chatted before Mr Kobayashi arrived.
At 9am he came on in and with the help of his interpreter gave a brief speech about his bonsai history and ethos when it comes to designing trees ... and then he started. Let's just say he doesn't hold back! He goes in and assesses the tree very quickly and then he cuts/trims/chops with the conviction and confidence of somebody who knows what they are doing and has been doing this for decades... it was a pretty awesome spectacle!

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Those with large trees soon had much smaller ones ... my JBP on the other hand was not so big so the reduction was much less severe but he selected branches for me and gave me guidance in what and where those remaining needed to be wired... and off I went!

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Mr Kobayashi gave me some direction about what I need to do to get it to progress further. Basically it involves elongation of the lower left hand branch, keep the growth more compact on the right hand side and develop the apex ... a WIP I hope is on the way to something pretty cool.

[Keels]

It sure was an experience wasn't it. He is such a good bloke to work with. Your black pine looks a beauty.

[kez]

Looking forward to the rest mate, was great to meet you in the Sunday

[kcpoole]

Well done and nice tree

BTW, where did you get the stock trees? Already had them ?

Ken

[MJL]

Yep - as the saying goes - lovely bones on that pine R3 and looking forward to future updates on the road trip. Your enjoyment and appreciation is obvious for all to see. Excellent stuff.

[Ryceman3]

Well done and nice tree

BTW, where did you get the stock trees? Already had them ?

Ken

Hi Ken,
I picked up the trees from Tien at Bonsai Sensation, hard to go wrong when you get stuff from him. I only got them just prior to getting this opportunity - luckily for me Father's Day was the window I needed to get myself a "present" ... nothing says love like a pine tree!
I wish I had a bit more time to source some other stuff but I made do with what I had and I think I got the most out of it.

[Ryceman3]

Day 1 cont ...
After lunch I worked on a juniper which was nice to have a go on something other than a pine. It was not my tree but was given to me to work on by dansai who was also with me at both workshop days ... thanks for the trust mate - I hope I did it justice! Mr Kobayashi saw it as a cascade which surprised both of us ... turned the whole pot on it's side wedged it into position and said "wire all!"... uummmm Yep, I'm on it!

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Needs to grow into it's new direction and I'm not sure the photos really do a good job of showing it, but it should look pretty cool when repotted at the new angle and it settles in.

DAY 2 :
Had the morning off before a discussion/critique session in the afternoon with both demonstrators. It was an interesting afternoon getting the opinions of some trees from the collection as well as answering some pretty curly questions ... very enjoyable!

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Probably the highlight for me was when Mr Kobayashi was talking about an Acacia Howittii and the interpreter was translating
..."he says the angles and lines of this tree are very pretty, yes ... he says they are very, very beautiful..."
Mr Kobayashi turned and looked at the interpreter, paused and then turned to the audience and said in his best english ...
"Sexy!"

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[Ryceman3]

Day 2 - evening
The day concluded with a cocktail event where both demonstators worked on a tree (which was later auctioned) while we all watched on eating some great food and drinking beer ... what a combo!
Following are a couple of snaps I took of Mr Kobayashi and Ryan Neil in action ... the crowd got whipped into a frenzy when the chainsaw came out! There was a Japanese TV crew there who were getting right into it ... I was talking with dansai and Hugh Grant when we were approached to answer a few questions ... who knows how that turned out - probably cutting room floor but it was all part of the experience!!
Here's a few shots from the tree creation session :

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[Ryceman3]

Day 3 - Ryan Neil Workshop
The last day for me at the Masters involved a workshop with Ryan Neil ... now that I was a complete veteran in the workshop scene I was less nervous and more excited to get involved in this one!
I really like the way Ryan conveys information. He is very good at explaining his thought process and using language that is easy to understand while he performs various techniques so you can appreciate what he is doing, how he is doing it and why. His workshop was much less "fast-paced" in comparison to Mr Kobayashi and I kind of liked that given it was Day 3 and I felt like I needed a second to breathe! He spent a lot of time with each participant talking over how to get the best from their material and really getting involved with them to achieve their goals.

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I also got Ryan to have a look at a Scots Pine I had done some work on. He seemed to like the direction I had taken but gave me some feedback about possibly moving the "front" to the "back" and switching the apex around. For reasons I will never understand, I don't have any photos of the tree at the workshop ( ) but here are some shots from back at home ...

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By the end of Day 3 I was exhausted ... what a bonsai ride! Once again, I can't thank everybody involved enough for putting together such a fantastic experience for everyone who attended ...
And to Steven for giving me the chance to be there ...
Hope you have enjoyed my take on the weekend, would love to here what others thought/their highlights etc...

[melbrackstone]

Looks like you had a fantastic couple of days, Ryceman! I would have loved to have been there, and I recognise two of the gentlemen in the first image with Ryan! Waves to Mal and Keith!

I have to agree with your thoughts on Ryan, he really is a fabulous communicator!

[Steven]

Thanks for the great coverage Ryan. Really glad that the event has made such a positive impact on you!

Regards,
Steven