AusBonsai

Thanks for the thoughts Boics, and yes that is a corky bark elm, picked it up off the internet... which i've found is not really the best way to do things. the bark is cool, but not much else about the tree is at the moment. the soil is thick and clay like, and the chap i bought it off said it had only recently been repotted, and that he'd payed $100 for someone to do it for him... water just pools on the top of the soil when I water... can't wait for winter and I'm'a'gonna get in there and clean it all out, see what lies beneath...

hey all, well i was gonna sell this one, got plenty of offers, but something made me keep it... after working on it today... maybe I shoulda sold it. the branch structure just leaves me scratching my head. Anyhow, here's what I did to it. Open to any suggestions.
I wanna snip off that straight branch at the bottom there... but then there'd be nothing on the whole right side of the tree...

Perhaps you could bend the straight branch to make a new Apex and chop the existing apex?
I agree the straight branch is ugly.
Is there another possible front?

I still stand by my earlier advise.
Is there a smaller tree to be found here?

If no better front and no smaller tree it may be time to cut to taper remove all branches and rebuild.
I think you have a decent trunk and nebari you just need some good branches and preferably some taper.

Note. This is only an amateur thought.
Let's see what others have to say.

thanks Boics, yes I am tempted to just chop everything!!

so I chopped everything...


and after just a few days it is budding back pretty well... I'm hoping I've removed all the problem areas of the tree, and now can start again with a reasonable base and create a smaller better structured tree in the end. We'll see said the zen master...

An interesting redirection. It is hard to see the base of the tree from that pic, but I would say,... be careful with creating a 'well' for the water to sit and collect in. When you carve into any base of a tree, you need to make sure that water will not sit and collect in the newly formed hollow.

update... think it survived my surgery!

2.5 years on... an update! Thank you to everyone who helped me to get it to this point, specifically to find the smallest tree within the tree!

Very nice work..solid
Anthony

Great vision Qitianlong ,paid of with a classy tree. Cheers John.

That's looking much better!
Courage has paid off handsomely!
Well done!

Thanks Anthony, John and Boics!

Fantastic transformation!

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wow that has turned out awesomely great effort reading through this when i saw half the tree gone i freaked out a little but seeing it now omg such a beautiful transformation