Demo at BTIT

[Josh7]

Fantastic Demo, Leigh! It was my first ever demo, but i'm hooked already and can't wait to develop my learning further. (i was the quiet guy in the grey hoodie).
Your choice of Black Pines were nice and opened my eyes to the possible stylings of a few species of all sizes.
It was nice to meet a couple of the regular guys in here also, and look forward to meeting more of you in the future.
Keep up the good work.

[Jamie]

so who took the camera? would of loved to have seen some JBP work getting done!

[Leigh Taafe]

Thanks Josh!

I just got back from Melbourne - had a great trip - Chris and his staff at BTIT were absolutely brilliant. I will give a full report shortly with more pics.

I thought I would just give you some pics of the first Black Pine I did on Saturday.

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[Jarrod]

That little one came up a treat Leigh, once it fills in it should be a terrific little tree.

[Chris Sirre]

Thanks Josh!

I just got back from Melbourne - had a great trip - Chris and his staff at BTIT were absolutely brilliant. I will give a full report shortly with more pics.

I thought I would just give you some pics of the first Black Pine I did on Saturday.

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Thanks for making the trip to Melbourne Leigh. I was great to have you. I will soon send you the pics.

Cheers,

Chris

[Leigh Taafe]

I had a great time with the wonderful staff at BTIT. They were fine hosts and looked after me extremely well. I was very impressed with their set-up and was told that they had only recently moved to these new premises and had BIG plans for the future.

I took a few piccies for you all to ogle.

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I arrived very early Saturday morning, Chris was waiting there at the airport to pick me up. We visited another bonsai friend of ours, then off to the nursery. After being shown around and meeting all the staff, I set off to find some stock to challenge myself in the demo. I looked for material that was common in bonsai nurseries but often looked over by the enthusiast for being "too hard". I found 3 perfect candidates, but only had time to work on 2 of them. There was a crowd of around 30 people to watch the demos, all of whom enjoyed the coffee break and opportunity to look around. After a hard days "demo'ing" Chris shouted me a beer just around the corner at the local!

Next day, Chris picked me up and off we went for more bonsai stuff to do - we went to the Bonsai Society of Vic's Sale Day - Brilliant!!! You can read more about that in another thread! After a couple of hours chatting with other bonsai tragics - and spending abit of dough, off we trekked again in search of another local bonsai nursery and some lunch. Traffic held us up somewhat, and we only had time for lunch before we had to race back to the airport for the flight home. Chris was great with all the driving around - a real top bonsai mate.

[Chris Sirre]

Thanks Leigh, it was a pleasure having you around. It was a great Bonsai weekend sharing ideas and thoughts with other Bonsai lovers. Thanks for putting those photo's up.

Cheers,

Chris

[anttal63]

Well done fellas, was great to see you both at the VIC. Chris, looks like plenty of stock there and set up nicely!!! Good luck with it all and i will pop in soon!

[Amanda]

Oh wow!

Look at all that stock

[Chris Sirre]

Well done fellas, was great to see you both at the VIC. Chris, looks like plenty of stock there and set up nicely!!! Good luck with it all and i will pop in soon!

It was great to catch up with you and others at the VIC. Looking forward to see you in the nursery.

[Makkanan]

Very good demo. I know many of us picked up a lot of tips. The second pine, especially, was a great transformation, Leigh. Now that the event has come and gone, I hope you don't mind a tangent: Much of the pine was wrapped pre-wiring with bike tube. I was once told that if you put it inside-out (with the lighter powdery side on the outside) you can reduce the heat absorbed/retained in summer. Not sure if that's just a myth. I know a few artisans have started to favour a kind of ace bandage found at veterinary supply stores... more often than not used on horses. There's much less heat retention, I'd guess, and still allows for a bit of breath. Probably not always optimal after a heavy trunk split, but has anybody heard about the inner versus outer sides of the biketube contrast?
Anyway, apologies for the tanget (Mr. Moderator....feel free to shift this post!)
Thanks to Chris for arranging the demo at Bonsai - The Imagination Tree....Looking forward to more!

[Chris Sirre]

Very good demo. I know many of us picked up a lot of tips. The second pine, especially, was a great transformation, Leigh. Now that the event has come and gone, I hope you don't mind a tangent: Much of the pine was wrapped pre-wiring with bike tube. I was once told that if you put it inside-out (with the lighter powdery side on the outside) you can reduce the heat absorbed/retained in summer. Not sure if that's just a myth. I know a few artisans have started to favour a kind of ace bandage found at veterinary supply stores... more often than not used on horses. There's much less heat retention, I'd guess, and still allows for a bit of breath. Probably not always optimal after a heavy trunk split, but has anybody heard about the inner versus outer sides of the biketube contrast?
Anyway, apologies for the tanget (Mr. Moderator....feel free to shift this post!)
Thanks to Chris for arranging the demo at Bonsai - The Imagination Tree....Looking forward to more!

Don't you worry Bill, there will be more.

[Chris Sirre]

Hi all, to see photo's of Leigh in action please visit our Facebook page. The file were rather large so it was easier to upload them on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... 8998033738

Enjoy,

Chris

[Amanda]

Great photos, Chris

[Grant Bowie]

Very good demo. I know many of us picked up a lot of tips. The second pine, especially, was a great transformation, Leigh. Now that the event has come and gone, I hope you don't mind a tangent: Much of the pine was wrapped pre-wiring with bike tube. I was once told that if you put it inside-out (with the lighter powdery side on the outside) you can reduce the heat absorbed/retained in summer. Not sure if that's just a myth. I know a few artisans have started to favour a kind of ace bandage found at veterinary supply stores... more often than not used on horses. There's much less heat retention, I'd guess, and still allows for a bit of breath. Probably not always optimal after a heavy trunk split, but has anybody heard about the inner versus outer sides of the biketube contrast?
Anyway, apologies for the tanget (Mr. Moderator....feel free to shift this post!)
Thanks to Chris for arranging the demo at Bonsai - The Imagination Tree....Looking forward to more!

Couldn't hurt but may not make a lot of difference.

Raffia if bark is sensitive and likely to pull off.
Bike tube is bark doesn't mind being totally covered for a while.
Vet wrap if bark isn't sensitive and won't pull off when you remove it; for instance young stock or Junipers if you are going to peel the bark and polish etc.

Rubber then vet wrap or covering over rubber if you are concerned about heat transfer.

Grant