Saturday, October 25, 2014

Walking on the road to exhibition

Me and my friend Jože have been working hard for the past two years on this squamata juniper to get it into exhibition condition. Since the first (new) styling last spring the tree made a shocking transformation; in a good way. Today we wired and styled it again. Next spring it goes into its final pot and hopefully it will be ready to be exhibited in summer.






Monday, October 20, 2014

The two-headed spruce

I found this spruce in late summer 2011. The very moment I saw it I knew it will be a two trunk, that it will be needed a LOT of work before it will be finished and that it will make a very fine bonsai in the end.
This spruce was growing on a pasture in the mountains where every year animals eat the new foilage, making these spruces very dense. The one problem with this is that all the green is at the end of the branches since no sun light can reach inside the crown.

2011



So before I could style it I had to cut all the dead an unwanted branches and let some sun light reach the insides to make the spruce backbud.

Early 2014 - after removing unwanted branches and making jins out of them.


Spring 2014 - repotted into a smaller pot (still big though). Note all the strong new growth.


Now - after rough first styling. I only bothered to wire and position the main branches. The fine styling will take place maby next autumn or even later.



2011 - Very dense - not as soft as you might think :)


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Trip to the Czech Republic - Day 3 & 4

For the weekend we were hanging out mostly at the exibition, which was part of a big gardening fair, so there was a lot to see. Overall there were I think over at least 80 bonsai exhibited, a few sellers sold their products, and plenty of visitors.







I exhibited three bonsai there. My big juniper.

 
 My dogwood.


And my little shohin juniper for which I recieved an award by the Czech bonsai association.



Some of the other trees.
















Like at any other exhibition there were plenty of demonstrations. Seok Ju Kim (Korea), Milan Karpišek (CZ), Pavel Slovak (CZ) and Šarka Jasenska (CZ) are only a few of the demonstrators who worked there.







And happy after a few great days on our way home we saw the most beutifull sunset ever.


Trip to the Czech Republic - Day 2

On Friday we took a ride to Isabelia bonsai center. It was only a 20 minute drive from where the exhibition was so it would be foolish not to go.
We were also served some coffee and had a plesent talk with Joseph Valuch, the boss of the place.