Vesele praznike

First snow

Cornus mas in autumn

Usually the leaves of the Cornus mas just fall off in autumn with almost no color change at all. At least my Cornus did it that way. This year it was a bit different. Here a few photos.

Ponavadi jeseni dreni samo odvržejo liste brez kake spremembe v barvi. Vsaj tako je bilo po navadi na mojem drenu. Letos pa je prvič le pokazal nekaj jesenskih barv. Spodaj nekaj slik.

Photo of the tree from this summer.

Slika drevesa, kakršno je bilo letos poleti.

One more photo from before the first styling in 2011 and the last one from 2013.

Še slika pred prvim oblikovanjem pomladi 2011 in spodaj iz 2013.

Larix half-cascade

I found and collected this larch in the mountains in 2007. For the first few years I concentrated on root reduction since it had to be planted in quite a big container at first. Also I worked on the big jin which was still alive when I found it but I removed the green right at the start.

Ta macesen sem našel v gorah in ga izkopal leta 2007. Prvih nekaj let sm se osredotočal le na zmanjšanje koreninske grude, saj je sprva moral biti posajen v dokaj veliko posodo. Prav tako sem se ukvarjal z obliko velikega jina - ta del je bil še živ, ko sem drevo našel, ampak sem ga porezal že ob izkopu.

This image was taken just before the first styling of the crown in 2011. You can notice that a few big roots still had to be removed to make this half-cascade style possible. 

Spodnja slika je nastala ravno pred prvim oblikovanjem krošnje leta 2011. Opazite lahko nekaj štrcljev, ki so ostali od večjih korenin, katere sem moral odstraniti, da sem macesen lahko posadil v manjšo posodo in v sedanjo pol kaskadno pozicijo.

Summer of 2012. Some strong new growth is showing one year after styling. I begun growing new branches for the apex because the structure of the old one was quite bad.  

Poleti 2012 je macesen že kazal močno novo rast, eno leto po prvem oblikovanju. Prav tako sem začel z vzgojo vej za nov vrh, saj je bila struktura starega precej slaba.

Autumn 2013

Jesen 2013

During this year's spring I repoted the larch into its final pot which was custom made for this tree by Erik Križovensky.

Letos spomladi sem ga posadil v končno posodo, katero mi je naredil Erik Križovensky posebej za to drevo.

And this is how the tree looks now in its autumn colours. The apex will need one more wiring next spring and then the tree will be ready for exhibiting.

Spodaj pa lahko vidite, kako drevo izgleda danes, v svojih jesenskih barvah. Nov vrh moram spomladi še enkrat ožičiti in nato bo macesen že pripravljen na razstavljanje.

Juniper from the beginning

If I remember this was my second ever chinese juniper. I got it in 2006. That time for me it was a pretty nice material. So happily I took it to one of our club workshops the next year.

Če se pravilno spomnim, je to moj drugi kitajski brin, ki sem ga dobil. Prejel sem ga leta 2006 in takrat se mi je zdel kar odličen material. Zato sem ga prav veselo nesel naslednje leto na eno od naših klubskih delavnic.

This was the result after the workshop. I repotted it earlier in the same year.

Tole je bil rezultat po delavnici, po prvem žičenju. Presadil sem ga malo prej, istega leta.

Believe it or not, in 2008 I took it to it's first exhibition. And now as I look through the old photos it wasn't ready at all but at that time for me it was ok. Plus it was one of our first exhibitions in Slovenia and the other trees were of simmilar quality. 

Verjeli ali ne, leta 2008 sem ga nesel že na njegovo prvo razstavo v Ljubljano. Ko sedaj takole gledam skozi stare fotografije šele vidim, da mu je manjkalo še kar nekaj let. Ampak takrat se mi je zdel žečisto primeren in zrel. In ker je bila to ena naših prvih razstav, se po kvaliteti ni toliko razlikoval od drugih dreves.

This was in 2012, a year after the second wiring.

Tole je slikano 2012, eno leto po drugem žičenju.

But to sum it al together I was never really happy with the tree. It somehow always looked a bit awkward. So that was the reason I let the tree grow freely for a few years, before I decided to make a total redesigning of the tree. 

Before the work.

Vendar po pravici povedano mi to drevo nikoli ni bilo zelo pri srcu. Vedno je delovalo nekako čudno, brez vsake dinamike in prave oblike. Zaradi tega sem ga par let pustil prosto rasti in se letos končno odločil, da je čas, da mu dam novo obliko.

Pred delom.

The first step was to improve the trunkline and make the bransh selection. As you can see the smaller apex is no more. 

Prvi korak je bil dodatno krivljenje debla in selekcija vej. Odločil sem se spodnji vrh spremeniti v jin.

 

Here is the new design. I am much happier with the new style of this tree and it it also a good indicator of how my knawladge in the art of bonsai has improved over the years. Lets see what the future brings.

Tu pa je trenutni končni izdelek. Z novo obliko sem mnogo bolj zadovoljen. Prav tako je to drevo dober indikator koliko se je moje znanje bonsajizma skozi leta izboljšalo in me prav zanima kako bo v prihodnje.

Work

Durig the weekend we were working on some trees again. We made an initial styling on a Chamaecyparis, some minor wiring on a maple to improve the overall image and we prepared a juniper for a total redesign work.

NikArt bonsai studio is working hard as always, come join us sometime!

Čez vikend smo ponovno delali na drevesih. Drugače pač ne gre :) Prvič smo oblikovali grahasto pacipreso in postavili lepo strukturo za nadaljni razvoj, ožičili par vej za izboljšavo celotne podobe na javorju in pripravili kitajski brin na novo predelavo dizajna.

NikArt bonsaj studio dela s polno paro naprej, pridružite se kdaj!

More autumn

Some more autumn colours while they last.

Še nekaj jesenskih slik, dolker je listje še na drevesih.

Autumn colors

Bonsai Europa

Last week me and my friend Jože went on our longest car trip so far. Alltogether we made 3000 kilometers and spent 22 hours on a ferry. We visited a smaller town named Bury which is located near Manchaster, UK. Our goal was the well promoted bonsai event Bonsai Europa, where I was also one of the demonstrators.

Prejšnji teden sva se s kolegom Jožem podala na najino najdaljšo vožnjo v življenju. Vsega skupaj sva prevozila 3000 kilometrov in preživela 22 ur na trajektu. Obiskala sva manjše mestece Bury, blizu Manchastra v Veliki Britaniji. Najin cilj je bila dobro oglaševana razstava Bonsai Europa, na kateri sem bil eden od demonstratorjev.

Here are some photos of the exhibition and the trading area.

Tu je nekaj slik razstave in prodajalnih polic.

I had my demo on Sunday. On the first photo below you can see that the whole room was packed with people. I was working on a Pinus sylvestris.  It was not a simple task to make a nice bonsai on the demo on a tree with so menny branches, so i focused on giving the tree a nice structure for the future and in a few years when it gets denser I'm sure it will be looking very good.

Jaz sem imel demonstracijo v nedeljo. Na prvi sliki spodaj lahko vidite kako polna je bila dvorana v kateri se je delalo na drevesih. Jaz sem delal na rdečem boru. Po pravici povedano, ni bil ravno najboljši material za demonstracijo, saj z njegovimi redkimi vejami ni bilo mogoče narediti lepega prvega izdelka. Zato sem se bolj osredotočil na prihodnost tega drevesa in mu oblikoval lepo strukturo. Ko se bo vprihodnjih letih zgostil, pa bo prav lep.

The main reason why we traveled by car is because I was also exhibiting two of my trees.

Glavni razlog zakaj sva se podala na pot z avtom, je bil v tem, da sem jaz prav tako razstavljal dva svoja bonsaja.

And a photo of all the demonstrators.

Še slika vseh demonstratorjev.

Overall I can easily say it was one of the best events in Europe at the moment. It can be easily copared to Noelanders Trophy or Salieu. I must also congratulate Tony Tickle including all his crew who made it happen and also for inviting me to do a demo. See you next time!

Če povzamem vse skupaj, lahko brez problema rečem, da je bila to trenutno ena boljših razstav v Evropi, primerljiva z Noelanders Trophijem in Salieujem v Franciji. Prav tako pa moram čestitati Tonyu Ticklu in vsej njegovi ekipi, ki je dogodek naredila mogoč in se zahvaliti za povabilo. Se vidimo naslednjič!