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Bonsai Doer
Join Date: Aug-2001
Location: Fresno, CA
Country: USA
Posts: 5,557
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While Rip raises some good points about how far we have come in America, we are light years behind in the parts that count. "Patience".
First, we are content to train our trees by Clip and grow, we are content to pot them before their finished, and not ashamed to let people see our half assed trees and wonder why we don't get favorable reviews from the real bonsai experts.
I spent some time with Marybel Balendonck during the Bonsai-a-thon last Feb. At this time she was the docent in the room of display bonsai. We were standing in front of one of Harry Hirao's Cal. junipers. It is a very nice tree, full of sculpted dead wood which appears very natural. Lime sulpher looks great, the foliage is deep green and very healthy. the leaves of the juniper had been properly pinched to produce thick ramification, which is hard to do on C. juniper.
The problem with the tree is that the foliage mass atop the tree is just a green blob. There is no grooming nor detail wire. The outline of the tree is great sans foliage. When the foliage is factored in, the tree starts to fall off. I asked her why Harry had never wired the crown to add some artistic elements to the tree. She said Harry believes the tree should look natural and to much wire ruins the natural look of the tree. I asked if it was case of really believing that or a the in-ability to fullfill the task? She gave me a look like "Who the Hell are you, and why are you questioning a master?" The fact is, my question is still un answered and the tree still has this odd looking crown on it.
I wonder what would happen if someone like say, Liporace, or Nolander's or heck in our own state Boon or Kuo. Boon and Kuo are, in my opinion the only two that I have seen build canopy's on trees due to fine detail wiring and manicure a tree till it brings on the detailed and artistic look of a finely done Japanese tree.
Second, there is just too much politics in the governing bodies of GSBF to get anything done of any significance. It requires too much red tape, evryone has their hand out, and the governing rule is "how much money are we going to make".
Third, the local club level is just as bad. Too much time is spent on who is in charge of the goodies for the next meeting, how many trees is everyone going to donate so that the club can make more money to spend on bringing in local talant that don't believe in wiring trees till they look good.
These are just a few of the stumbleing blocks that are out there. These are not things that one person can fix. These are not things that two people can fix. These are things that the whole group must address as a unit and be unified towards the goal.
This is the tree I'm talking about. Can't you just see this tree with a crown finely wired on it. It would be spectacular!
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