Carl_Bergstrom

One of the many useful bits of advice that I received from my teacher was the following.

I showed him a shimpaku that I not yet styled, and asked him which side he would use for the front.

His answer: "The front side of a different tree."

At the same time, my teacher has also been willing to let me use mediocre material (i.e., fifty dollar stock of good bonsai species, not five dollar stock of bad bonsai species) to learn with. He's perfectly honest about the quality of these trees, so I know they'll never be great. But this way, when I can afford really excellent stock, I'll have a fair bit of experience working with the same species.

With my best regards,
Carl

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In love with trees