bonsaiTALK Community - View Single Post - California Juniper Transformation

Fig. 15 shows most of the initial carving on the trunk finished. The large stub left from the removal of the large secondary trunk was reduced and blended into the remaining trunk line. Thinning of the stub will be carried out on future carving projects as the branches fill in and I make decisions on future removal of the upper part of this projection. For now, I just blend it into the trunk. All of the dead portions have been painted with lime sulpher. I have done this at this time to make the job easier for myself. If I wire the tree before painting on the lime sulpher, I would have to work around painting behind all the wires and risk the fluid running down a wire and contaminating the soil or living portion of the trunk.
Fig. 16 shows the beginning of the tedious wiring portion of my demo. The separate branches are wired and fanned to add as much volume as possible to the almost naked tree. California junipers have very course foliage and it is easily damaged when wiring. Pay extra attention when wiring these junipers and take the extra time.
Fig. 17 shows the extra attention I paid to removing all the dead and stringy bark the builds up on these old junipers. Spritzing the bark with a water bottle and letting it soak in for a few moments make the bark rub off with a brass brush very fast. Once the dead portions are rubbed away, the live veins stand out very easily. Determining the live veins and enhancing those areas will help add some drama to the project. Fig. 18 shows the trunk area carved out, enhanced, and lime sulphered.

(Note the red areas of the trunk have been enhanced with olive oil to help in painting the lime sulpher and the carving.)

Fig. 19 is a picture of me that my wife took while wiring. While it shows me with my mouth open, which I rarely do, it does show the concentration of wiring a fragile juniper with thick copper wire!
Fig. 20 shows the tree wired, enhanced, carved and styled. At this point I am pleased with this portion of my demo. I feel that had this been a state or national convention I would have been very happy with the outcome, which was the basis of this project.