Poor Material

Geodude

The latest posts to "Most you ever paid" thread got me thinking about a question on poor material. What happens when someone brings a poor material to a workshop? Does the instructor tell him/her not to bother, or try to do something with it?

Of the workshops and demonstrations I've attended, there's never been a time when the instructor/demonstrator didn't try to do something with the material, no matter what it looked like. Has anyone heard an instructor throw their hands up and say there's nothing that can be done with this piece of sh...tock? If you're an instructor (Walter, Ron, etc.), do you ever tell someone this? (I'm sure there's been times when you wanted to, eh?)

I have, however, been told by a friendly bonsai nursery owner to go find something better when I tried to buy a poor stock.

Thanks.

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Paul

"Life will be sweet like a rhapsody
When I paint my materpiece"

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xtal

i was at a club meeting with my boyfriend once, and the instructor pretty much told him that his stock was crap and he didn't know what to do w/ it. then he kinda just shrugged and said "there's always literati.."

TreeBay

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthr...60716#post60716

People are always bringing unhealthy material to workshops. The poor quality stuff is there too. Hopefully they brought along something else, too.

Regards,

Matt

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Geodude

It's interesting that even after telling the person to forget it, Walter tried to make something of it and did a virtual. I hope the person doesn't take the tree to a show and say it was designed by Walter Pall. Instructors must feel obliged to at least try.

Kind of like when your daughter brings you a tutu to put on and dance with her. You know it won't fit and you'll look silly with it, but you gotta at least try

Thanks.

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Paul

"Life will be sweet like a rhapsody
When I paint my materpiece"

RonMartin(deceased)

When I am doing a workshop I always try to remember that I am just an employee. And as such I need to bite my tongue a bit. I can't lie to them but I must be a good politician.
Most of the time though I do supply the material for the workshops ( and ALWAYS for any demo). And naturally I won't bring anything that does not have potential.
Preparation is always better than a tap dance.

Jonny D

Yes! Yes! and more Yes. This has happened to me and in my opinion should happen more often, there is no point wasting your time with poor material that will ever be any good - I will be forever grateful for the honesty of that bonsai teacher - saves me time, money, space on my benches and headaches.

The peice that was "rejected" was a large juniper done in a sort of a informal upright/broom style and was large with quite a strong trunk line but was also a bad variety for bonsai. I was sat down and told - "I've known you long enough now (actually I hadn't known him that long then) to tell it to you straight, this is poor material, scrap it and spend your time on something else". Which I did and am glad I did. I would rather be told straight and continually improve rather than be modecodelled, have big fluffy ear muffs put on and be wrapped in cotton wool.

However this sort of brutality isn't for everyone and should probably be adjusted to suit the client.

Jonny.

P.S. great post Paul.

Jerry Meislik

I have been presented with less than ideal material many times. The problem for me is to teach the owner something valuable. The tree itself will never be anything great but the knowledge the owner obtains from the information provided is hopefully very valuable. I can teach many points even with poor material.
The fascinating thing is that in many workshop programs the worst materials often gets picked first!
Jerry

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Camay123

I think it's good to have an honest anwser. It can rough for the ego, if you think you have something good and a more experience person tell you it's scrap. The learning curve is difficult and costly. At the price of wasting money on something you tought was good but isnt.

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Candy_J_Shirey

A few years ago, I had a workshop with a world known bonsai artist. Due to my long commute to the workshop and road construction, I was a bit late to the workshop and I had the "choice" of the leftover material. This particular workshop material had a severe reverse taper and all the branches emerged from one spot - hopeless material.

The instructor tried to minimize the problems and tried to say something good about the material and convince me that it was usable but even with my limited experience, I knew it was bad.

He should have been honest. Not only did I leave the workshop with fodder for the compost pile, but I lost respect for him. I did not feel that I could trust him to be honest.

Honesty is the best policy.

(I did learn a lesson in this situation: Don't be late for a workshop!)