When Did You Know You Had It? - bonsaiTALK Community

27-Jul-2004	#21
Cre8tive My trees hide from me! Join Date: May-2004 Location: Ocean Springs, MS Country: USA USDA Zone: 8b AHS Heat Zone: 8-9 Posts: 462	I wanted to thank everyone who participated in this thread. I don’t have any friends in bonsai, other than from BonsaiTalk, whom I can talk to about these sorts of things. It is inspirational to hear about the different journeys each of you has traveled to reach your current levels of ability in bonsai. Thanks again for sharing. Regards, Mark __________________ ART - An object or event that evokes an aesthetic reaction—a sense of beauty, appreciation, harmony, and/or pleasure; the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful or of more than ordinary significance; the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria

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27-Jul-2004	#22
clrosner bonsaiTALK Master Chief Join Date: Nov-2001 Location: Southern New Jersey, USA Country: USA USDA Zone: 6/7 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 1,111	Crea8tive: You don't need any other friends than right here. This is a big community and you are part of it!!! __________________ Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7 arteacher3725@yahoo.com CHECK OUT MY UPDATED WEBSITE AT[B]: www.carlrosner.com

27-Jul-2004

#23

Camay123

Life Student

Join Date: Aug-2002

Location: Gatineau

Country: Canada

USDA Zone: 5a

AHS Heat Zone: 2-3

Posts: 680

Quote:

Originally posted by clrosner
Crea8tive:
You don't need any other friends than right here. This is a big community and you are part of it!!!

How sweet. But I do agree.

27-Jul-2004

#24

Adam_MA

bonsaiTALK Master Chief

Join Date: Sep-2003

Location: Eastern MA

Country: U.S.A

USDA Zone: Zone6

AHS Heat Zone: ?

Posts: 1,158

Quote:

Originally posted by Cre8tive
I wanted to thank everyone who participated in this thread. I don’t have any friends in bonsai, other than from BonsaiTalk, whom I can talk to about these sorts of things.

Hey! You aren't that far away! If you want to hang out sometime, talk trees and drink a couple of frosty ones just let me know!!!

Adam

10-May-2005	#25
Cre8tive My trees hide from me! Join Date: May-2004 Location: Ocean Springs, MS Country: USA USDA Zone: 8b AHS Heat Zone: 8-9 Posts: 462	I thought I would give this a bump to see if there were any new takers. I still get inspired by these stories. Regards, Mark __________________ ART - An object or event that evokes an aesthetic reaction—a sense of beauty, appreciation, harmony, and/or pleasure; the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful or of more than ordinary significance; the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria

10-May-2005	#26
mkonig I stand and stare a lot Join Date: Oct-2003 Location: Leicester Country: United Kingdom USDA Zone: 8 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 646	I won't bore you with the all the beginning stuff, suffice to say that i always had an interest in gardening and a love for trees. Someone bought me a little chinese elm for my birthday and that was that. The point where I would confidently style a tree from raw material came with a workshop I attended. The lecturer (for want of a better word) was Vaslav Novak (president of the Czech Bonsai Society) who demonstrated the styling of a large needle juniper. I was amazed by the demo and at the social in the evening I asked him lots of questions. After about 10 pints of good ale bought by me and plenty of coercing he agreed to hold a one to one workshop the next day. Looking remarkebly fresh after the night before (and certainly in better shape than myself) we selected a large squamata juniper and he explained how to style the material. I was lost in the mass of branches and old needles and asked for guidance. His reply was so simple that it made me laugh. He said:" Just use your imagination. You know what a large evergreen tree looks like. You have seen the trees in the exhibition. Dont look at the material, look at the tree you see in there and cut everything off that does not belong to the tree in your mind." He asked me to make a few sketches of what I could see and we evaluated the possibilities of them. Once I had chosen the one I thought best I went to work with the cutters and shears. Complete wiring was followed by carefull branch arrangement, was followed by cutting most of the wired branches off, was followed by further branch arrangement. By that afternoon I had a tree that was so close to my chosen sketch that I could not believe it was the same material I had started with that morning. From that point onwards I felt confident to style on my own. I still use the same basic technique to evaluate my material. Find the potential tree and then cut of everything that does not look like the tree in my mind. If I can't see a tree in the material I leave it where it is. simple but effective Mike __________________ I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person

11-May-2005	#27
ripssurf fugu...mmmm Join Date: Apr-2004 Location: Florida (Brevard County) Country: USA USDA Zone: zone 10 AHS Heat Zone: 9 Posts: 520	do i got it or not? it's actually really hard to say. ever since i ws a kid, ive been interested in trees. i think the first thing i ever wanted to be was a park ranger out in the sequoia national forest or somewhere like that. bonsai? well, it's just so cool. the first time i saw an exihibit was out in san luis obispo at an obon festival that my (ex)girlfriend dragged me to and where one of my friends was putting on a judo demo. the trees were cool. i never thought that something like what i saw could actually be done. horticulturally, i know i got it. i have never had a plant die on me except for the odd seedling and an aurellia ming that froze in the snow. ive dealt with all kinds of pests and gotten them to grow. in the future, when i need to learn and master new techniques, ill pick it up quickly. ive also dealt with language barriers, and ive been able to succeed. for me now, the most frustrating thing about my bonsai is that my best trees are not in the states. my first ever "real" tree is a shidare yamazakura (weeping cherry tree) but the shape of it is beautiful. it's sad to think that someone else is taking care of it now, but someday, ill be back in japan and it will be mine (again). styling-wise, i dont think i got it yet. i will someday but not yet. i have noticed though that i am finely picking better stock that has more potential than a lot of the stuff i got before. in other words, instead of having to wait 10 or 20 years to actually make a bonsai, im hoping some of my new trees will be "bonsai" in a matter of 3 to 4 years. when will i get more confidence in my skills? probably never. i want to continuously improve my ability to pick out and see which cuts will ultimately take stock and make it look older and more beautiful than it does when i buy it. that goal is a long way off and, of course, takes a lot of time. thanks for the good thread. time to learn again. jeff Last edited by ripssurf : 11-May-2005 at 12:58 AM.

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