Contest tree

RedPine

Hello,

Since we are making threads for our contest trees here is a short write up covering my attempt to make a bonsai.


Juniper Pfitzer Old Gold/Gold Lace

Starting with a 1 gallon plant from a landscaping nurserey the first thing I began to do was was slip the tree out of the pot.Wanting to remove soil from the top down until I found something I could use as the base.I was expecting to find the normal tightly bound mess of roots normally seen with standard garden stock.With suprise I found the bottom half was filled with loose soil and a large chunk of sandstone being used to fill in.With only a small handfull of roots I found what I wanted as the front and moved the tree into a bonsai pot.

After wiring and watering it in I began to play around with possible branches and found my leader.Using concave cutters and snippers I cut back the foliage and branches by half,also at this time I chopped the top portion of the tree off using a subtrunk type of branch as leader.With my new leader wired into it's place and all but my final design branches removed I then came to the conclusion I had chosen a bad potting angle.

With the trunk comming up out of the soil and then curving it just didn't look very much like a tree at all.So at this point I used a spoon to remove the top half of my substrates and untwist my placement wire and gently tilt the tree into it's new angle.I retwisted my wire down then replaced the soil followed by a light watering.

The next time I went to work with the tree I used some guy wires and normal copper wire to move branches in their place.For some of the branches like the #2 branch I had to take a couple of small branches from the backside and bind then together,I am calling this 'compound branches'.
Aswell with the compound branches and the larger #1 branch the habbit of the tree didn't leave anything for making a desirable styling of the branches.Inner growth was just not available so I had to take very small copper wire and fold the small foliage branches back onto them selves binding them to the parent branch.I spent some time arranging and pinching them to look as convincing as possible,not as easy as I had hoped for as the Pfitzer foliage is kida stringy and long.

I kept arranging and wiring the branches into place as I went up the trunk,my back branching is there but combined with poor photo skills they were just to young and weak to add any depth to the image.This was a real challenge,trying to make a tree look good in a photo.Every so often I would take a picture then bring the tree to the PC and compare and judge ...asking my self is this branch to far down?,is this one to long.

One thing I noticed is you have to be more extreme with putting movement into a tree and its branching for a photo.All of my orginal small secondary branch bends had to be redone so some movement would be noticed in the photo.Using the viewer of my camera Iset the tree on a table and would snip and pinch here and there making small adjustments on the tree then checking in the viewer for progress.

What a mess I had going now,I counted that I was pretty much done with the styling so moved on to some ground cover using collected moss and a stone.

There was a lot of white color comming thru from the substrates so I ended up covering the entire surface making small mounds with the moss,trying to make it look natural if possible.Now I was ready to take my final pics then I noticed the trunk s base was dark from the watering,I let the tree sit in front of a small desk fan for a few hours until it dried out making the bark color return to normal.

Then I noticed all of my cuts were shining white in the pics so I used brown colored melted wax to add camo to these marks,also I added a little to some of the wire that was catching in the light.By now there was nothng more I am able to do with the tree so the final pics were shot and chosen.

I was very surprised to see the tree finish in the top 10 and Thank each of the voters and those that left comments aswell as the people who helped to put this contest together.The tree really needs all the styling help it can get and I wanted to use a small accent and scroll with the pic as some had commented on the idea during the voting process,I assumed this wasn't part of the contest so I didn't pursue it.

I had fun and hope this contest will help me to do better in the future.Thanks again to you all.

http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/showthread.php?t=14705

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soonami

I'll read and properly respond to your post in the morning, but I recognized your tree by the table cloth and back drop you normally use.

RedPine

LOL,yeah I couldn't help but notice a few set ups,styling work and beer signs
from around the forum aswell.

Here is a link to the comments area and a few progress pics for anyone intersted,for one you can see the bad planting angle I was going with at first.So far so good with the tree living..crossing fingers.
Thanks.

http://pictures.bonsaitalk.com/show...t=last14&page=2

Attached Images

	contesttry0001~1.JPG (26.8 KB, 55 views)
	slimfast~1.jpg (53.2 KB, 43 views)
	madness~1.jpg (26.0 KB, 41 views)
	ice~1.jpg (29.1 KB, 31 views)
	preshow1.jpg (37.6 KB, 61 views)

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John Dixon

Redpine,

Congrats on your effort. In your above quote, truer words were never said. It's amazing how much you need to exaggerate branching to make is more photogenic.

I didn't mention it in my original comments because pot placement is not a criteria in the contest, but don't you feel this bonsai needs to be off-set left, rather than right? Just an observation.

Good luck with you tree in the future.

John

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John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

Will_Heath

Redpine,

I believe that I mentioned this in my comments and I still feel it holds true.
Detailed wiring of the foliage would have greatly improved this entry.

You did a remarkable job with the stock and brought out a very presentable bonsai but you stopped where most entries did, at the final touches.

Detail wiring is a pain in the butt to be sure, the foliage is tender, the wire is thin, and the work is tedious. But in order to present the best possible image, detail wiring is almost mandatory.

You should be proud of your entry, you did a fine job and made some great decisions on this.

RedPine

JohnD,

Correct with the placement in the pot,when going with my second plan to lean the trunk is when pot position got faulted.

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