Elanden Gardens Project: Japanese Black Pine

Victrinia_Ensor

Last weekend Dan brought a Japanese Black Pine, to the garden, from his personal collection at home. This is a tree he had grown from seed over 43 years ago. It is very indicative of his early work. He has done a lot of work over the years to it. He decided to bring it in so that we could up-pot it and decide on a new front. As he was not satisfied with the one it had.

He showed me the tree, asked me to choose a new front for it, and then left me to consider it for a little while. He's very interesting that way. He lets me toy with design ideas without his presence to influence me, or make me self conscious. I ultimately chose to shift the tree about 30 degrees to the left, and to tilt it to better balance the exaggerated curve it has to the back. Which I felt made for a much more desirable trunk line.

After a time Dan returned and I told him what I felt and why. He agreed with it, and accepted the new position for the front.

In inspecting the base, Dan found significant die back in parts of the base. He used his die-grinder to expose these areas to the live parts of the trunk. The dead area went from the back of the tree around to the front. The nice part is that the proposed front shows off the most visually interesting area to great advantage. (Talk about luck!)



The following photo is the tree in it's original container, in it's original position. This is to the point where we left it last weekend. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the tree before he started carving it.



So this is where we started from today with the tree. It still needed to be up-potted. But a new issue presented itself to us the previous weekend. The upper line of the main trunk was static and possessed too much visual mass compared to the lower, very dynamic base and deadwood. We discussed how to deal with the problem and agreed that creating a shari in that area would change the way the eye flowed up the trunk. So this was the first thing which was addressed with the tree today.

Again Dan used his makita die-grinder with a router bit, to remove bark. But this time he was not searching for the edges of life, but rather creating an artistic element only. There was no dead area in this section. Based on the movement, growth of the tree, and consideration to previous work done ; Dan removed enough bark to create the image we were after, but not so much as to completely disrupt the vascular flow to the crown. This area may be increased in time, especially on the left side of the shari.

The next few photos shows Dan carving out the new shari. Notice the way he holds the tool. The positioning of his left hand provides the finer control, while the right hand is managing the bulk of the machine. Never in the process of actually carving the tree do his left middle finger, and ring finger fail to have contact with the tree. In carving the lower portions of the tree on the previous weekend, we had to actually remove the tree from the pot. So that I could position the tree into various angles which would accommodate this needed contact with the material. It is essential to control.









The next photo shows the tree after we up-potted it, and put it into it's new position. This also shows Dan working on a rear branch that had not had a lot of work done to it previously, but Dan had never been willing to remove it. The second photo shows the back branch he was working on in detail.






The next steps for this tree will be to allow the exposed wood to dry out until later this summer. At which point Dan can fine detail the carvings using a small burr and a dremel. The tree will be fully re-potted next year so we can address the tuber like rootage that is undesirable. This will most likely mean that the base in this area will be mounded to a degree, but with care taken to not bury the carved wood on the base.

Also... we are having discussions about jinning a a significant portion of the front part of the crown. But none of that work will be done to the tree at this time.


Kind regards,

Victrinia

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Ms. Vic

Le belle cose prendono tempo...

www.elandangardens.com

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Graydon

Nice - thanks for sharing! I can't imagine growing a tree form seed for 43 years. Even with the flaws you noted it's still quite a tree. I look forward to seeing the next installment on this Victrinia.

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Larry

Fabulous work on that tree, and one with real history, fabulous!
I'm afraid I don't know who Dan is though.

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rockm

Dan Robinson is one of the "mavericks" in naturalistic style and is noted for very old collected material. Nick Lenz looks up to him

http://www.elandangardens.com/

Larry

Sounds good to me, now whos this Nick Lenz.....

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rockm

Nick Lenz is a pioneer of American naturalistic and artistic bonsai. He is a noted American yamadori expert and has written one of the definitive texts on collecting in the U.S. The book "Bonsai from the Wild" is a must have item for EVERY yamadori collector.

http://www.artofbonsai.org/galleries/lenz.php

Mcspeed

Victrinia, you are very lucky to be able to visit Dan so often, I had the fortune about 10 years ago to sit in on a work shop / demo at a club meeting fun to watch and learn from.

Larry Dan Robinson, and Nick Lenz are the icons of Western bonsai, find thier writtings and there is a TON of experiances shared and very worthy of reading.

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Victrinia_Ensor

Larry.... obviously you didn't look.... I have a thread called "If you don't look you are missing out...." In the articles section. It talks about some of my early experiances meeting Dan. And it also shows a good display of his work. Which is positively signature in nature. When one sees a few "Dan" trees... you will generally always be able to recognize another.

I am planning on posting more projects of this nature. So I have no doubt you will have an oppurtunity to become familiar with his work.





Mark.... Talk about the perfect word to describe him. He is such a maverick. His methods and mindset will either send a bonsai enthusiast off into a tizzy, or it will set you free. There is almost no room inbetween. Not to mention he is a superlative conversationalist.


Graydon.... I am glad you enjoyed it. I'll post more on this tree as it goes along which will probably be later this summer.


Mcspeed.... I have become something of a permanent fixture in the Garden. I spend about 12 hours each weekend, plus overflow into the next week for projects I don't get a chance to finish. He flits around like a bird sometimes. "Oh take a break from that... I have a big branch for us to move on a hemlock. "
So I can have a hard time being able to finish more time intensive projects.



Kind regards to all,

Victrinia

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Ms. Vic

Le belle cose prendono tempo...

www.elandangardens.com

Larry

Sorry Victrina, but I missed that thread as I dont oftern look in Articles.
Everythings rush rush rush round here at the moment, that's young kids for you! How I find time for bonsai I dont know!

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