Ficus shari

RedPine

A ficus Benjamin's that was as boring as just having carving bits to lay around, I figured while I am simply waiting for more vegetative growth I may try to add a focal point and add a sense of age. I started a Shari and had colored that black but decided later on to turn that Shari into a deep hollow that reaches around lightly and disappears in up into the crown.

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carv1.JPG (71.0 KB, 220 views)

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kragmire

It will be a challenge to keep a shari on a ficus for a couple of reasons. First - wounds heal so quicky it will be difficult to keep it from closing up. Second - ficus wood is relatively soft and rots quickly. Not sure if lime sulfur will be able to help but worth a try.

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Dale Cochoy

Hey Wes....Those bits were for "RAWK" bases!!

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Dale Cochoy
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Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery
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RedPine

They work for ficus tooo.

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RedPine

It will be a challenge to keep a Shari on a ficus for a couple of reasons. First - wounds heal so quickly it will be difficult to keep it from closing up. Second - ficus wood is relatively soft and rots quickly. Not sure if lime sulfur will be able to help but worth a try.




Other than the basic info like this that everyone already knows 10 times over (recarving or minwaxing solves these issues) is there any useful styling options I should attempt to explore for this little shohin?

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tachigi

Wes, I'm not sure I would have gone that way on a Ficus. However since it's been done. I would stay away from lime-sulphur and use teak oil instead, "if" you plan on keeping the shari open. I think that the best of all worlds right now is to let it heal over. Let the callous form and encourage it to swell larger than normal by occasionally carving on the callous just where you want it to bulge. This should make it bulge a bit more normal adding possible to the interest of the trunk. Just a thought.

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Tom

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zen

As far as styling goes, you might consider doing more of you have done already and kind of hollow out the wound, to give it that "struck by lightning" look. If you do that you might even pull the lowest right branch down, as if it has fallen over due to the strike, but lives on.
Just some thoughts, but it's your tree man, do what you think will look good to you.

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RedPine

Hi Taichigi,

Hard to tell from the pic but as I mentioned in my post it started out as a shari but it ended up hollowed. The carving shown here is 1 knuckle deep.

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tachigi

Hey Wes, Sorry I didn't see the knuckle deep part. Guess I need bifocals now. Anyway, I think the teak oil would be the fastest way to deal with it. However I once, and only once bridged a hollow by cutting the upper leading edge of the callous every year for several years. Now, I grant you it was only about an inch but it did work. Took some time though. I think now that I been prattling on, is work with what you got. That didn't help much did it.

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