One of my first; suggestions welcome!

Six

Hello all. I'm a novice and was wondering if I could get some suggestions as where to go next on this particular tree.

I bought it as a 'practice' tree for a few bucks at a local nursary.


Picea abies Norway Spruce "Little Gem" (dwarf?)

The cuts are far from crisp and far from clean as you can see below. I think this was an inappropriate species to bonsai, or inappropriate for beginners. ((I have a few junipers I am working on as well which I know are beginner friendly. This species was much more difficult, though seems to have some shape promise IF I can cut it correctly.))


The tree is about 6" tall now.

Any suggestions as what to do next? I want to try to do an informal upright if it wasn't obvious.

Thanks for looking. Glad to join the forum!

-Liz

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soonami

If you could back the camera up and shoot the tree with the intended front, back, and side views, that would be much more helpful.

The tree looks like it could have some potential after some work, but you should consider thinning out the branches some more and visualizing what you want the tree to look like. I find sketching to be very helpul. Also, I'm fairly new to bonsai too, and if you are interested in spruce, then I think you should go to the gallery and search for some pictures of other spruce other members have styled for inspiration. Then try to message them and ask for help. A google search for images is good too.

I think the most important thing for a beginner is to look at pictures of trees and develop an aesthetic sense of what looks good in a tree and after you have a philosophy on what looks good in a tree, then you can you do bonsai to be proud of. Otherwise, trees won't look right to you because you don't know what looks right to you.

There is a lot of help to be found on the forum, so I hope you stick around and learn more about bonsai.

Also, pick up a book or read some articles about styling and wiring techniques. From what I can see, there is a lot you still have to learn But it's not too hard

Good luck with your tree and I hope to see some more pictures.

Six

yea, the books I've read don't go into wiring very well. I'll admit I kinda just winged it. I mainly was trying to train the branches down and thought a little messy wiring wouldnt be a big deal.

I'll check out the gallery and see what I like.

I'll post more pics as well.

Thank you for the encouragement, I guess that's what I really need

Six

i liked this guy:

http://pictures.bonsaitalk.com/show...&cat=all&page=1

ill keep working on it.