Carving Prep

bonsaial1

This year I will start to carve a few California junipers that I have around the backyard. The one I worked on this evening is ready for some carving. I have started to peel away the bark on some of the dead areas. The top was cut back and some of the stubs were broken and split with a trunk splitter.

In the coming weeks I will start the tedious task of removing large portions of wood with power tools till I get the trunk like I want it. Some small wireing will be done and then it will rest again for a few years to gain strength and grow more foliage.

The last picture shows three more junipers that will get carving this summer.


ak

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soonami

lol, you should've seen what Marco Invernizzi does when he's carving jin. Basically he takes the huge branch splitters and starts biting into the trunk taking bark and hard wood off, and with sheer power rips off the wood exposing the grain. When asked about this aggressive style, he simple said "Is mother nature gentle? Does the lightening go easy on the tree afraid of its feelings?"

Mcspeed

Does anyone have links or good reading material to help one educate himself on this process. I have a couple of trees that I feel would benifit from carving but from the small amount of reading I have found, it's more than a little scary to start chiping away with out some knowledge of how to proceed.

Thanks in advance
Bill

p.s. I am also in the envious position of having the opportunity to see a demo, and partake of a work shop with Graham Potter of the U.K. next week at our club.

bonsaial1

I found myself with some free time after work today to resume work on the juniper. I decided that I could start to rough out the initial carving. I feel that if I break the carving up into segments, I will not get bored and screw something up. To night I gathered up all my favorite carving tools. Die grinder, chainsaw attachment for angle grinder, and flex shaft tool for roto-zip. the flex shaft holds dremel size bits and makes the more detailed carving easier. I have tungston carbide burrs for all the carving tools and these things work extremely well. Especially on dry wood. The extra coarse will not clog on dry wood.

After this first segment of carving, I wired the foliage (what there is) into an upright shape. Fertilizer has been making the foliage grow well and I did some pinching for increased mass.

See any difference?

ak

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