DISQUALIFIED Contest: Old Mister Crow's entry

Carl_Bergstrom

Of course. Thank you for your feedback.

Best regards,
Carl

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RonMartin(deceased)

Just giving an honest critique Carl. Honest as I see it anyway. Others may disagree.

TreeBay

Sorry, Carl my reply was to Attila's post. I guess that isn't obvious unless you are looking at the forum in "threaded" mode.

Regards,
Matt

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TreeBay

I think that's why Carl didn't enter it in the contest - the point of the lemon, right?

Regards,

Matt

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Carl_Bergstrom

Ooops - my mistake. Yeah, I don't read in "threaded" mode. Maybe I should....

-Carl

Edit: Affirmative on the lemon.

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TreeBay

Threaded mode has its own confusions associated with it. I guess it is better to quote a bit of the original post??
To expand on my point (I told you I was no good at pithiness) was that the exercise of putting together a contest entry is, in my opinion, valuable irrespective of any gain in terms of work product, prizes, notoriety - or infamy. This contest made people practice bonsai!

1. Planning
2. Seeking out material suitable for bonsai practice
3. Photographing
4. Applying skills, like the ability to trim and wire, working towards a design
5. Presenting one's work for others for review and critique (no small task)

As far as what happens to the material itself after this, it is a rather trivial issue in the scheme of things. Of course these contest entries stand little chance of becoming masterpieces. In fact, most bonsai do not become great, but that does not prevent people from developing attachment to them.
While there was no requirement to put the contest trees in a bonsai pot, even if one discarded his/her work at the end of the contest, it would not devaluate the effort expended in learning and presenting, which is the real take-away, not the tree or the books or the prizes... or the grapes!

Regards,
Matt

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weeijk

This would be a total dissaster.
First, because of the very different trees to begin with, than I mean f.i. price differences. The one with the most bucks has the overall advantage.
Second, not everywhere is that kind of yamadori material availabe. Not every one lives near mountains or coastline.
Third, the ones with the money could ruin this stock for ever, because they don't really know what to do with it. (I'd be probably one of them).

My suggestion would be, to have similar trees, with height, price and style limitations to begin with.
Lets say a Juniperus Chinensis, max height between 30-40 cm, price below 30$ to be styled as Moyogi.
Then everybody could aquire stock, and we would have one style. Further I wouldn't show the owners name, so no-one knows who's who.

Maybe this would be a good idea for next contest.

Wessel

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mkonig

My sentiment exactly. I have learned a lot from last years contest and even more from the most recent.
So what have I learned?

Choose the best material (not necessarily the most expensive) you can afford and choose with a plan in mind. Bigger/older is better than smaller/younger.

For the instant bonsai effect required in this sort of competition you will need to go for a nice silhouette rather than extreme detail. Plan the styling in with this thought in mind (virtuals, sketches etc) and dont start cutting until you are happy that you can translate the design in to the living tree.

Evaluate your design as you go and cut of less rather than more and leave long stubs when cutting off branches for possible jins.

Wire the trunk (if more movement is needed) and every branch and then arrange them.

Then evaluate (more photos sketches or virtuals)and simplify the design by removing the surplus branches, jins and foliage.

Final arrangement of foliage and branches and refinement and reduction of jins.

Take as many photos as you can and from every angle and choose the one you will submit as your front. It is amazing how even very slight changes in angles can change the appearnace of the tree in a 2 dimensional image.

It worked for me this time and maybe Lady Luck was smiling at me a little. To find that tree with a natural spiraling shari was a 1:million chance.

Looking forward to the next one!

Regards

Mike

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Will_Heath

Like in real life? Like in a real show? Cash can't buy talent. I like the idea because it is more like a show where you enter your best and go up against cash, collected material and yes, even talent.


I do not live by these places either but still collect. Like a real show, it just doesn't matter, you enter your best.


That makes a generalization that anyone with money has no talent.



Matt is correct in listing out all the valuable things a contest teaches us, I would add to his list good sportsmanship.

I personally believe that the more we make our styling contests like a real show, the better.

Thanks Matt for all your effort that really makes the contests what they are. Your thankless work and all your time is the blood of these contests and it is appreciated.

Three Cheers and rep for Matt...


Will