Redesigning a Shinpaku
I had the pleasure of meeting Fred Janson of 'Hollow Creek Bonsai' at the 33rd annual exhibit of the Bonsai Society of Upstate New York this past weekend, May 20 and 21, 2006. I offered to work on a tree of his choice and he brought the following shimpaku.
Sorry about the
quality of the photograph but I pulled it off Fred's website where he has been
offering it for sale.
The first thing that I did was to check the health of the tree. I never work on a tree that has recently been stressed. The tree seemed fine so I started to thin out the older leaves and any growth towards the inside where the sun doesn't reach and would not be necessary for the future of the tree. While thinning out the growth, I began to think of various design solutions. Between thinning out the leaves and cutting off unnecessary branches I removed about 50% of this tree.
This informal upright tree has a rather feminine trunk-line (flowing and graceful) and thus less foliage would accentuate this feeling and movement. Ken Buell of the club made a good observation concerning the branch that has been stripped of foliage and bark. He thought it was too straight and that I should put some movement into the branch. If time and resources were available, I would have accomplished that task. In Japan, I would wrap the branch in gauze or cloth and pour very hot water over the branch softening it and making it more pliable for wiring and bending. Of course, one must be careful not to spill the hot water onto adjacent areas of living plant matter. I apologize for not having photos of the process of redesigning the tree but I hope the following photo shows the possibilities available to anyone who purchases similar stock from Hollow Creek Bonsai.
