Pyracantha Yamadori Carve Ideas

[Alan Peck]

OK people get your teeth into this one. I'm hoping this thread will bring out your creative sides.
Limber up those Cloning tools and give me some direction on the rest of the carving on this big Pyra.

June2010Dig.JPG

Before boxing.JPG

Collected June 2010 it has progressed well with good growth since and I did the carving to the left stump last year but now I have a number of options for the stump at centre but need ideas.
It is as you can see very chunkie and needs refining down to lose some of the trunk area. Or does it. ?
The worst part of the tree as I see it is the main trunk which is too parralell but with the lack of lower branches am loathed to shorten or grind a taper.
Heres the pics so far.

Front.JPG

P1000545.JPG

Right.JPG

Rear.JPG

Left.JPG

Left shari.JPG

I have thought about hollowing out the lower part of the centre stump with a swirling cave opening all up the front as most of the shari on the left is at the upper part but I have considered halving that by half with some thinning. The first right hand branch comes from the rear of the centre stump so that restricts the shari to the front and left.
So you can all feel free to cut and grind to your little hearts content with your photo shop.
The more ideas I have the easier my final decision will be so get to it.

[bodhidharma]

I am wondering if it back buds on the two lower stumps that have had carving If it does maybe you could consider losing the large straight leader and redesign your idea into a tree with more movement.

[Handy Mick]

A good option from bodhi.
I also like it the way you are going, its only had just over 1 year training from scratch.
I would let the primary branches thicken and get some ramification happening, maybe just shorten that main trunk.

Mick

[Magzy]

Had a quick play with it from front 1, pads are a bit rough.
Cheers Mark

[Magzy]

Sorry mate,had the beer goggles on last night and i haven't looked at the photo's to closely have i
Cheers Mark

[MattA]

Hey Alan,

This tree has really grown well for you over the last year. With your current front I would reduce the central stump to a hollow & shorten the left hand jin by about half & remove most of its bulk as well. If it was mine I would make the deadwood less of a feature by turning the tree around, With a front somewhere between right & rear the smaller trunk becomes visible for a father/son style.

Look forward to seeing how it progresses.

Matt

[Treecollecter]

Very nice pyra man n great carving I just recently collected one on a farm just an opinion ok but I think it would look nicer if u carved the lower part further n connected it to the root

Btw lovely tree

[Treecollecter]

I was wondering what u used to do that carving

[Alan Peck]

Hi Treecollector,
I used a variety of grinders on this. Firstly though I used a few drill bit sizes on it at a veriety of angles. I have an Arbotec mini which was used initially, then a 1/4 ins die grinder with a 'little terier' bit from 'Kaizan' uk.
Then working down in size I used a Dremel with different burrs and high speed steel milling slot drills/end mills which I ground down the shank to 3mm at work.(cylyndrical grinder) Keeping them as short as possible to keep the strength.
Finally wire wheels and polishing discs to burnish.
Not used any lime sulpher as the wood naturaly ages to a good colour.
A word of warning about Pyra's, the wood is very hard and you need to be carefull with the rotary tools don't run off and destroy wood you want to keep.
The bits need to be sharp too.
I collected from Ingleburn area and it was 3 metres high when I started to dig it out.
Good luck with yours, if you need help do you know Campbelltown has a very good club that meet every week.?

[2thousand12]

Man I gotta learn how to carve like that... Awsome job Alan you have got some great skills.
I scored a firethorn myself a couple of weeks back but I'm really unsure of where to start. Trunk is about 4 inch in dia by about 18 tall ,flat top with not much movement and is back budding well after trans.
I will post some images nxt time I get the camera out and see what ya reckon.
Cheers, Jesse

[Alan Peck]

Thanks 2thousand12,
I'm afraid the left stump will be coming down shorter as the movment it has is in conflict with the rest of the tree, it also hides the back subordinate tree as it is in its forground. The chainsaw and mini arbotec will be out this weekend so I will keep you posted with the outcome with better pics.
I have another which I plan to make 2 trees out of by airlayer, just waiting another month for that task. I'll post some pics of that so you can see what might help you on your decisions for yours. They are great material if you can get mature specimens and scare over very nicely.

[kcpoole]

Hi Alan
Any updates on this Pyra?

Ken

[Alan Peck]

Daughter/son tree exposed and now on view, which now helps the composition.
At the next repot I plan to turn slightly right to show the gap now produced.
Comments.?

P1010957.JPG

[Alan Peck]

An update for you all about this tree.
After a few sugestions about the front I did decide to turn the tree 180 degs to expose the natural trunk raft base and bring the smaller tree into the right foreground, I have had a third shoot come up just to the left of the subordinate so I'm developing it for a foreground juvenile to see how it looks. Keeping it scaled down to maintain it's effect will determine if it stays.
Had a mass of flowers this year so I'm hoping the berries left will stay and turn to their colour. I made sure through last winter I fed it with liquid potassium to help boost flowers. Blood and bone was also used as a surface feed watered in each month through spring. Also in the process of tipping the whole tree forward to bring the top forward more. should achieve this with new top growth and subsequent repots.
Any thoughts about the change welcome.
Have a great new year Bonsai time.

IMAG0271.jpg

IMAG0410.jpg

[kcpoole]

Lovely progress Alan
for me the bottom left branch is too loong, but that is just personal preference.

Ken