Yamadori River Swept Caliistemon - Quarry

[wattynine]

I have mentioned on a previous post regarding a meeting with a guy who owned a quarry near where I live. At the back of said quarry two creeks meet and on inspection I found this and sought approval to remove it.

It was lifted in July of this year,

CIMG5198.JPG

and potted immediately,

CIMG5210.1.jpg

Now three months later with new growth even all the way to the three prongs, that I was pretty sure would end up as deadwood.

CIMG5635.JPG

CIMG5636.JPG

just drawing attention to the stress cracks in the live tree. The larger tree which is and was obviously dead, I think was under too much stress during floods somewhere from 2009 to 2012. It has been pushing against the front tree with so much force it has also cracked the base - immense power to do this so low on both sides. The yellow circle indicates an internal new root that has grown from inside the damage to keep the tree alive.

CIMG5639.JPG

CIMG5638.JPG

CIMG5640.JPG

The dead back stump presents an excellent carving opportunity but I am trying to promise myself not to touch this for the two year recovery period. We'll see......I can avoid anything except temptation.

hope you enjoy
Watty

[split007]

Beautiful!

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[Steve B]

what a stonkin' piece of native material this is wattynine!

With a combination of that awesome deadwood and the options you have with the branch structure - this is going to be a signature tree imo. From the shots I can see it heading towards a jinned-up juni style, but with the benefit of the cali branch and leaf structure - not to mention the flowers! I think the creek-swept look/style has the potential to become one of our natives defining "looks" (I didn't say style!!). The chance to reference some of the deadwood sculpture in other styles/countries whilst adding a truly Australian theme to the back-story. Think the mods are going to need to reserve some space for this one on the Ausbonsai banner!
No pressure of course

Bookmarked to favourites and waiting for the next update to drool some more....

[wattynine]

Steve, I hope this emoticon is the "gobsmacked" one.
Your interest and comments have me humbled and astounded.
I "knew" of course that this was a good find when I found it, nice to have it confirmed.
Yes some research into getting some finesse into the finished product will be required and just now looking at booking my trip to Tassie for the convention.
Have also the better halves approval for 2017 (maybe 2016) for Artisan Cup in America and a trip to Dan Robinsons, plenty of inspiration amongst that lot.
Have a couple of years before this needs to be "presented".
many thanks for your feedback
Watty

[wattynine]

Steve, I hope this emoticon is the "gobsmacked" one.
Your interest and comments have me humbled and astounded.
I "knew" of course that this was a good find when I found it, nice to have it confirmed.
Yes some research into getting some finesse into the finished product will be required and just now looking at booking my trip to Tassie for the convention.
Have also the better halves approval for 2017 (maybe 2016) for Artisan Cup in America and a trip to Dan Robinsons, plenty of inspiration amongst that lot.
Have a couple of years before this needs to be "presented".
many thanks for your feedback
Watty

[wattynine]

Did I say I was going to wait 2 years....hmmm if patience is a virtue, I think I'm all out of virtue.
This thing was so healthy is was just begging me to do something with it.
So carving wise this is just first clean up, nooks crannies and texture are yet to be built in but you get the gist. first rule of carving remove mass, so that what I have done, with some future styling in mind.
Like wise the foliage gets brittle very quickly on the new growth so I had to show it some new direction as well.
I am just about to update this as foliage has covered the tree since my last work in May of this year but I thought I would show you at least up until then and hopefully time allowing I will update it again in the near future.
As a side note I have begun trialling a product for treating the new and old deadwood so it appears very dark in those photos but the attempt is try and keep some of the natural wood grain colours which on Australian trees I think is so beautiful. This treatment has faded down very nicely in the 4 months since it has been done but I am still experimenting so you'll have to wait for these photos along with the new foliage. sorry.
Hope you enjoy, this tree has been a treat to work on.
Watty

May this year before the work

16.1 0516.jpg

17 0516.jpg

and cleaned, pruned, carved and treated

18 0516.jpg

more to come soon
Watty

Moderators, should be reading this can you take out my double entry from the last post, don't know how I managed to do that, many thanks

[toshtony]

Nice specimen watty, really good find that's gonna look awesome once you pot it up. That's it got to start getting into yamadori searching mode.

[Grainer]

Nice stock

[wattynine]

Just an update, got the foliage a little closer to the trunk by taking off the excess length of branches, shooting back and shaping nicely.
In NQ, we have two major pests for Callistemon, The Callistemon Tip Moth and the Callistemon Tip Borer, both have had a go at this over the last two months.
anywhooo.... this is where we are at.
Watty

27 0117.JPG

28 0117.JPG

29 0117.JPG

30 0117.JPG

and for a little blast from the past a photo from the archives when I first found it.

1 0914.JPG