AusBonsai

G'day,

First of all a big thank you to everyone who entered. Hopefully you have enjoyed the process and challenge of creating a credible shohin sized bonsai in 18 months. It is also my hope that we have encouraged others to give it a go.

Thanks to Pat Kennedy who kindly donated the beautiful pots that the winners will receive. Pat is without a doubt one of the worlds great bonsai potters and we should all be very proud to have him as part of our community.

It was a shame that some entries were withdrawn or disqualified as there were some absolute beauties that we never got to see 'finished'. We will be continuing the 'REFINE' category and running another 'CREATE' so hopefully we will be able to continue to watch all these tree's develop.

Now on to the winners

In the REFINE category we started out with 38 entries and due to many reasons only 9 completed the competition.

The most popular entries as voted by the members of AusBonsai were:

1st [Steven] ficus rubiginosa 27% of votes
2nd [Steven] Ficus nerifolia 23% of votes
3rd [Sno] Leptospermum 21% of votes
I'm delighted that both my ficus have received a placing however it's not fair for me to claim a prize therefore Shibui will also be an recipient with his Trident and Shimpaku entries.

[shibui] trident maple 11% of votes
[shibui] shimpaku 10% of votes
Now for the CREATE category where we originally had a 111 entries but due to several factors, 81 entries were disqualified or withdrawn. Of the remaining 30 entries, the following were your favourites:

1st [Kez] Juniperus Chinensis 20% of votes (51 votes)
2nd [Boom 64] Kunzea Ambigua 20% of votes (49 votes)
3rd [Steven] Crabapple 12% of votes
I'm very humbled that some of my entries were looked upon so favorably but the prizes will be passed on so...

[Matt S] Salix babylonica and [Ryceman3] Leptospermum Laevigatum have tied with 6% of the votes each.
I'll rummage in the prize cupboard to find something suitable to send you both.

If you could all PM me your postal address I'll get your prizes out to you.

We are going to keep the competition going and all (living) original entries from the REFINE and CREATE will be back in the running. Over the next few weeks I'll get all details sorted out and we will launch again. If anyone has ideas for prizes or ways to make the comp better, please let me know. I think this will be a great way for participants and observers to continue to learn

A really big thank you to Patrick Kennedy for donating the pots for prizes and a huge thank you to everyone who participated .

Regards,
Steven

Congratulations to all the members who entered the competitions. Great job to all the winners.

Regards Ray

Well done to the winners!!!!!
That was a lot of fun and a great learning experience!
Thanks to everyone involved in running the competition, and bring on the next one!!!

Thank you so much for providing this Comp Steven. I think it keeps the forum buzzing.

Deserved winners for sure. It shows the patience and skill required to get them that good in 18 months.

I cannot wait for the next Comp either. I have a few contenders lined up already.

Squizzy

I really appreciate the opportunity to take part in a comp like this, thanks Steven for organising it, and congratulations to all the winners, and competitors!

Cheers!

Congratulations to the winners ! I look forward to finally participating in the competition next time around!

Congratulations to all winners and a pat on the back to Mr Pat Kennedy for making the prizes, from what i have seen of the man's pots you will not be disappointed .

Awesome competition Steven. The next time I rummage through my hand-made pots, I’ll try to donate some to the next competition as prizes as well.
Now that I’ve reduced the number of my trees, I don’t need as many pots.

It’s been a great learning experience for me and has certainly got me interested in shohin.
I think the members did a fantastic job in selecting the winners.

It really tests your skills in such a short time frame. I think the most important tip I learnt from this competition was to put more preparation into the months coming up to the presentation.

I can’t wait for the next competition.

Thanks Steven for organizing these comps . I recommend participating to everyone it's great to push a little and see what can be done . Well done to everyone involved .

Congratulation to all who participated. The winners were well deserved. Thanks also to Steven &Pat without whom it would not be possible. Well done to all.

Cripes......thanks, Steven!!! Now I'll have to try to live up to the hype.

Congrats to the winners and kudos to all who were still there at the finish. Twice I've started and twice I've fallen by the wayside. Maybe next time.

Pat

Basically I want to echo everybody else and say thanks to Steven and all those involved in the organisation of the comps. It was a fantastic learning experience for me and I'm sure I wouldn't have got so much out of the last 18 months if I had not participated.
Secondly, another thanks to Steven for graciously pulling himself out of the prizes and bumping me up to (equal) third position... you've got to take the breaks when you get them, and as far as I'm concerned third is so much higher than I expected to finish up so ... And thanks to all those who chucked a vote my way

Looking forward to the next comp already, I now have a few entries for the "Refine" section...

I'll re-echo Ryceman3's comments and thank Steve for all the hard work and graciously pulling out of the prizes too. Happy to see my tree get a few votes and I've loved watching all the entry's progress, including the ones that didn't make it to the finish. Now the world has some additional quality shohin's in it, and that makes me happy.
Matt.

Hi All
First and foremost a big thanks to Steven for organizing the competition. We all appreciate the time and effort you put in ,(love that funky Crab Apple ) One of the most enjoyable things about the comp was the updates , the approach and ideas were fantastic . Definitely opened my eyes to new trees and styles. Also thanks for the votes for the Kunzea and well done to all . Great bunch of trees that only can get better over time. Cheers John

Thanks to Steven and Congrats to all the finalists and placegetters.
Unfortunately mine did not facto into the final cut due to external factors, but I thoroughly enjoy the comp and hope one day to take one out

They do so much to stretch your skill in allspects of our are that they teach so much in such a short time

Bring on the next one where we can refine these ones and get new stock too

ken