AusBonsai

I'm still turning a few out each year. They are slow to thicken so only the few I hide from buyers or plant in the grow beds get to decent size.
I've sent one twisted thick trunk to Canberra club as a demo tree for the convention up there.

Here are a few of the trees I have managed to keep on my benches long enough to go into pots.

Some that are still in training pots despite most of them starting when this thread started.

and a few started since then. Each year I learn a few more of the traps and tricks. Hopefully I'm gradually getting more better trees from this technique.

Some good looking movement amongst them Neil!

Yeah nice trees Shibui. I'd buy them all.

A split trunk and twisted up Shimpaku.

I can't recommend splitting the trunk... had a few plants die from it.

This one was looking weak after re-potting - but has started to push some new growth so I'm hopeful.

One of the hardest parts for me to get my head around has been starting the shari.

I had started putting shari on the inside of curves, but am now adding sections in the most visible sections, say front ( ) of curves rather than outside of curves.

The video below an few others from BonsaiQ seems like a reasonable explanation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSnoF1Ht8Tw

How is everyone else approaching shari creation?

Here is the itoigawa juniper I was talking about a couple of months back. Got the wire out today and added a few bends and a lot of twists which I hope is going to give it some nice lines to run the shari (when that happens) and just general interest in the trunkline itself. It is developing pretty decently in terms of growth. I removed virtually nothing except a few bits of crotch growth to get the wire around so hope it just powers on from here. I'll keep adding to the compression twists and turns as things move forward.
I don't know much about junipers really, not my forte ... they bend pretty nicely though!

This is still one of my favourite threads.
These shimpakus were bought from shibui in 2016 and can be seen earlier in this thread. I've continued to twist and turn the branches into tight curves and the trunks are now about 3cm in diameter. I'm happy to keep them going like this for a few more years and maybe occasionally get one out for a workshop. Thanks again to Jow for kicking this thread off and inspiring me to give it a go.

Matt.