juniper with jins

[AndrewC]

Hi all,

Yesterday I turned my attention to a juniper which had been in the 'too hard basket' for the past couple of years. This bonsai started out tall and lanky 13 years ago... I air layered its current root system to shorten it and keep the top, which already had a nice jin. It's been in a bonsai tray on a steep lean with its two main branches curved in the leaning direction as a windswept style... but recently it's got away from me! So I've re-potted it into a large tray to recover and re-style. I've wired the higher branch into a new apex, and i'm considering removing the lower branch, actually turning it into a jin and developing some shari down the trunk.

Another idea might be to keep the lower branch and jin the top one?

Anyway, it doesnt seem to work for me with both branches retained, but before i go the hack i thought i'd ask for some opinions. Overall, there are some nice individual parts of this tree but it's not working as a whole - trunk too straight, branch too long, kinda reminds me of a clock!

Thanks, Andrew.

Photos from different angles below:

image0001.jpg

[harry]

Your a brave man to admit to having this piece of wood for 13 years. Then starting to try and do something with it.

Harry

[philf555]

Have you thought of literati style, lose the lower branch, keep the top one??? Just a thought

[ben the barbarian]

Okay, so I kind of went to town here, (as you do when you have lots of more important things you should be doing!) and have taken a bit of, um, artistic liscense (eg. that branch on the right that would have to be conjured from somewhere..), but you get the idea. I think as it is that big chunky branch kind of dwarfs the trunk. I reckon either jin it or have that become the trunk itself..

juniper.jpg

[GavinG]

It's been in the "too-hard" basket for a reason....

For my money, the trunk will always be too straight. You have two quite interesting branches. It might be possible to layer the top trunk-branch into one shohin, and just below the second branch to make another. Both would tend to fly out sideways. Might be wise to do one the first year, and the other the next.

Good luck,

Gavin

[AndrewC]

Thanks Ben, for you virt. I like it (and I think I'm going to have to get my hands on photoshop!!) Your vision of the jin from the lower branch is pretty much what i had in mind... and you contributed to the idea of what top could look like, which I was struggling to imagine.

Cheers, Andrew.