Driftwood style carving

[Magzy]

This is my first attempt at a progression, i started with a straight piece of branch and carved the whole thing out until a got a type of rotted trunk look but its now more like a piece of driftwood. The plant i used is a Melaleuca "Little Red" and is still very young and thin but it has taken a lot of punishment from my inexperience and is growing quite strongly now. I carved some channels in so the plant just locks in nice and firm so i don't need to tie it in. Once the plant fills out a bit more and some trimming i will start to shape and set it in a new pot. Still not sure on the knot but i will leave it for now and see what happens. This is my first attempt at something like this so all comments and help would be great.

bonsai 003.jpg

bonsai 004.jpg

[lennard]

Nice carving done .

Have you treated the wood?

Lennard

[jozaeh]

Hey Magzy,
Good on ya for trying your fun at a thing like this, i've only done a few wrap around deadwood plantings as well and they're still young babies in my collection with alot of growing to do. But I find it's a really challenging and fun to explore style of the art. and Snappingly good carving there mate. I've grabbed alot of photos ol deadwood on trees and dead stumps as inspiration in prep for a big trunk chop carving session i'm going to do on one of my trees. It's a real art getting carves to look truly natural, and you pulled it off.

The knot: as for the knot on the side, i feel it might be toppling the motion of the deadwood off balance a little. The dark circle line tends to steal the eye from the rest of the tree and wood, which is a shame. So maybe sketch out some possible carvings to lessen the knot's ball-ish shape? I hope you don't mind i did a quick photoshop edit to show what one carving might look like.

Growing: If i had this tree and setup, I'd let the tree just mega grow freely to help her thicken and really 'grab' the inside of the deadwood to become one with it. I'd possibly put it in a larger grow box when you feel comfy moving it, to give it more root growing space and hence speed up the growth process.

I'm by far NOT a master 'sai artist, so take my tips with a truck of salt! ha! You're gonna have fun shaping and styling this one, enjoy it.

jozaeh

[Magzy]

Thanks Lennard, once i am really happy with it i will treat the wood.

Thanks for your comments and input Jozaeh, yes that knot just doesn't seem to sit right and i've already started to look at different options. I have deepened the channel a bit more and made it wider so the plant will have a bit more room to grow into. It does need to go into a bigger pot to grow but i will do that after carving is finished and wood treated. I love to carve and i do a little at my work on furniture when i get the chance, one day i hope to have a few good trees to work on. You can never have enough photos of trees in nature and some are quite hard to photograph and get all the detail. Thanks again mate.
Magzy.

[Tony Bebb]

Hi Magzy

Truely beautiful piece of wood and nice work. I love the lines and colours. I agree with Jozaeh and would refine the knot as it does take alot of the focus. Would love to see a pic of the original wood.

I would resist potting it up as the excess growth would make the 'live vein' too thick and would potrude out from the dead wood. You also don't want the branches to be too thick as thinner ones would enhance the proportion of the tree and make it look bigger.

Look forward to the development.

Best Regards

Tony

[jozaeh]

Hey Magzy,
Ahh you're welcome. And i know what you mean with the photographing of trees being difficult, I've actually thought of videoing them as well as taking photos, simply because that way you can move around it to really get the 3D sense of depth (like the great 360 views on this site). keep up the chasing of the driftwood and 'sai combos, it's so fun.

And I actually see tony's point, you don't want the live vein to protrude too much and start appearing out of the driftwood. But either way, I'm keen to see how this one progresses!

See ya!
Jozaeh

[Magzy]

One year on, wood has weather nicely, trunk has locked into its groove, lots and lots of pruning and branches are slowly getting there. Still a long way to go but i think i'll keep it and see how it turns out.
Cheers Mark

[teamak]

I was reading through the earlier posts and didn't check the dates on them, or if I did then didn't pay much attention to the year! So it was a bit of a surprise seeing the photo from one year on. Looks awesome mark great phoenix graft. In a few years the flow of the tree is going to be even more pronounced through the 'driftwood' and look a real treat I think. Are you planning on keeping it that height?
...I need to try my hand at some carving I think, as they say the best way to learn to swim is to jump in the pool.
Also, really good photo of the tree. The lighting and colours are great, especially the gradient of the background. Some might say slightly overexposed but I'd say it adds to the movement and depth in the carving and that's just nitpicking anyway
Be sure to keep us updated!

[Magzy]

Cheers teamak, i think the height is where it should be now, just need to get some pads happening. This is where i think the tree should end up but not sure if i will be able to get the foliage to have nice thick pads like that. Maybe i'm dream'n but its what i'm aiming for now.
Mark

[roka]

Well Mark you dream will be a reality in not too distant future You are well in the right direction. Oh and your virt is something else how you do that?