AusBonsai

really like these trees shannon, very nice trunks to work with i like the flair of the second one however im not much of a fan of deadwood on figs.

very nice stock to start with and you have defiantly pointed these trees in the right direction, what is the game plan from here?

Thanks for your comments Jarryd.

I to wasn't a fan of dead wood in figs because they would rot away, but I've found a way to preserve these features.

I use lime sulfur tinted with Indian ink so its not as white, then leave it dis-colour for a few weeks then paint the dead wood with "Earls Wood Hardener" this works on Boug's too but they don't seem to callus as readily as figs.

I don't have many figs with dead wood and I definitely wouldn't do a driftwood style fig but recently I've seen a few old figs with hollowed trunks and limbs and its given me some good idea's on giving a natural aged look to my fig tree's.

thanks for the reply shannon, i have a nice chuhin crepe myrtle with some sections i have hollowed out but the wood of late has become spongey, where do you get earls wood hardener from as it sounds like the type of product i am after, i to am not a fan of the bleached white deadwood on non conifer trees also and your technique sounds rather interesting does the wood hardener leave any sort of visable resin left on the wood, i have been trying to source an american product called minwax wood hardener but no success as of yet so i am very interested in the source of this product.

cheers jarryd

yeah as usual nice figs shannon the earls wood hardener ive seen is in bunnings in the craft section where all the little mdf key hangers and paint and glue is

Dayne is onto it Jarryd , its definitely a resin but its not visible .....But if you do too many cotes it gets shiny.

gday shan

i just noticed you put a couple of these in the comp GOOD STUFF!!! its looking good, what i want to know mate is with the one in pic 016 you cut a rather sharp V into it, an acute angle, can ya explain what made ya do this? i know of the technique but i have generally done it with a lot les of an angle but more offset?


cheers mate

jamie

Not to sure what you mean mate? Is it the hollowed out truck line in pic17 or something else?

this one mate
it looks like a steep V cut has been done or am i just seeing it that way?

Good stuff mate Did I see these guys the other day , all I remember is a blur of envy

Looking good Shannon..... doing a great on the figs. Keep it up mate.

-Tim

LOve your stuff Shannon
they look great
How did you get your mediums ones to this stage? Just let them grow or did you chop and grow till they reached this size?
Cheers
Mick

Jamie I think I know what your looking at ....Its the scar in the middle of the tree.
The story to this is... When I got the tree off dad it seem to have nice character on the left and right of the trunk but very boring in the centre sooooo........ In one of my artistic fueled episodes I grabbed my router and did some damage to the front so it would scar up and give it a bit more character....
Looking at it know it doesn't look to natural ...... Where's that router.....

Mick both are collected tree's mate ..... Mother nature did the work for me.

cool mate,

thats what i was thinking i think it will end up looking natural with some more growth

still a nice tree

jamie