[RESULTS] Shohin Progressive Styling Competition 2011/2012

[Steven]

G'day,

I've had these beautifully hand crafter pots sitting on my shelf for the last 18 month and they truly are works of art. Vic Harris is a real craftsman and I encourage you to check out his website Erin Bonsai and thank him for supporting us with his generous donation of prizes for this competition.

The introduction thread to this competition has had almost 134,000 views since it was posted. During the 2nd week it had over 25,000 views from all over the world. Our little competition was obviously being talked about across the globe!

I really enjoyed the competition. Not just as a participant trying to push my entries as far as I could, but also as an observer seeing the different species, techniques and styles. I'm also really pleased that together we were able to show that a decent shohin sized bonsai could be grown from scratch in a little over a year. It is my hope that we have encouraged others to give it a go!

It was really disappointing that some entries were withdrawn or disqualified as there were some absolute beauties that we never got to see 'finished'. More on this later...

Now on to the winners

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

1st with 27% - Me, Steven - Casuarina torulosa

Steven Casuarina before and after.jpg

2nd with 13% - Taffy - Ligustrum Ovalifolia

Taffy Ligustrum before and after.jpg

3rd with 9% - Ryan - Juniper squamata

Ryan Juniper before and after.jpg

I am very humbled that my little Casuarina received so many of your votes but I don't think it would be fair for me to claim a prize so I've decided the pots will go to 2nd, 3rd and 4th places. Therefore Andrew Legg with 8% for his Ulmus parvifolia will also receive a pot.

Andrew Legg Ulmus parvifolia before and after.jpg

Taffy, please PM me your postal address and choice of pot.
Ryan, please PM me your postal address and 2 choices of pot (Taffy gets first pick)
Andrew, please PM me your address and you will get the one the other 2 blokes don't pick. All 3 are sweet so don't feel bad about not getting a choice mate.

Now, about those entries that never got 'finished'. We are going to keep the competition going for another 12 months and all (living) original entries 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 Vic Harris for donating the pots for prizes and a huge thank you to everyone who participated .

Regards,
Steven

[Handy Mick]

Congratulations Steven for doing a great job of the comp and for actually winning the comp too, congratulations to the other three aswell.

Regards
Mick

[sreeve]

Congratulations to all winners and everyone who entered.

My hat off to the real winner who as per normal gives without any thought to himself first. There won't be a person on here who wouldn't join me in both congratulating and thanking you
Regards
Steve

[kcpoole]

Awesome Results to you all and congratulations.
A great gesture from you steven as well:yes:

Ken

[Andrew F]

Congrats everyone, beautiful shohin. Look forward to seeing them next year.

[The-Calli-Kid]

good stuff!
Lucas

[Taffy]

Thank you for setting up this competition Steven. It was great adventure for me. I never thought my little privet would reward me with a place in the first three (or really four). When I dug it out of the ground, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. The tree itself actually led me down the path it wanted to go - I just followed its lead.

Congratulations to all the winners and also for all you other guys for having a go - you all deserve the accolades.

It was a pity that so many were withdrawn for various reasons (I even withdrew two of mine) as there were some really great entries amongst them all.

I intend to continue posting updates on my tree as it further develops, and I think I'll be keeping it at Shonin size.

Thanks again Steven and thanks to everyone involved in the competition - including the members that posted comments. Overall it made for a great competion.

[mugen]

Great little trees loved the casuarina was really nice Steven the privet was my second vote. Loved them all.

[Andrew Legg]

Well done to all who took part. It was good fun to be along for the ride, and Steven, your offer was not expected at all. It is very kind of you. Ryan, I'm pleased you pulled ahead in the end mate!

Many thanks to Vic for the pot donations and great idea to keep it going for another year with the original entrants Steven. Hopefully the trees will really start to shine by then!



Andrew

[mal]

What a great competiton. It is amazing to see what can be achieved in a short period of time. Well done to all of the winners
I can only dream to be as good
Mal

[alpineart]

Well done to all who entered and especially those who managed to remain in the comp with tree's that survived . Now Steven whats this "not fair" capper, your one of a kind mate . Congrats to all the winners .

Cheers Alpineart

[matlea]

It's been great watching the trees progress over the comp time frame... Some impressive results. Congrats to the winners! Look forward to participating in the next one!

[LLK]

Congratulations to Steven, Taffy, Ryan and Andrew!!
You sure deserved the enthusiastic voting you got, Steven especially.
I think it's a FANTASTIC idea to prolong this competition by another year, especially with the previously disqualified ones included. I look forward to the start! Again, many thanks, Steven.

Lisa

[fireworks]

A sincere Congratulations to Steven, Taffy, Ryan and Andrew for your wonderful entries in the competition as well as being "Winners".
Congratulations also to all those who entered this competition. The trees that made it to the end were absolutely fantastic. Thank you.

[Ryan1979b]

Cheers everyone for the votes and thyank you to Steven for setting up a great competition. I didn't have any shohins in my collection, the competition was a great way to introducing me to them. It was a great competition and I really enjoyed watching progression of all the entries and the different techniques used by each person. Congrats to everyone, trust me I had a very difficult time picking out my three thats for sure. Cheers Andrew, your tree was a little cracker, I loved it. I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on it along with a fair few others over the next 12 months i think there will be some excetions shohind to come out of it

Cheers all

Ryan