AusBonsai

One of the aims of the new Bonsai Week was to share bonsai information. Because Australia is so big and because many of us have lives outside bonsai there are plenty of enthusiastic growers who were not able to attend in person BUT, here in Ausbonsai we have a great forum to share and communicate information so....
For those who attended, What did you Learn? Here's a couple of things that caught my attention. Feel free to add more if you picked up something and to discuss anything that's put up here because maybe I (or others) did not understand correctly.

During the workshop I attended Pavel mentioned that he has found it easier to bend branches, etc if he also twists the branch while bending. His son, who was interpreting, said this is easily demonstrated with a cigarette so if you have any doubt try this out. Twisting the branch at the bend allows different fibres to take the strain rather than the outside ones taking all the force. Sounds good to me and I know I have done lots of radical bends in small junipers while adding twists to the trunks so maybe I've already been doing this without realising.

Clean out old needles before wiring: I have normally left as many needles on pines as possible hoping for some new buds to grow back along the branches but Pavel was insistent that all old needles be removed before wiring. I also remember that other visiting masters have been ruthless in removing buds and small shoots from the trunk and base of branches. This certainly makes it easier to wire the tree and I assume that buds might still grow from some areas where needles were removed but maybe theextra buds are not really needed after the shoots have been wired and arranged to fill the spaces????

Deciduous trees - Branches go upward (most of the time)
Conifers: Branches go downward (most of the time)

Pavel said that he sometimes wraps electrical tape over the top of raffia and wire when making major bends. As far as I can understand he believes that if the bark cracks the tape will stop the wounds drying out so healing will be accelerated.
I think he actually said it would keep the moisture in the branch, I guess that's what he meant????

What other gems did other people come away with

i learnt that living in the South West of WA, there aren't many (if any) bonsai enthusiasts down here. I will always have to travel to shows, demos and the like if I want to continue building my knowledge...

I was reminded that 'negative space' or space where there is nothing
is an essential part of bonsai design

Excellent idea for a thread, Thanks Neil i was wondering how to post my notes in some semblance of order

On Friday afternoon, Pavel performed a critiqu and discussion about a few tree in the collection, He described his thoughts and ideas about them,
one of the trees was a Crabapple and my notes in point form are are here

Crabapple
Only show them when deciduous
Do not style deciduous tree like conifers
Branches should leave in in upward direction
Deciduous trees are muti-apexed ie there is lots of branches in the apex
Not necessarily styled with left right back branches
Deciduous trees cannot be developed in 1 go, the are a multi.year styling effort
This one needs to be a naturalistic style
When developing the tree, do not let it flower or fruit, this just takes energy from the tree

hard1all wrote:I was reminded that 'negative space' or space where there is nothing
is an essential part of bonsai design

Yes he described it well with the Cedar in his critique

How he would open the space under the first branch by planting in a longer slab or tray to emphasise the space there.
Note his sketch of the triangle, He used that to demonstrate the use of negative space to highlight the depth of a tree,

Draw the triangle, then shade in the smaller triangles to give movement and depth to the image! Very clever trick and I have already shown that to others at school

shibui wrote: During the workshop I attended Pavel mentioned that he has found it easier to bend branches, etc if he also twists the branch while bending. His son, who was interpreting, said this is easily demonstrated with a cigarette so if you have any doubt try this out. Twisting the branch at the bend allows different fibres to take the strain rather than the outside ones taking all the force. Sounds good to me and I know I have done lots of radical bends in small junipers while adding twists to the trunks so maybe I've already been doing this without realising.

Yep I do that too
Grant describes doing it when bending things too to relieve the internal strain on the fibres on the outside of the bend.
Provides a stress relief to enable tighter bends without pulling the bark off the trunk.

Ken

kcpoole wrote:

shibui wrote: During the workshop I attended Pavel mentioned that he has found it easier to bend branches, etc if he also twists the branch while bending. His son, who was interpreting, said this is easily demonstrated with a cigarette so if you have any doubt try this out. Twisting the branch at the bend allows different fibres to take the strain rather than the outside ones taking all the force. Sounds good to me and I know I have done lots of radical bends in small junipers while adding twists to the trunks so maybe I've already been doing this without realising.

Yep I do that too
Grant describes doing it when bending things too to relieve the internal strain on the fibres on the outside of the bend.
Provides a stress relief to enable tighter bends without pulling the bark off the trunk.

Ken

Twisting also gives some forward and backwards movement to the bend as well.

Also relieves stress on the inner fibres of the branch.

Grant

shibui wrote:

Pavel said that he sometimes wraps electrical tape over the top of raffia and wire when making major bends. As far as I can understand he believes that if the bark cracks the tape will stop the wounds drying out so healing will be accelerated.
I think he actually said it would keep the moisture in the branch, I guess that's what he meant????

A good tip!

kcpoole wrote:

hard1all wrote:I was reminded that 'negative space' or space where there is nothing
is an essential part of bonsai design

Yes he described it well with the Cedar in his critique

How he would open the space under the first branch by planting in a longer slab or tray to emphasise the space there.
Note his sketch of the triangle, He used that to demonstrate the use of negative space to highlight the depth of a tree,

Draw the triangle, then shade in the smaller triangles to give movement and depth to the image! Very clever trick and I have already shown that to others at school

Hopefully this was just an educational point. The tree seems pretty perfect the way it is, and reasonably consistent with the original artist's design.

Hopefully this was just an educational point. The tree seems pretty perfect the way it is, and reasonably consistent with the original artist's design.

Hi Steve

It was simply a critique. Pavel was asked to select a few trees from the permanent part of the Collection that he liked. He was asked to discuss the elements of each composition that he liked, and to discuss what he would do as an artist, if it were his tree, to improve it from his point of view.

Funnily enough, Pavel liked everything about the cedar and did not suggest changing the style in any way apart from a slight change in potting angle and a different container to hold it in.

That being said, we don't have any plans to change any of the trees that were critiqued.

Cheers
Leigh