Bending a Black Pine
Posted: August 5th, 2017, 7:24 pm
Hi folks,
Last week at the School Of Bonsai we were looking at doing heavy bends. I went looking through my trees to see if I could fine something suitable. I found a Black Pine and a Juniper that need some serious bends. The following photos show what I've done with the Black Pine.
This tree is one of the air layers I've done from a large Pine I use for demonstrating layers. I removed a couple of bottom branches that were being used to thicken up the base. The tree had some bends and I thought it had potential to be made into a Shohin size tree.
The following is what the tree looks like after bending.
I used 16mm diameter Rio Bar to support the tie wires used for the bends. The Colander or plastic pot isn't really strong enough to carry the forces used to get these bends.
The tree was wrapped with Raffia. Support wire was placed over the areas that would need the largest bends. The RED line indicates where I placed two lengths of 4.5mm diameter wire, and the YELLOW line indicates where I placed two lengths of 4mm diameter wire. After the wires were tied in place the tree was wrapped with Raffia again.
The RED ARROWS indicate where the tie wire were placed. Because I wanted acute bends the wire ties help to achieve this rather then just wiring the tree and trying to get acute bends.
Now the waiting time begins. It will take several years to get a reasonable tree and a number of years to increase the ramification.
Regards Ray
Last week at the School Of Bonsai we were looking at doing heavy bends. I went looking through my trees to see if I could fine something suitable. I found a Black Pine and a Juniper that need some serious bends. The following photos show what I've done with the Black Pine.
This tree is one of the air layers I've done from a large Pine I use for demonstrating layers. I removed a couple of bottom branches that were being used to thicken up the base. The tree had some bends and I thought it had potential to be made into a Shohin size tree.
The following is what the tree looks like after bending.
I used 16mm diameter Rio Bar to support the tie wires used for the bends. The Colander or plastic pot isn't really strong enough to carry the forces used to get these bends.
The tree was wrapped with Raffia. Support wire was placed over the areas that would need the largest bends. The RED line indicates where I placed two lengths of 4.5mm diameter wire, and the YELLOW line indicates where I placed two lengths of 4mm diameter wire. After the wires were tied in place the tree was wrapped with Raffia again.
The RED ARROWS indicate where the tie wire were placed. Because I wanted acute bends the wire ties help to achieve this rather then just wiring the tree and trying to get acute bends.
Now the waiting time begins. It will take several years to get a reasonable tree and a number of years to increase the ramification.
Regards Ray
