AusBonsai

I need help forming a plan on how to style this juniper, I am quite prepared to try something radical and would appreciate any input and virts.
The lower trunk is quite thick, too straight and near impossible to bend. Thanks
Gerard

hey
you could try tilting it over down the pot instead of trying to bend it and make a cascade or semi cascade depending upon how far you can tilt it.

Hugh

heres a very rough virt. happy new year gerrard! it needs to be tilted farther to the right and then tighten up the 1st bend down closer to the trunk.

Thanks, Hugh.
Cascade is a possibility, my main concern is the lack of movement in the trunk. I hope to find a solution which will give the tree some movement and also make it more compact.

Happy new year to you too Antonio, hope you are well!
Your solution is similar to my original thought, although I did not consider the potting angle (as I should have) you are right in suggesting an increased angle.

Another idea I have toyed with is a trunk split, what do you think?

Regards Gerard

I was thinking something similar to Ants virt, but with the top he cut off made into carved Jin, and big Shari down that side of the trunk instead of removing it like Ant suggests

Ken

trunk split would be wild too. come and see me, bring the tree, plenty to talk about on that direction.

heres a photo pup has put up here. must be japanese.

is that split, or just carved Shari ?
either way it is nice

Hey Gerard maybe this is an option, (the vert is very primitive) jin and shari work from the base up maybe glue in a few false jins or even continue the shari further up the trunk line just to take the focus off the slow curving trunk line.

Gerard, why not do a radical bend? Wrapped in raffia or Vetwrap and heavy wire, it should bend with no problem. Take a good look at Pup's downloaded photo and you will get an idea how to go about it. There are many ways to achieve this, including carving some of the bulk away and/or splitting the trunk. This would be a good tree to experiment with and see how far you can go with a juniper.

Cheers

John T

Thanks everyone, really valuable feedback.
*shari and carving down the main trunk would disguise the slow curving trunk.
*false jins (dont throw away the offcuts)
*trunk splitting and raffia to achieve a radical bend
Pups pic is truly inspirational, nice find Antonio (all I need is some talent and about 50 years)

PS: I often see "vet wrap" mentioned I do not know what it is and would like to know more as I have trouble getting decent raffia

Regards Gerard

all options are good heres one a bit taller

Gerard, Vet Wrap is a self adhesive cloth tape used by vets generally on horses fetlocks. Available from stores specialising in horse equipment. I find it easier to apply than raffia and it is easy to remove afterward. Comes on several colours, but green or black seem most appropriate.

Cheers

John T

Thanks Dayne for your effort, it all helps me keep an open mind. (but you melted my shed )
Thanks John I will see if I can get some.
At this stage my plan is (I wish I could do a decent virt) Inspired by Skippy's post in the last day or so (sorry I dont know how to direct)
And by Jow's post a month or so ago, explaining how shimpaku in Japan are virtually tied in knots.

I intend to split the trunk along the red line, and twist each section alonside and past the tree base.
As the eye follows each section it will show white heartwood and dark coloured live veins as it twists.
This may thrash the tree witin an inch of its life, but hopefully the result will be interesting and compact.

Regards Gerard

Howdy everybody! Happy New Year to you all!

This is a nice material to work with Twosdale! What I would do is use it for styling exercises, or in my study group, sketching exercises. Force yourself to consider all possibilities and draw them out one at the time. For example, for the first exercise: ask yourself that if you have to keep ALL the branches, then how many ways could you draw it. Then take a few minutes and sketch out the possibilities that would have to make use of ALL of the branches. This is the first exercise I usually do for my workshop group. This will cleanse their minds of all preconceived notions. Then onto the next exercise which is that if you could only keep ONE branch, then which one would be best; then start sketching out all the possibilities with just one branch, any one of them. This exercise is very good for picking out the best line of the tree, but not necessarily the shortest tree. To me, the shortest tree image in it should be used as the last resort, unless one really really have to have a shohin. Because once you have the shortest tree image of it in your mind, it is hard to get rid of that image and it would prevent you from seeing the other possibilities. Then the next exercise is to keep only 2 branches, and so on. You get the idea. One wouldn't even have to consider styles such as cascade or raft styles because those possiblities would come naturally, eventually. For any tree, one should be able to come up with at least 2 good styling solutions after all the sketches are done. Here are some of my thumbnail sketches for your tree. If this was my tree, I would probably consider a raft style for it. A split trunk horizontal raft style is probably not a bad idea. I could sketch that if you really need me to. Shannon's idea is not bad either, and is probably the most feasible (depending on your level of experience I guess).
Good luck!
Si