AusBonsai

last night was the first meeting for the year with an all new president and team. a new venue where we can scratch the floor. we all anticipted what could be and let me tell you there were no dissapointments. the transformation of an old ugly japanese black pine. the beauty in the beast.

this is the before shot but now i have to scoot off to my first pottery class while you guys ponder on this. i would appreciate it if you could keep this thread clear of any comments until i complete the progression. later

What is the red cloth hiding Antonio? Is the intention to reduce the trunk height by air-layering?

Jon

ok firstly let me answer your question jon. that is a wet towel wrapped around the trunk and has been so for 24 hrs prior to this demo. the tree is fairly old and has existing deadwood. wrapping the wet towel is to hopefully to get some plyerbility into the deadwood and bark ready for some heavy twisting and bending. this sort of work is normally reccomended to do in winter but the the demo circuit is demanding and the guys reckon they can pull it off and if not the tree was relatively inexpensive and was crap anyway. the guys im talking about is melbournes very own quentin ballantyne and to assist him our boy here jow.
heavy twisting? maybe bending but how are ya gonna do some heavy twisting. lets take the towel off and check it out.

please refrain from commenting at this stage i will be back later with more.

This is not a comment!

OH COME ON PAALLLEEASE! As if you have a life to live. Just post the pics allready will ya! lol
Peter
(the impatient one)

some of you think i am doing this on purpose? no i have been busy today. but i am enjoying you suffering in ya joks for a while pete.

ok where was i ? oh yes the trunk as been hollowed out where there had been an existing natural shari from die back from a nasty cut earlier in its life. then on top of that there was an airlayer attempted at some stage in the past, that didnt work. so you getting the drift? this tree was pretty messed up quentin did most of the carving during the week and has barely left 2 or 3 mm of new wood attached to the bark. he carved the last section fr us to see. here he was tapering the hollow down and out a little more. big bad arse carver with a flexi drive and foot pedal control. not sure what they're called but they're the ridgy didge.

next was to line the whole inside of the hollow, to the edges of the bark, with cut paste. then 4 lengths of 5mm aluminium wire were put inside the hollow as well as 3 lengths of 10mm pvc tubing to take up the left over space and pack it tight and snuggly. bent into shape and strapped with 3 cable ties. now the raffia begins with jow using all his focus and might to get it tight as possible. as the raffia wraps down the cable ties get cut off. now let me also say that jow is a young talent to be watched in the coming years. i get such a buzz seeing a younger face up there doing it . after raffia they also get a bike tube on. nothing left to chance. this is a very fragile excercise. 3 wraps of 5mm wire follow on. not in the coventional way of keeping the wire close together when you wind it on, but spaced out from each other to give support to as much area on this trunk as possible.

smokoe

No wonder it takes forever to get anything outta Victoria!.......
Peter

Ahhhh thats better

now the twist. the tree's front was chosen originally for its natural shari but the apex was swinging to the back. so to get it to the front the trunk needed to be twisted clockwise to the front and at the same time get a bend in it. so down to it they got. the strength of a bear and the sensativity of cat.(that ones for you lee) just for a moment i would like to remind you all that a failed airlayer had been attempted in the past and now made for a very sensative point that could snap at any time the twist took place and a little bend as well. release for the twist was enough but the force being used to bend was open for human error.
meaning that when you physically engage and commit to a bend of this nature, with the force needed. there is very little warning if any, before bend snaps and your body weight and strength keels the break all the way over not to mention if you pop the roots out of the pot at the other end. so in comes a bender,. good old pulley and lever invention. a block of 4b2 is cut to size and set diagonally against the edge of the pot and the tree at the point where it needs to counter lever the bend. at the other end another block of wood is strapped down over the roots with wire around the pot. the guy wires are set up ready to tie the bend in place. again by getting wire around the pot to tie off to. the straps and guy are in copper. (harder to break or stretch) the bender is then put in position, one end under a pot foot and the other around the top of the main trunk. the racking begins with every turn quetin makes, jow attentively listens with his ear against the trunk waiting for a snap crackle and hopefully not pop but this bender takes the human error and inertia out of the equation. wela its there no mishaps tied in and now the styling begins.

sorry pete had to fit dinner in to.

all in all a great result. the interesting thing i found is that i prefered the back as the front, it shows more movement but now the apex is twisted towards the front. what quentin hopes is the the shape of the hollow in its new twisted position, will add interest and dynamics to make up for its short comings. the bend is not exactly ideal and natural but planting angles may farther overcome that. this will set fairly quickly being only new wood left to bend. i look forward to posting it progres up in another 12 mths or so. but i gotta tell ya, with all its limitations in person its a huge improvement and i would have it no prob.

hey pete im done. now can ya comment.

Thanks for that sequence Antonio, I figured that something was going on under the towel!!!

I have a question though. Does the wire in the middle of the trunk stay there or will you end up with a hollow trunk?

I have seen photos and heard of these major operations before but confess, I haven't tried much more than a root graft.

Jon

no jon wire comes out i think after a year or so and will be left with a quirky twisted hollow hopefully