Shohin Squamata

[Leigh Taafe]

I bought these 3 squamata from a friend of mine late last year and have been itching to get them into some good pots. They came in oversized commercial chinese pots, now one is in a handmade Japanese pot (JSP3) one in a handmade Pat Kennedy pot (JSP2) and the other is in a handmade chinese pot (JSP1). I gave them all a little spruce up before the pics, but they are pretty much the work of my friend who is a master at tiny bonsai. I am considering what I might do with the top of JSP1, maybe I will work the foliage a bit, or alternately I could remove it altogether. My favourite is JSP3 - what is yours?

[Andrew E]

Nice little trees leigh,
I too like the 3rd one the best. Re the 1st one i'd jin the top.
Andrew

[bodhidharma]

No 3 is also my favourite but the pot in piccy no 2 is right out there.

[dragon]

gday leigh
i love pot number 2 and 1 to me they just look magical the 1st tree pic 1 i would look at a cascade style
and the number 2 pic 2 i would try to turn it into a windswept my
cheers dean the terror

[Craig]

Nice little trees leigh,
I too like the 3rd one the best. Re the 1st one i'd jin the top.
Andrew

Hi Leigh,i like the first tree, cheers mate

[Kyushu Danji]

Without a doubt the third tree. The positioning of the foliage and the shape of the trunk..fantastic. I also like this pot the best.

[nealweb]

Number 3 - awesome

[kcpoole]

Number 2 for me
3 is great too but # 1 I woud lose the top ( or at least reduce it

Ken

[Tony Bebb]

No 3 for me too Leigh. More refined and elegant.

Great pots all round, but Pat has done great work as usual on #2.

I would work the top of #1 to make a Literati and drop the first branch down. Have to grow some branches on the top. While I'm throwing them in I would drop the first branch down a bit on #2 and lean #3 a little to the left for balance.

Best Regards

Tony

[Leigh Taafe]

Thanks for all the great comments. I agree with you Tony about number 2 - then I realised I had actually potted it a little too much to the right - if I just tilt it a little to the right it should look a bit better.

Thanks for the feedback from everyone.

[Pup]

Leigh all of these little trees need some compression, they all have a Bunjingi affect. so some wire and some twisting and turning needed.

Shohin still need the same dynamism, of there bigger counter parts, more so to make them interesting.
Being Squamata, they do tend to seperate from the cambium when you twist them so be careful.

Personaly I like them all. Pots aint bad either.

[Leigh Taafe]

Made a little adjustment to the semi cascade one. Rather than repot it, I thought I would just pull it down to a better angle. Threw an AA in for good measure!

[NBPCA]

Hi Leigh,

The sharp bend after the straight bit still doesn't quite do it for me. Maybe just a tweak to add some movement to the straight bit.

Grant

[Sean M]

Hi Leigh,

I am a massive fan of shohin and I love the first tree, and would probably remove the top or maybe put some movement into it and bring it down a bit? But my fave pot is No 2. So much so when I saw PK selling one at the weston creek show, I had to buy it! Hopefully I can do mine as much justice as you have done yours. I will definetly have to pick your brains next time I can get to one of the CBS meetings that you attend!

[Leigh Taafe]

Hi Sean - I will be at the next meeting - I am hoping to finish the micro wiring on the cedar I used as a demo at the last meeting, so I can show people where it is up to. I saw that pot had sold, I took that little juni in on the Sunday and put it in PK's stand for the day. The pot you bought is quite a bit bigger than mine. I walked out with 6 PK pots from that weekend - I love his work !