Hi all you sweltering summerians, this week I learned that primary structural and design work, actually most bonsai things, take me much much longer than professionals and I need to budget my time accordingly. This weekend’s work on one procumbens took about 8 hours and I’m not done! I’ll share photos later this week in the design thread.
Once back in grad school I got my hands on a video of a Scandinavian furniture maker and he was cutting dovetails blind, sub-millimeter precision. And while he was doing it, he said, “My father was a furniture maker and he said, “It isn’t good enough to be good. You also have to be fast.”” And then bam, bam, bam. Dovetails.
I think I’ll get faster over time. I struggled with the structural wiring which slowed things down. I was overwhelmed with choices. But I got a good design result in the end.
It also took me a while to get the courage to even go near the tree. I didn’t realize I was procrastinating and scared until I made my first branch choice. I’ve grown the tree for 20 years, not really knowing what I was doing, bare rooting every 3 years, mostly cut and grow. Now I’m making a bonsai for the first time, 20 yrs later. More on that in the design thread, later.