Amazing transformation and I love the branching structure (top right and bottom left) but…at first glance and from my vantage point, the main trunk seems disproportionately heavy and too straight. Wish I could see what others see. Is this styling meant to convey a tree given a 2nd chance (after the main trunkline snapped)? If so, I kind of see where it’s headed - trying to re-establish itself - but wonder if the branches are ever meant thicken up/catch up?
The whole point was to use a stump and create something out of it. Once the main branches have secondary/tertiary branches, the trunk will be hidden and the hollowed area will become more pronounced. The tree grows well. It will be repotted the following spring. Branches can thicken on any tree as long as they are allowed to grow plenty of leaves/needles.
I live outside of Seattle, just north of Ryan/Mirai, and I have lived in London for a year. The weather is almost exactly the same. Obviously there will be some regional climate differences and species differences but being in the UK you can more directly apply what Ryan is saying more than most people in the US.
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Curious: Did you ship your trees to the UK or ship any back to the US, and if so how did you go about it? Or did you start a small collection while there and return to the US without them?
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I didn’t start bonsai until moving back to Seattle.
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Harry Harrington takes the cake for me in creating deadwood and carving ugly stumps into something magical. his instagram account is filled with shots of trees from collection to current state.
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update on “Ted” to his friends (Edward the English Elm)
deadwood got treated with cpes about a year ago. just starting to weather nicely.
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I know this is an oldish thread, but since it’s been bumped: another UK-based artist doing a lot of carving on ugly stumps is Will Baddeley (Wildwood Bonsai).
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Gwen, did you work with Will while he was in NZ?
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Hows this looking now Stavros?
I sat in on a few workshop sessions (didn’t have a tree of my own to work on yet) while he was in town.
He was also the judge at 50th anniversary convention and show while he was here.
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Let me take a pic of it during the weekend and upload it…it was repotted a few weeks ago and it looks fine
Hi Stavros, thanks for posting the photo. Good to see its going strong.
Yes I did have a trade space as well as a tree in exhibition at ExpoBonsai near Heathrow. I’m not sure if we spoke?
I did not manage to get to the show unfortunately…
Classic Will Baddeley.
Glad you were able to see Will work, he is a good friend of mine and told me NZ gave him the warmest of welcomes.
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That is a shame. It was the best exhibition of quality bonsai I’ve personally seen in the UK.
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I’ve seen plenty of pics…shame I could not make it… I wanted to look into any interesting yamadori on sale as well…
Reviving this thread, because he also does/did this…
For maybe the last year or so I have routinely watched videos on YouTube by a guy who goes by the handle “Bonsai Junkie”. That’s the name of his channel. Say what you will about him, but I very much loved his videos and his trees because, to me, he is the average-person’s bonsai inspiration. So low tech, so crude, that he uses a simple pair of kitchen scissors and eyebrow tweezers for almost every pruning operation. Simple, easy, motivating. And his trees were so gnarly and interesting and “ugly”. Everything I love about bonsai. Anyway, he mysteriously disappeared from YouTube months ago, and has never returned. No message about it, no stated reason, and no way to contact him. Does anyone know this guy and what happened? He is from the UK, but I don’t know where, so maybe some UK Mirai members may know who he is? If anyone knows him, I would love to know if he plans to return to YouTube, or if he has moved to a different platform. I can’t seem to find him, and I very much miss him and his trees.
Thanks
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@mm1313 I also enjoyed Bonsai Junkie’s youtube videos. Especially one of his Elms styled in the image of a Robert Steven’s sketch from Robert’s book “Vision of My Soul”. No idea why Bonsai Junkie took them off YouTube. All I know is his forename is Russ and he lives on the south-west coast, in Devon not far from Plymouth.