the concertina - 5ft juniper to 17"

Hi,
this was a bit of fun - back in 1997 i bought this garden juniper when i knew no better ! (it was the first juniper i ever had too thinking about it)


over the years I made some pads ! , tilted it up even chopped it up the middle with a chain saw after i got kimuras book !!


Few years ago i bent it quite drastically to see if it would go, and left one little branch to grow.........


And today was a wet day and Mandy has gone to her Mums for the week so I bought everything into the living room and sat watching farscape while putting a bit of wire on .....I quite like it now, and would never have forseen 15 years ago getting the 5ft 'root to tip' original tree into a compact 17" tall



Now how does the hoover (vacuum) work???

cheers Marcus

edit: here is the evolution

Hey, impressive progression, this compacted tree looks very nice, but to be honest - for me it started to look like many other trees. On the very first stages of it's "bonsai path" Your tree have had so much personality. I mean, on this photo - it reminds me old pines from where I live.
Don't feel offended, it's a matter of taste I think. I am rather a fan of naturalistic style in bonsai

cheers, Mateusz

Really nice progression Marcus. You made some seriously bold moves with it and it has come out well.

ItalianCopper wrote:Hey, impressive progression, this compacted tree looks very nice, but to be honest - for me it started to look like many other trees. On the very first stages of it's "bonsai path" Your tree have had so much personality. I mean, on this photo - it reminds me old pines from where I live.
Don't feel offended, it's a matter of taste I think. I am rather a fan of naturalistic style in bonsai

cheers, Mateusz

hi Mateusz, absolutely no offence taken, thanks for taking the time to comment - i think 15 years ago that design was cutting edge for the day and was pretty ok - but the big long straight line looked so wrong, and so 2 dimensional - there was no movement.

you are rtotally right about taste and preference..... I must admit I absolutely love the modern compact japanese style of current years - as you say they are easily found ..... in photos on the internet at least......but as actual bonsai trees you can find for real they are not all that common (not here in the UK anyway). The real tree is a bit more interesting than the picture too, as the depth of field has all the concertina curves of the trunk.
The pines where you live sound incredible - you are lucky to have such inspiring trees around you

cheers Marcus

You are right, trees like that can be seen quite often, but generally in the internet.
Also, it's fairly possible that I would change my opinion if I saw the tree in reality, photo is 2D, tree isn't.

Here's the most famous pine from the place I live in. it's the one on sokolica mountain I have also seen a lot of pines like that on the trip to Croatia - btw fantastic country

that pine is excelent.............i can instantly see how the early juniper image reminded you of it.

nice picture, cheers

Marcus

marcus watts wrote:

edit: here is the evolution

I can clearly see the evolution of our bonsai trees here....As we get older even the same tree that used to be huge will shrink and shrink and shrink...If you can still post here marcus on your 90th Birthday, I won't be surprise to see a nice shohin out of this tree.hehehe.

Nice compaction!!!

regards,
jun

jun wrote:As we get older even the same tree that used to be huge will shrink and shrink and shrink...If you can still post here marcus on your 90th Birthday, I won't be surprise to see a nice shohin out of this tree.hehehe.

Nice compaction!!!

hahahahaah, briliant, yes Jun you are right they do shrink as we age, both in our eyes and sometimes for real.

90yrs old that would be cool, i think all my trees will be shohin before then - unless i can have a team of helpers !

best wishes, Marcus

technically it is very impressive marcus
but esthetically ...i am a little bit like mateusz
i love the second step(what did you put on the living vein to make it black like this? i like this) and also the third
but i think you ve loose some movement and graphism in the last step

the final tree is nice also...but maybe a little bit too compact to see the nice curves of your trunk
anyway good work ..as usually

Hi,

yes I am also aware that lots of the trunk movement is not visible in a picture from this exact front, but I was trying to balance seeing the living vein on the left and seeing the rest of the tree, but totally agree, the front angle is leaving some nice bits hidden, it needs a 3.5 stage (I may carve right through the trunk in a spiralling curve one day if i keep the tree).

To be fair the extreme compacting of this tree is a bit of a play about as I have had it sat around for 15 years and I was at a loose end yesterday afternoon and wanted to see how small I could get it without cutting anything off ! I'm experimenting with the foliage now to try a new method to create very dense tight growth - if/when it works the tree will be layered into several clouds, then it will look different again.

I have a few 'expendable' trees dotted around that i practice with before working on the main trees - big bends, twists and extreme stuff isn't so scary when i've had a practice or two!! Practicing on junipers is always usefull with the new talent contest coming up too - they tend to show up somewhere along the way

cheers for now,

Marcus

anyway ...bonsai is a funny game...and you are playing
...and you re right to do it....i do the same

does that mean that you will participate to the european new talent contest this year marcus?

cram wrote:

does that mean that you will participate to the european new talent contest this year marcus?

I really hope so

I have a first stage competition at the national welsh bonsai show on August bank holiday 2012, if luck is with me and I should get through the welsh heat the UK final is in October at another national show - Capel Manor 2012 . It will be the winner of the UK final who comes to France for the European new talent competition in Summer 2013. All i can do is my best, neatest work and try to make something 'not obvious' from the material supplied.

until then it is practice and play, practice and play...........I think we both do this and enjoy our bonsai all the more.

best regards Marcus