Shimpaku project

After lurking around in the dark looking at all those beautiful trees everyone is posting I decided to post one of mine that i'm working on at the moment.
I purchased it this season got some advice from a japanese master who was in town and am working on it with Teunis Jan Klein from Deshima Bonsai.
Did the first styling and attempt to bring the top more down thats why it's still a bit messy.
I didn't wire it in detail yet because I didn't wanted to stress the tree to much.
It's not even close to what i have in mind but it's getting there slowly.
Need to carve the deadwood, when the tree fills up create pads, and bring the top more down and repot it next season.
Heaps of work to do and from now I mainly focus on new growth and maintaining the tree.
And I don't know if I will keep the lower branches.

Just wanted to show you all hope you like it.

before


after

You purchased a very nice tree Chris. Good job so far.
Tona

Very nice piece of material Chris! Have fun with it and think about "negative spaces". I'm curious to see how you plan to finish the deadwood. I have extreme "Shimpaku" envy here in the USA  

Thank you and yes I will think about it.
Photo is a bit weird and doesn't really look like the real thing. It's hard to capture something 3d into a 2D picture..
I'll try to post a better picture, this one also hides the curve in the trunk that is really important for the motion.

Hi Chris,

Congratulations on the acquisition of this outstanding tree! You and Teunis are taking it in a very exciting direction.

Something jumps out at me about this tree, however: the foliage pad at the base which is blocking much of the view of the base of the trunk. My eye is dying to know what is behind there. My first thought is that it is hiding a fault. Is this the case? If it is not hiding a fault, I would certainly move or remove that pad. Our eye is always drawn to the base of the tree, and if we cannot see it the feeling can be somewhat discomforting.

Thanks for sharing the tree.

That's the part i mentioned in a post earlier. There is no fault there except the foliage pad that's out of place.  
Actually it's one of the most exciting parts of the trunk its the part were the life and deadwood come together and the were the trunk makes the bend down.
I shot it at a little strange angle and don't know why i put that pad there must have positioned there when i lowered the entire apex today.
Anyway thanks for pointing it out didn't notice it when I posted the picture, but I will change it and show what's behind it in some new pictures.

Very nice tree.

Recently I made some changes to the tree and tilted it more.
This made the movement of the trunkline nicer and made it easier for me to arrange the lower branches and lower the apex some more.
The tree looks a little more compact now, but still needs a lot of more work.
Today I will reposition the foliage pads to get more space between them and to make them look fuller.

Not even near the image I have in mind but it;s getting there slowly.

Very nice tree Chris, in the last picture the tree looks a lot better than the first one
Xuan

xuan le wrote:Very nice tree Chris, in the last picture the tree looks a lot better than the first one
Xuan

I don't, but it's a "keeper" either way. Beautiful material, beautifully done!

Awesome material, and I like your work so far. But I'm with Russell, I like the first image better, and yes, get rid of that branch hiding the trunk.

Today I took it too a workshop with a well known bonsai artist here in europe.
We lowered the second (lower part) of the tree and I reorganized the foliage pads.
So yes guys the trunk is more visible now and the movement of the pads is now more in balance with the trunkline and overall flow of the tree.
Tomorrow I will post some pictures.

here's the picture as promised.

By the way anyone any pot suggestions? Because i'm planning on repotting next year.

It is a very nice tree, but -- and this is just MY feeling -- it is tilted much too much now.

it's the best angle to show the trunks movement and natural curves.

Ok little update on this bigboi.

A year ago I decided I wasn't satisfied with this tree at all.
The cascade thing just didn't do it for me. It's trunk looked to thin in comparison with the foliage mass and the jin pointing upwards wasn't all that too.
So against all advice I took off all the wire and replanted it into a growing box.
Later this spring I restyled it and found out that the branch that initially was the lowest branch when it was a cascade was completely hollow.
It couldn't support the weight of the foliage on its own and started to rot inside.
It was now the top branch, but I decided to jin parts of it.

The branch that was the originally the top is now basically the whole tree.
Although there is one little issue that just doesn't want to be solved.
When I got it the guy who had it for a lot of years grew almost all the juvenile foliage out of the tree. This took him years.
However with every action done to this tree it seems to push more Juvenile foliage out every time.
The goal was to exhibit it in 2015 on a Major event however my guess is that it will take 2 or more years to make it show ready.
Next spring it will be detail wired and foliage pads will be created.
Today I only did some deadwood cleaning and basic wiring.
Here is the tree as it is today and I like the new look, how about you guys?

Hi Chris, I liked the cascade especially at the new angle, but what you've done to the tree shows great vision and artistry, the movement of the tree is more visual and the tree looks much bigger. Great job.

Ian.

Thank you Ian I really appreciate your comment.
And I'm also very happy with the new look although it still needs a lot of work and years to become something showable.

I like what you have done most recently. If you have a chance, it would be nice to see close-ups of the base of the trunk.

Thank you and I will post some better and more pictures when I have the chance.
Thing is my space is limited so I only have the trees that I have to look out for the most at my place.
Bigger trees and more refined ones stay at 2 other gardens of my friends and I don't come there to often, but when I do I will take some pictures and post them here.