Show us your BONES

dre wrote: i've heard the thought of someone putting a show together during the winter with only trees that drop there foliage

Iris is right. Our club put it on and it turned out GREAT!!!

On the second and third page of our newsletter you'll see some photos from the event. I think that Bill Valavanis has quite a few pictures posted on his blog. I'm not sure where you are, but join us next year. It's an open show.

Happy Holidays!!!
Sam

http://members.trianglebonsai.com/newsletters/2014/TBS_Newsletter_Jan2014.pdf

Vance Wood wrote <<First raft style I have seen accomplished anywhere!>>

How odd. Actually it's more of a clump than a raft. It must be a regional thing. Dave Easterbrook has collected a lot of these in Canada. Pauline Muth also has several. Hers are from Nova Scotia. And I think Bill has one like that from Minnesota. I haven't done anything radical with this. It's about like it was collected, except I discovered I had only 4 trunks, so I added one. I am lucky that the bark matches and they are compatible. Glad you like it.
Iris

heres another one of my larches in the very beginning of development

Beautiful tree Ed

Sam,

Sorry to inform you that your club did NOT put on the 2013 Winter Silhouette Bonsai Exhibition in Kannapolis, North Carolina.

The exhibition was sponsored, organized and run privately by Steve Zeisel, who happens to be a member of the Triangle Bonsai Society in Raleigh, North Carolina which is several hours away from the exhibition. Six members from the Triangle Bonsai Society displayed bonsai in that excellent exhibition.

The exhibition was such a success it will be held again next December 6-7, 2014 at the same beautiful and unique venue. Everyone is invited to display one of their finest bonsai.

Photos from the 2013 Winter Silhouette Bonsai Exhibition can be found in my blog:

www.valavanisbonsaiblog.com

Bill

thanks william for the information i'm going to do my best to make it to that show

bonsaisr wrote:Vance Wood wrote <<First raft style I have seen accomplished anywhere!>>

How odd. Actually it's more of a clump than a raft. It must be a regional thing. Dave Easterbrook has collected a lot of these in Canada. Pauline Muth also has several. Hers are from Nova Scotia. And I think Bill has one like that from Minnesota. I haven't done anything radical with this. It's about like it was collected, except I discovered I had only 4 trunks, so I added one. I am lucky that the bark matches and they are compatible. Glad you like it.
Iris

Ok, I withdraw my admiration of this tree as being a raft and condemn it as a clump??? You're right it is not a raft, I did not look close enough.

Huh?   
I didn't mean to be disparaging in any way. It's just that with the poor lighting in this picture, it's hard to tell what is going on at the bottom. It isn't a trunk lying on its side. It's sort of a tangled bunch of roots with 4 trunks coming up, and the added one stuck in. It looks as though several seeds sprouted in one spot & grew up together. I would call it a clump. Anyway, I think it's coming along nicely. Dave Easterbrook is coming to Rochester in April. I'm looking forward to having him see it.
Iris

My considerably smaller bones:


IMG_2644 by Arihato, on Flickr


IMG_2586 by Arihato, on Flickr


IMG_2621 by Arihato, on Flickr

They are all Larix kaempferi, grown from seed.

Larch are well suited to shohin bonsai. I love the movement & taper on yours. However, why are you growing Japanese larch rather than European?
Iris

arihato those are some spectacular shohin larches. i wonder is the foliage in scale with the size of the larches which from the battery you places they are quite small great job

Thank you for your kind comments.

Japanese Larch because it has a finer growth pattern, more double buds when pinched repeatedly, smaller needles. And it was seed that was available  . There are no pure decidua Larch in Dutch forests or kaempferi for that matter, all the Larch forests were planted with a hybrid of decidua and kaempferi.

The needles will get shorter in training and they have shorter (then the European Larch) needles to begin with. Here is a comparison with a ShoHin fed with plenty of N and the little fellow.


IMG_1927 by Arihato, on Flickr

Trident maple raft:

William N. Valavanis wrote:

Thanks Bill! You are kind to post my display...winged elm on the slab, azalea, and a Korean Hornbeam developed from a seedling.

For a first time event, I have to say I was pretty impressed with the winter silhouette show...Big Thanks to Steve and Bill! Looking forward to next year.

Oh, and there were many far better trees than these presented in the show...check out Bill's blog.

John

American Bald Cypress in its new hand made pot.

Front,


Back,

This Bald Cypress is fantastic. Great work.

randy thats a nice tree one question who makes that pot. they work together great

Thanks all for the kind comments!

dre,
The pot is one of my own creations that was designed specifically for this tree.  I have always wanted a pot with no drainage hole for this tree since Bald Cypress are such thirsty buggers and I could never find one that suited me.  As a result, I started taking classes at my local community college which has a ceramic department and over the last 2 years have finally been able to grasp the pot making techniques to be somewhat successful.  The color and feet of the pot were chosen as part of the design to tell a subtle visual story about the environment in which Bald cypress are native.  The ground and surrounding areas of the American swamps are generally in the browns and moss greens which influenced my choice of color. The Feet are my representation of the swamp dwellers in the form of Cotton Mouth Snakes which inhabit the area.  

In my old age, I have finally broken ranks with the traditional approach of Bonsai to take my own path and satisfy my personal desire to tell stories about the trees, their environment, or some other artistic feature that I want to express or applaud in the overall design.  I have some other designs in the works for other trees in my collection and hopefully they will work as well as this one has.  I'm very happy with the results so far.

Great tree and pot. I love the nuance ... always a snake under something in the swamp!

The bones can still be seen, even with new green. This Chinese Elm has a long way to go, but likes it on the rock. I will be removing some of the roots this year; the ones which stick up from the stone. I have had the tree for almost 4 years and have been developing the roots for this project:

randy that is true dedication for getting yourself trained to work clay and making your own pot. you know what they say you want it done right do it yourself and you my friend knocked it out the park with that one

chinese privet i've started that will be going into a crescent pot from erin pottery in the spring can't wait