Bald Cypress Progression

Hello all,

Here is the 2nd training session for this Bald Cypress. The tree was collected in May of 2008. My goal is to create a believable yet still artistic representation of an ancient and natural Flat-top Bald Cypress. I made this video using my digital still camera so the audio is a not as good as it should be...I worked and recorded for about 6 hours...creating nearly 8gb of digital footage. It is very difficult to know how to edit that much information....what is useful to the viewer...what is not??? I hope what I ended up with will be worthwhile. I wanted to keep it under 10 minutes but didn't make it so there are 2 parts. I will also embed earlier videos about this tree and Flat-top BCs.

Part 1


in HD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Sjf3JflmQ&hd=1

Part 2


in HD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UiN2MU2S0c&hd=1

First Training Session Summer 2009


Some thoughts about and pictures of Flat-tops


The trip on which this tree was collected
Part 1

Part 2


Now, I am off to the swamp for more material:)
I am always interested in your thoughts and comments!
John

You've got the makings of a fine tree there, John. Best base I've seen on a BC for many a year.

Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing this at the Expo in a few years.

John

Super video and extremely informative. Thanks for the work you did to share the video with us.

I have a couple of questions about tools. What is the chisel tool you used after using the grinder? Also, where did you get the turntable?

I have a bc forrest that will receive the "John special" treatment this weekend.

That's a Great tree

Thanks

Frank

Your videos kept me occupied and informed for my otherwise "ho-hum" evening. Thank you for the lessons! Great material and shots of the swamps. Thank you kudos! Salut, Todd

@Jim... Thanks Jim...I know you have seen a lot of these trees so that is a real compliment coming from you!!

@Frank...Thanks Frank..The tool in question is an electric carving tool. It has interchangeable bits which vibrate to assist in the carving process. It works pretty well for what it is.

@Todd... Thanks Todd!! You are trooper if you watched all 40 minutes!!

John

John, Did you build the turntable seen in the video?

Thanks

Frank

ahh...the turntable..sorry. Its really not what you think...there is a turntable there but it is just sitting on a circular plywood base...nothing special. I can vary the height with pieces of varying length of 10" pvc pipe. It is actually all part of a past display. The turntable itself appears to be 1" plywood covered with spray-on truck bed liner.

John

Thanks for taking the time to post these. Now, to find a willing subject.

bwaynef wrote:Thanks for taking the time to post these. Now, to find a willing subject.

Thanks Wayne! I should post a picture but its been just over a week and new buds are popping all over this tree:)

John

Looks good man! I have always enjoyed seeing your trees at the Asheville show every year...last years display was very good. I am a huge Bald Cypress nut and collect cypress out of the swamps here in west TN every year. I have been lucky to find trees that have been gnawed down by beaver to a nice taper. The beaver make a nice 45 degree or greater trunk chop! Beaverdori My question is this...do you ever defoliate your cypress prior to wiring? We have had good luck with this here in TN but it is usually done in june or so. It makes wiring and stying the cypress much easier and the new frond pop orients itself to the light in the proper position. I have also trudged through the Congaree and seen many flat tops like this! keep up the good work. Guy Guidry is the guest artist at the Nashville regional show coming up here July 24th and 25th and I cant wait to learn some new cypress tricks from the master! We are lucky to live in a place where this tree can be collected....Hurrah for our swamp redwood. amazing trees. I will post some pics soon.

I attended a Gary Marchall bald cypress workshop with the Atlanta Bonsai Society a few weeks ago. The first thing Gary had me do to my tree was strip the foliage. Then we selected branches and wired them.

Frank

John Wall777 wrote: Looks good man! I have always enjoyed seeing your trees at the Asheville show every year...last years display was very good. I am a huge Bald Cypress nut and collect cypress out of the swamps here in west TN every year. I have been lucky to find trees that have been gnawed down by beaver to a nice taper. The beaver make a nice 45 degree or greater trunk chop! Beaverdori My question is this...do you ever defoliate your cypress prior to wiring? We have had good luck with this here in TN but it is usually done in june or so. It makes wiring and stying the cypress much easier and the new frond pop orients itself to the light in the proper position. I have also trudged through the Congaree and seen many flat tops like this! keep up the good work. Guy Guidry is the guest artist at the Nashville regional show coming up here July 24th and 25th and I cant wait to learn some new cypress tricks from the master! We are lucky to live in a place where this tree can be collected....Hurrah for our swamp redwood. amazing trees. I will post some pics soon.

Hello John...what great enthusiasm!!! I love it!! I too am from the Marchal school of Bald Cypress (perhaps it should be the LA boys' school) and have been defoliating and wiring in mid summer for a number of years. My good friend and I have also found that mid summer is a great time to collect stumps and repot as long as it is in combination with defoliation....and lots of water:) I have done a pretty major amount of pruning and carving in the past week.

I am very thankful to Gary, Guy and of course Vaughn for opening up the world of Bald Cypress and bonsai to me and many others.

Here is a little one I collected yesterday:)

and a little perspective...

This guy was collected March 2009! Its easy to make great progress with these beaver chewed trees bc the taper is already there. This particular one was a combination of beaver gnawing followed by a massive termite and ant infestation, When I was halfway done with sawing it out of the swamps 1000s of ants were pouring out of the hollow trunk. Isnt nature great? This cypress was submerged in water completely up to what is now the apical branch...about 3.5 ft deep...hip waders and ant tolerance are neccessary out there! I carved out the trunk just enough to expose the ant and termite work inside...you dony want to try to improve on natural character like that. Needs more refinement...but hope to show it at the BCI/ABS show in Louisville KY next year. sorry for the crappy pic...cameraphone in my hallway. Southern swamp pride baby!

Very cool...nice work for the short time you have been working on it!! Great story to go with it!!
John

Hello,

I actually picked up a smaller pre-bonsai BC from a nursery here in Utah and have recently repotted it. The weather here is probably much too dry for what BC is used to.

I must say though, I wish I lived closer to the southeast so I could collect these types of trunks, holy cow.

I've loved following this thread, please keep us updated.

Hey Paldimo! Glad to see your working with BC in Utah! I would give it partial shade from the western sun (they can take intense sun ie. everglades south florida, but they need humidity to go with it) and I would pour the water to it. They are a great tree to wrk with and are tough as nails. (or maybe tough as a Cypress knot? lol) dehydration is one of the only things that will cause this tree to die quickly! post a pic sometime. Its funny you lust after our southern Cypress, we, here in the south, lust after your Utah Ponderosa pines and western junipers! oh well....the grass is always greener on the other side of the continent! good luck buddy.

PS. here is a pic of my good friend, collecting buddy and fellow vp of the Nashville bonsai society with our days collecting from 2009 March...almost all these trees were beaver chewed dwn to taper and hollow! great old trunks! The one I posted earlier is fourth from the left.

sorry...my friends name in the pic is Owen Reich. Owen is about to embark on a apprenticeship at a bonsai nursery in Japan. I have heard the Japanese sometimes refer to bc as "robe of feathers pine" who knows? Good luck buddy

This is John Wall with the plants we collected in 2010. Aside from bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), two button bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) and a swamp rose (Rosa palustris)were also collected. A photo of the swamp rose will be added to this thread soon. The rose is in the white trash bag closest to the license plate. Definitely not for the meek but well worth the effort.

Still need a little work, but not bad for being collected less than 6 months ago.

Here is a video that highlights the work I did to this tree recently. I would like to think my 5 year plan is well on the way!!


Thanks for watching!!
John

This is wonderful! I'd love to see an update on the collected trees. Not sure how I missed it before...

John, it's nice to see you back, thanks for the update!

Russell Coker wrote:

This is wonderful! I'd love to see an update on the collected trees. Not sure how I missed it before...

John, it's nice to see you back, thanks for the update!

Thanks Russell!

Indeed, nice progress and nice seeing you here...