ROCK STAR BONSAI TOUR 2015 COMES TO BEER CITY USA

the milwaukee bonsai society has begun an "excellence in bonsai" program due to the generous bequest of long time member:

anna stadnicka - (apologies if spelled wrong) - RIP

so the first artist they bring in under this program for a demo and several workshops is italian artist: MAURO STEMBERGER

this guy was super fun, knows his shit, and was a blast to watch, joke with and assist in the demo
(after hanging out a bit back-stage before the show, he brought up brian "da chopper" & i to do the needle and rafia work)

but only 2 photos for now (until i get more time)

he started with this:



and ended with this:



tree was collected by andy smith of deadwood south dakota.

more pics to follow as time allows...

some more pics of taking the ponderosa from point A to point B (as shown above)

brian 'da chopper' and i doing the needle work and rafia, as mauro works and makes us dance in circles while he randomly spins the turntable... recognizing kindred souls, of course he couldnt resist messing with us to make our job that much more "challenging" (these pics by MBS member bryan l.)









and a few from me (couldnt shoot much while i was helping)















da chopper grills mauro on his ponderosa needle theory

Moving this to discussion.

Looks like you guys were having a blast! So, what's next for this tree? Will you continue to work on it in future workshops with Mauro?

So what is Mauro's Pondo needle theory???

JimLewis wrote:Moving this to discussion.

WELL !!!
i have never been so insulted as to be demoted from the "lounge" to "discussion" !!!

Precarious wrote:Looks like you guys were having a blast!  So, what's next for this tree?  Will you continue to work on it in future workshops with Mauro?

yeah man... its fun working with someone loose and fun...
it being an MBS club tree, i aint privy to their future plans, though with the sold-out & standing room only crowd, mauro will probably be back...

crust wrote:So what is Mauro's Pondo needle theory???

being new to pines, i dont want misspeak, so i will see if i can get da chopper to pop his forum and give you the correct answer...

Mauro also donated about 6 hours of time to teach the bonsai club at the Mahone Middle School. The Mahone Middle School this year is about 20 or so youngsters. It was generous that he did so, and the dozen kids that came to the Milwaukee Bonsai Society meeting in the evening clearly had fun and learned a lot from Mauro. Great guy.