Deadwood Work On a Large Olive Cutting.

Deadwood Work Olive II Part 1 by Ignazio Giambrone March 2015 at our club Bonsai Culture Group -Malta.

This large olive cutting was rooted about two years ago in pumice. When strong shoots grew it was time to start working on its deadwood. The lower part was already naturally done by termites and fungal rot. This video shows the preliminary work to remove the cut out stumps and start making the upper part sympathetic with the lower part. Other videos will follow as this tree evolves in its live and dead parts.

Hope you enjoy it. Any comments are welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqvkWjyoQq0

Olive II Part 2 Positioning of branches by Salvo Amato

The journey for this Olive (nicknamed 'Crazy Diamond') continues. Salvo Amato, a keen member of Trinacria School and friend of Ignazio Giambrone, is given the task by the latter to wire and position the branches. Let us hope that the future 'shines on you 'Crazy Diamond'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGo8OXegmtc

Nice work on the carving! I love Olive trees, currently have two in development. Is this tree your working on Olea europa? it looks like it from the largish leaves in comparison to wild Olive/sylvestris. both mine are Europa, bought from garden centres. my question is when is the best time to wire the branches on these? i find the branches can snap very easily whether they are young or old branches..ive used wire here n there but i may stick with clip and grow and prune for direction now.

Hi. It is not a wild Olive. It is a large cutting that was selected carefully so that it would incorporate deadwood work in it. The deadwood work was executed by Ignazio Giambrone from Carini, Sicily, who visits our club on a routine basis. He has the talent of doing really awesome deadwood work and with time his incorporated deadwood becomes very sympathetic and natural. Regarding wiring if you have branches of a certain gauge it is better to apply raffia and protective tape. If not try to bend them protected by an outside curl of wire (that tightens and so prevents excessive bending and breaking). Better to wire them branches when just freshly lignified, as olive wood becomes very rigid when old.

I was kind of looking for Zombie Apocalypse music as the work on the tree progressed. It seems so counter-intuitive to carve away so much wood, but in the end it is such nice work. I admire this kind of vision. Do you blow away the saw dust from the soil? It seems if left in there it would clog things up.

Thanks for those tips, my trees are in early stages, i will post threads soon...but here is a cutting i took from my recent Olive project

it was in water inside a green house for a few days, i recently placed it in this special mix after seeing that roots were beginning to form at the cut edge of bark, its been left inside a warm green house, so will see if it works. i know they root very easily.

this is another ive been working on:


and this is the tree i took the cutting from, has a really good root base/nebari, ive chopped it and left it in the tub to develop thick branching. it will eventually look like the stocky powerful Olives i see when searching..



Do you have any tips on further developing the root structure? ive since covered everything up and placed a layer of slow release organic fert on top...

Nice carving.

How do you create the initial hollows? I have a hard time making a hollow, without making big holes everywhere.

leatherback wrote:Nice carving.

How do you create the initial hollows? I have a hard time making a hollow, without making big holes everywhere.

The video shows how. With a relatively small carving bit you start digging into the middle of the stump and with concentric movements enlarge away outwards and deeper. Practice with other pieces of wood to get used to the tool and the bit. Then once the hollow is made, with a vision in mind, you start to eat away and literally sculpt the wood. This is the initial bulk carving later on the detail carving ensues. I have chosen the word 'woodworming' to define the meticulous carving that is done, simulating the work of the woodworm in secular old olives. Soon I will upload another video to show this 'woodworming'.

Sometimes you leave the whole surface of the trunk and hollow out it all. To do this you need to strategically choose points at different levels to dig holes that communicate with each other.

BobbyLane wrote:Thanks for those tips, my trees are in early stages, i will post threads soon...but here is a cutting i took from my recent Olive project

it was in water inside a green house for a few days, i recently placed it in this special mix after seeing that roots were beginning to form at the cut edge of bark, its been left inside a warm green house, so will see if it works. i know they root very easily.

this is another ive been working on:


and this is the tree i took the cutting from, has a really good root base/nebari, ive chopped it and left it in the tub to develop thick branching. it will eventually look like the stocky powerful Olives i see when searching..



Do you have any tips on further developing the root structure? ive since covered everything up and placed a layer of slow release organic fert on top...

Choose the strong roots that are in a good position and cut off the small ones or those that cross each other. The roots will get larger slowly but surely with the years, especially if you leave a lot of foliage on.

For rooting large cutting of Olives we usually cover all in a transparent plastic bag and use 100% pumice.

Precarious wrote:I was kind of looking for Zombie Apocalypse music as the work on the tree progressed.   It seems so counter-intuitive to carve away so much wood, but in the end it is such nice work.  I admire this kind of vision.  Do you blow away the saw dust from the soil?  It seems if left in there it would clog things up.

Thank you for your kind comments.
The deadwood impact will diminish as the green of the tree increases and the deadwood itself takes a more natural colour. Time will do most of the trick. Of course we shall continue working and evolve both the green and the deadwood.

Yes I removed the saw dust and the soil is as yet pure 100% pumice. This year (after two years) I will repot in a more suitable mix.

The link below takes you to the video where Ignazio works deadwood on the upper part of the Olive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFJjCMOGVjU

'The famous Italian sculptor, Michelangelo Merisi, once said that "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." In a very analogous way, Ignazio Giambrone, uncovers the most natural deadwood for this Olive and indeed in any other tree that needs deadwood work. Not everybody can do this. I guess one is born with such abilities and subsequently ‘practice makes perfect’ holds true. So just sit back, relax and enjoy the ‘Michelangelo of Deadwood’ tasking away.

Good stuff Cosmos, Thanks for sharing

BobbyLane wrote:Good stuff Cosmos, Thanks for sharing

THANKS YOU ARE WELCOME.

‘A fractal is a repeating pattern that displays at every scale. If the replication is exactly the same at every scale, it is called a self-similar pattern. Fractals can also be nearly the same at different levels. Fractals also include the idea of a detailed pattern that repeats itself.  Approximate fractals found in nature display self-similarity over extended, but finite, scale ranges e.g. the connection between fractals and leaves’ (Wikipedia).

Looking at deadwood of old trees in nature, especially of Olives, I believe that this fractal theme may be ubiquitous. And indeed Ignazio, in executing his task of naturalizing the created deadwood with that which was already present, is fractalizing as he makes detailed patterns that repeat themselves, even though his is not at every scale.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsB2C8xm7bI&feature=youtu.be

The famous Italian sculptor, Michelangelo Merisi, once said that "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."

In a very analogous way, Ignazio Giambrone, uncovers the most natural deadwood for this Olive and indeed in any other tree that needs deadwood work.

Not everybody can do this. I guess one is born with such abilities and subsequently ‘practice makes perfect’ holds true.

Link on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFJjCMOGVjU and just sit back, relax and enjoy the ‘Michelangelo of Deadwood’ tasking away.