Shohin Juniper Progression and Challenge

Here is a small (7") juniper that I have been working on. One of the challenges so far has been attempting to resolve the protrusion of the top branches at the left; those to the right were much easier to re-orient nearly 90 degrees to the left in order to form the apex.


The second photo shows the front after the new apex was formed. I looked at the tree from every imaginable angle to see if there were other possibilities, but that would mean the loss of the front jin. What I decided to do is keep the front as is and try to use as much torque to reshape the branches without splitting the crotch. Instead if wiring, I used a strip of cloth and slowly pulled one end until you could feel the cracking start; I stopped at that point. I considered splitting the branches at the crotch completely through, but if I screwed that up then I could loose everything at the top.


Sorry about the photo quality and I have to host the photo as of today in the following post since I'm having a hard time attaching picture 2.

Here is the second photo after the change so far...

Here's an updated shot of from the right side

here is a picture from the back before the apex and lateral branches were initially formed