Ugly vs. Pretty Styling
For any styling it’s good to ask: Do we leave it rough, or do we polish it off to as crystalized an image as we can? And the answer usually is, as with many things in bonsai, it depends. When is leaving a mess appropriate? With very aggressive work, with large branches and even trunks moved […]
Spruce Forest Time Lapse–
This is a time lapse in two photos. Which isn’t much of a progression, but flipping between the two images there are some changes, most significantly the building of the foliar masses into proto-pads, creating density. Each spring as the new shoots come out they are pinched approximately in half (less for weaker ones, a […]
Ezo Spruce Forest Styling-
As the last photo will attest, this tree was styled during quite cold weather…the windows in the studio had very interesting fractal ice patterns last week. The Ezo itself has been a bonsai a long time, I’m not clear on the provenance of the tree beyond that it’s about 35 years old, sporting some older […]
Ezo Spruce Formal Upright Styling
One of my favorite species for bonsai is Ezo Spruce… Although we don’t have the wonderful collected Ezo that the Japanese have, sometimes one can find cutting-grown Ezo that are often perfect for forests or formal uprights. It has a very small needle and ramifies rapidly. There are also a number of really eye-catching North […]
Ezo spruce, again
As promised, here’s the final ‘potted’ photo of that Ezo spruce clump styling in yesterday’s post— Two things I’ll do in the future is move the left trunk further to the right as it’s a bit too balanced where it is. Also I’ll add a clump of broadleaf evergreen, probably a small-leafed azalea, to the […]
Michael Hagedorn 