Nursery Stock San Jose Juniper

This is nursery stock culled by John Kirby and cut back a few years ago. He gave it to me to have some fun with.


I'm not typically a fan of nursery material, but this little tree was well chosen for good movement in the trunk. There's lots of character there to work with. It's in good health with some good low growth, so to find the smallest bonsai in the material, I removed most of the growth on the tree. I want to continue to emphasize the movement by improving the deadwood and reducing the life line on this tree, but this is enough work for now. It is responding with lots of new growth.



The most natural effect for shaping deadwood is by lifting small bundles of fibers and peeling them slowly along the trunk. They follow the natural growth lines, thus emphasizing natural movement. This is far easier with freshly jinned material, since dry wood won't peel as easily. Dry wood can also be peeled like this if it is moistened first by wrapping with wet towels until the wood is fairly wet.

Following peeling, many artists will use a torch (or sandblasting) to weather the wood and remove the small threads that persist.

Ben Oki in Kansas City

bYou may know that Ben Oki is one of my favorite people in the world. Now, I was told that I "know the rules" about posting photos of the Kansas City club, but I guess I don't know them very well.

Here are a couple of pics of Ben and some of his work: