ronandersonbonsai

Juniper work part 2   07-20-13                                                              Our goal is to always have fun while doing Bonsai hence our company Slogan    You know you are a bonsai freak when you ...

Today the work we did in the studio was to finish the tree we started last week. On our last blog…part #1, we mainly cleaned and thinned the dead foliage and overcrowded branches. Now it was time to do the initial wiring and design. This may not be the final design, but it’s a start. You will see I chose the design that most considered the back of the tree. I just thought it gave better balance and liked the lines and curves that accentuated the design. I used size 6 copper wire to size 16 copper wire. I began with the bottom branches and worked my way up from there.

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During...new front

During...

Cleaned Nebari a little

Left side mostly done...

 When I re-pot in February or March I will lean the tree forward a bit more and then tilt the tree to the right just a bit. I will also change into another slightly smaller, but deeper pot to cover the one large root that protrudes in the front. As you can see in the pictures I placed a small binder under one end to see what it looked like at a better or maybe just another angle.

Finished initial wiring!!

Things I like to remember while wiring.

1. If you missed any thinning you can do last minute touch ups as you wire?
2. I try to keep the spirals at 45 degree and elongate to 30 degree on the end of the branches
3. When I finish wiring a branch I usually stop the wire one inch from the end of the branch.
4. The last loop of the spiral is for support and I finish the ends with the wire facing back toward the tree.
5. Always wire two branches together when possible…one wire two branches!
6. Always set an anchor point when wiring then wire the secondary branch.
7. Boon can catch you wiring wrong from another state!!

As you will see, I did clean off a little of the old bark on the nebari and exposed some of that nice red hue of the juniper wood. Also I opened up the dead wood just little more to show off this neat feature. I will do another blog on cleaning up the nebari and treating the deadwood later. This is some during and then after finishing the initial wire. The 2nd to last picture is the initial finish front.

Thanks for following

Ron