Fat European Beech

Here is a field grown European Beech that is very unique. I chopped the main tree because I liked the broken branch as the tree. This was created by elk damage while growing in the field. It has been out of the ground for a few years now and no time better than now to start working on it.
Before


Chop location~ pretty ugly!


Here after some intial carving and branch wiring



Something about the carving just didn't sit well with me. It needed to be more natural like some of the huge oaks and maples that we have growing here in the NW. So, out came the carving tools, power and hand tools....


Notice the chopstick in the picture? That is a pretty fat trunk and good base.

Now we are getting somehwere..... I introduced taper and tried to match the exsisting the deadwood which to me is a very cool feature of the tree.

Now in a new Chinese pot, it is time to just let nature finish off the deadwood. By the summer the trunk should less burnt looking and more natural. If not I will step in and make it look better by getting rid of the char. This is a unique tree that has a ways to go yet, next year I will continue to work the branches a bit. They are very brittle and one doesn't want to move them too much.....