Itoigawa Juniper

A while back I acquired this imported Itoigawa Shimpaku Juniper. It wasn't the best of trees but I saw a cool tree in there, one that would require some good bending and hallowing out of a main branch or sub trunk. So for a year or so this has been sitting on bench waiting to be worked on, but first I had a ton of other trees to get to....
At first glance the subtrunk, main branch on the left needed to be bent, it is just to straight and will always be a huge flaw. Problem is it is about 3" tall and is over an inch in diameter. A little to short and thick to bend. I hallowed it out with my dremel and put some heavy gauge copper wire inside. Now we were able to bend it and add a bit of movement that mimicked the main trunk a bit
Before photo


After sub trunk on left is wired and bent


Now there is a major void that needs to be filled in the top to the left of the shari in the apex. This will require bending another short and fat branch. This branch will need rafia and lots of copper. It is right on the edge of the shari so I need to make sure it doesn't split from the trunk.
Starting to come around....



Now it is pretty much inplace. I started to thin and remove branches on the lower right and left.... lots of foliage removed!!!

Lower branches wired and starting to get put in place

Now I find that there is a more dynamic front that I prefer better and is better suited for the tree....

With the new front all I have left to do now is thin, wire and set the apex.
Here are 2 photos of the new front with the re-style almost done.


While this tree has seen a pretty good re-styling, I am not finished yet. I will update this when I am finished tweaking. This coming spring we will get a better suited pot for this little juniper.