Walter Pall's Visit

A few times per year we here in NW Oregon are lucky enough to have Walter Pall come for a visit. Most of the time it is very casual, I will set up some workshops to offset his travel cost's then the rest of the time is working on trees, eating good food and drinking good adult beverages! But mostly, it is working on trees in my back yard while Walter looks on to make sure we are doing the right thing!
For these 2 days I had Randy Knight and Rich List over for some good ol' tree work. Each of them brought quite a few trees to work on, and I had this big monster juniper to play around with.
Rich and Walter look at my project tree....

Walter looking at how healthy this juniper is. Also wondering why he didn't buy it for himself :)

Going over last years carving. I now have the right tools, the right bits and better know how to get it done. Walter did one branch and I tried to do the rest.



After carving with the die grinder and then fine tuning with the dremel it was time to fire the wood.... one can tell that is was burnt very much then lightly brushed.

The next few shots show thinning of the foliage.....



The apex and right side of the tree are thinned and starting to come together

I think he likes what he sees!!

Now the overall image is starting to come together....never mind "Muscles of spun steel" in the background!!! haha

Back side of the tree as is for now.....

Front side for now

Possible 2nd front????

Deadwood final and right side of tree.

Me and my Baby!

While this tree just had its initial styling it still has a long ways to go. It does have a good start to what is considered by many in the know to be one of the best Junipers around. Once in a pot and the rest of the styling is complete it will be a tough tree to beat. I look forward with great anticipation to continue to develop this tree and see it to be the best it can be.
To see more pictures please visit Walter Palls blog http://walter-pall-travelogues.blogspot.com/

Here are some random photos of trees that I cut the 1st flush of new growth back on.



Japanese Maple, the long shoots that I left are actully thread grafts that I am letting grow out to thicken and join with the new locations.

Japanese Maple....starting to look pretty good.

European Hornbeam
intially styled this past winter.

Walter Pall Workshops!

Walter Pall will be back in the Portland area for a workshop on Monday the 30th of June 2008. There are still a few spots available. Email me for details....
The workshop will be held at Tsugawas Nursery in Woodland Washington. They have a very nice nursery and a great palce to hold workshops. http://www.tsugawanursery.com/index.html

Hans Mt. Hemlock

Well, Hans van Meer has come and gone from my house. Let me tell you, he is one of the nicest, funniest people I have ever met!! I had such a great time with him and I am honored to have been the one to get him to the states for his first visit. Hopefully this will be the first of many trips to come.

We had a great time working on trees, drinking beer, shooting pool and working on trees, haha! He is a very talented artist and I am sure will be come one of the best in all of Europe very soon. Here is a tree that we worked on together in my yard.

It is a Mt. Hemlock, has about a 6"+ trunk and stands about 30" tall. It is an amazing tree.....one local bonsai master told me it was a junk tree.....I collected it because I saw this tree in it. My original vision had a different apex, I like the one Hans designed better!!

It was fun working with Hans, and I was able to learn from him. A good time was had by all.... Hans loved this tree.....

Before any work

Hans working away!

Finished for now..

Hans is done for the day!

This Mt Hemlock has amazing bark, a killer deadwood top that is older than I am and now a wonderful shape to it. This tree just goes to prove that sometimes "Masters" are even wrong! Better pictures of this tree will be posted in the coming weeks....

Fat Little Ponderosa Pine

Here is a nice little ponderosa pine that I have been working on for about 3 years now. Trunk at the soil line is about 6" and the tree is about 22" tall.

As collected in 2005

Oct. 2006 I did the intial styling... still in big mica pot. This image is my avatar on a few bonsai forums...I just liked the sky in the background... looks kinda cool.

This brings us to today, April 2008.... time for some more work. With the beverage of choice for scale. In a Chinese pot, potted in early 2007.

Back

Some branch bending, with some really cool branch benders. I love it when one can employ tools!

Close up of the rock that the tree has grown over.... natural root over rock.

After a complete re-style... A new front was choosen that would show the best trunk movement. This meant all branching had to me moved and complete re-style. In the end it will make for a much better tree. Over the next few years I will focus on backbudding and getting it into a new pot.

Old front after restyle.

New front after restyle.

I lost a little bit of the trunk girth at the soil line with this new front but now the trunk leans to the viewer and the movement is 10X better than before. Once in a new pot it will be even better. I am thinking that the back branch will be trimmed up getting rid of the foliage on the bottom right that you see now.

Literati Ponderosa Pine

Here is a little Ponderosa collected in cascades last year. It has excellent root growth and the buds look phenominal so it is ok to work on it now.....
Here it is after collection....

Something had to be done with the bottom 1/3 of the trunk. It is far to straight and I think a change in the planting angle is in order...
After work has been done.



What I like as the new front.....

The trunk goes away from you at the bottom but then comes back to the viewer at the top.
This angle also shows the best trunk movement, lichens and excellent bark. The foliage goes away from the viewer which I actully kinda like. Some branches will be cut off in time, but for now I decided to keep them until I put the tree in a nice pot.
About 36 inhes tall.

Hans Van Meer Workshops!

On Saturday May 3rd, 2008 Hans Van Meer will be making his first trip to America. I had the privilage of organizing his American tour and drumming up workshops to offset travel cost's. Between Oregon, Washington, Texas and Maryland he ought to get a look at America!

On May 3rd we will be having an all day event at Tsugawa's Nursery in Woodland Washington.
http://www.tsugawanursery.com/location.html

To learn more about Hans please visit his website and blog
http://www.karamotto.org/
http://knowledgeofbonsai.org/hans_van_meer/

Special thanks to Brian and Greg at Tsugawa's nursery!!

Hans and I will be working in my yard and the yard of Oregon Bonsai for a day or 2, I will post the work done here on my blog and I know Hans will be updating his blog throughout his trip.

Stay tuned..... :)

Huge Ponderosa Pine

Here is a phenominal Ponderosa that is very large and clearly a good tree. It has been in a box or a pot for a few years now. Since it is super healthy I felt it was time to finally style the tree. A very good friend of mine was over and we worked on it. I had 2 style ideas for this tree and in the end I went with this..... the right choice.

This is just the intial styling and will dramatically change in the next couple of years. So for now we bent some very large and thick branches using rebar, guy wires, steel bars, and lots of very heavy gauge copper guy wires. Some branches were as thick or thicker as a grown mans bicep!

Here is a photo history of the tree from repotting last year to first styling Feb 2008.

Rich List working playing in the dirt!

Rich cleaning the root base..... either a big tree or he has very small hands!

Again, Rich cleaning roots....

Now that is a very large ponderosa!!

Front (note the beer bottle on the right edge of pot for size)

Back

Now it is Feb 2008 and time to style. The buds are very healthy, needle color is excellent and there is a huge amount of new root growth.... time to bend!

I didn't get hardly any photos of actual work in progress, but I managed to get a few, I was too busy working to take pictures.

Midway

Finished for now!!!

Over the next few years it will fill in with new growth and become very full. I will be looking for the right pot to aquire so that I can repot in a few years. This ponderosa has seen a major transformation and is now on the path to becoming something very special.

Mt. Hemlock

Here is a Mt. Hemlock I took in on trade. It is a collected tree that was for sale in a landscape nursery. I had to cut the top 4 feet off when bringing it home so that it didn't stick up above my truck. That was fine since I knew this would be a small tree in no time.

This tree sat in my front yard in the nursery container for a few months before I worked on it. A very good friend of mine came to town and we worked on it one night while BBQ'n!

Before

After the initial styling.....

This tree came out very good. This work was done at the beg. of Feb and now the buds are swelling and looking very good. While doing root work there was a good amount of new root growth.

In the future, more wirring and a better pot will be in order. For now, it is going to regain strength and look good on my bench.