Hi, everybody,
here is a picture from my Hawthorn in full bloom that I like to share with you all. It was quickly made when the sun finally broke trough the rainclouds for a few minutes! We had higher temperates in December, I need sun!
Hope you enjoyed my little Hawthorn?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, everybody,
I would like to share some pictures that I made of one off my Prunus Mahaleb Yamadori in bloom! These were collected last year and I cant wait to start working on them! All these gnarly old trees clearly suffered from time and several forest firers and the deadwood on them is truly amazing!
Below: Close up of the deadwood on the trunk.
Below: Close up of the flowers on another one of my Prunus Mahaleb.
Below: A close up of the naturally burned deadwood on another of my Prunus.
Below: One of my yew yamadori waiting for it first styling!
Hope you enjoyed the pictures?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, everybody,
here is a picture that I made of my little Prunus Spinosa in full bloom. Height 28 cm/11 inch.
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, everybody,
here are some births eye view pictures that I shot yesterday when the sky finally brook open for a few seconds! In these shots, you can see how my branch ramification is built upon this Hawthorn.
Below: Bird’s Eye view of the left side branches. Note that there are several layers of branches that you can see in this shot!
Below: Bird’s Eye view of the whole tree, the front is in the bottom of the picture.
I hope that they are clear enough because there are a lot of branches in there! 🙂
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, everybody,
last week there finally was a long enough break in the cold spell, we had over a month now, to get my Favorite Hawthorn out off its winter shelter and strait into the living room, where I spend two peaceful afternoons of slow wiring it again! With on eye on the TV, where I saw us (The Netherlands) won 2 colds and a few other medals in the world ice speed skating championships in the man and female competition! 
The sound of the TV was off though because I needed my ears to listen to some pumping dance beats! After all: a serene atmosphere is important when one works on Bonsai! 
Below: This is how it looks after the wiring was done and all branches were placed in their desired position.
The branches are filling out nicely by now and I really like how it is progressing towards what I had in mind when I started to style this lovely Hawthorn.
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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“I FLY SO HIGH AND FALL SO LOW”
“KARAMOTTO” My personal Bonsai website: http://www.karamotto.org/
My Bonsai blog: http://hans-van-meer.ofbonsai.org/
Hans van Meer’s Bonsai Gallery
For info about workshop’s and demo’s only : karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
SHORT FILM ON YOUTUBE OF MY LARCH IN THE PHOTO STUDIO OF W.EVENEPOEL AT THE NOELANDERS2013 HERE!!!
Hi, everybody,
I just got out off my bed! And here are some pictures that my friend Ed made early in the morning when I was preparing XL for the show.
After just a few hours sleep Ed arrived at 5 in the morning to help me load XL into my car. Then after a two and a half hour drive, we arrived in Heusden- Solden in Belgium. Then Ed and I had to carry XL on this homemade stretcher over a long and slippery parking than up some steep stairs and then finally through a long entrance hall to get into the exhibition hall! The things we have to do for this hobby! 
Below: Finally, XL is there and I am still happy here!
Below: Xl in the right place and I am cleaning off dirt from the table.
Below: XL in place and ready! It is funny and strange to see how different and open he looks in most pictures!
Below: Some famous colleges and judges heading my way to say hello, do you recognize them? This is an hour before the doors were opened to the public and they were taking advantage of this and made many pictures! A few minutes later we all were asked to leave the exhibition area so that they and the other judges could judge the trees in private.
Below: Another picture made by Ed in the photo studio. See how much fuller XL looks with proper lightning! I hope it will look just as good in the up coming commemorative book of this event!
So very sad that I had to leave Xl behind in the show! But I am very happy that my good friend Teunis Jan Klein will take him home for me this evening so that I can pick him up at his place later this week when I am hopefully feeling a bit better than now! And although things went so wrong for me later that day, I am still glad and proud that I was able to show XL for the very first time at this prestigious event and to meet up with all my Bonsai friends from around the world!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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_________ “I FLY SO HIGH AND FALL SO LOW”_________
“KARAMOTTO” My personal Bonsai website: http://www.karamotto.org/
Hi, everybody,
here XL is posing proudly in the photo studio at this years Noelanders. It was a perfect start to a day that ended in misery for me when I had to leave quit sick homeward from Belgium later that day, missing out on the evening banquet, the second day and all the fun with my dear Bonsai friends! Sigh!
Very sad and depressed cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hi, everybody,
I woke up really happy this morning realizing that I had won just as many Tour the Frances as Lance Armstrong!
Just one more day before I will take off to the Noelanders Trophy in Belgium to bring in my Larch named XL! The last 5 days were spent trying to slowly defrost XL, he and the rest of my trees were all frozen solid during the surprise attack from King Winter! Although almost all of my trees were in their winter shelter, noting could protect them from 2 nights with temperatures well below – 10 Degrees in my garden! To defrost them I had to place heating in the winter shelter, hoping that it would be enough to slowly defrost them without doing any harm! Bringing my Larch frozen or even half frozen into the show is no option, the temperature in this venue will become real high from all the people that will visit it and that could be really harmful! And the melting water that would drip out of the pot could destroy my table as well! That’s the problem with midwinter shows, the difference in temperatures could be really harmful to our trees! During this show, it is quite common to see flowers and buts starting to open way before their time! So this afternoon I will remove all the snow from the entrance of my winter shelter, that was left there as insulation, to see if my Larch is defrosted, fingers crossed! Another nasty side effects from this freezing weather are that my student Ed and I had planned to load XL into my car later this afternoon so that we did not have to do this early tomorrow when it is still dark outside! But I cant leave XL overnight in my car because it will completely freeze over again! So this now means that poor Ed needs to come to my house at 5 o’clock on the Saturday morning to help me load this big tree into my car, in the dark and ankle deep in the snow over a very slippery path! 
The things we have to do for our hobby! Wish me luck and I will post pictures and stuff as soon as I get back from Belgium!
Below: Some pictures of the trees that are still outside my winter shelter.
Below: Shot of the still closed winter shelter in the back of my garden, I hope XL is not frozen anymore!
I can’t wait to show XL for the very first time and to finally meet all my friends again!!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
PS: XL was completely defrosted so all is well! 🙂
Hi, everybody,
on 16 Dec. last year, after a week with freezing cold weather followed by a couple of day’s with heavy rain, we had some dry weather so I was finally able to work on the deadwood sections of XL! First, the excess off dirt and algae was removed with water and an old soft toothbrush. A hard copper or metal brush would be quicker for this job, but cannot be used on the soft deadwood off this larch, because it would remove the natural bleached very thin silvery white top layer of its deadwood! I only carefully removed the dirt from places where I did not need shadows, but I left it in places like natural cracks and hollows so that they would still stick out in all that silvery white deadwood! When this was don I left the deadwood for a day so that the cleaned deadwood could get dry again. Then with the help of a small brush, I started to apply a thin layer of water diluted Lime Sulfur to most of the deadwood, but I tried to avoid the places were I wanted darker tones and shadows! The next day I saw that the bulk of the deadwood was now bleach just enough, so now I could focus on applying some more heavily bleached highlights. This was don with some stronger Lime Sulfur that I softly stamped on with a short haired brush. There was hardly any Lime Sulfur on that brush so the bleaching effect would be open and scattered so that the darker layers under need could still shine through in some places! A day later the same was done, but now even fewer places were treated with stronger Lime Sulfur. So now the deadwood has an overall greyish white colour with some brighter highlight in tactical places and all the places that lie deeper in the surface are still darker coloured in various tones, making it all look natural! XL is now placed in it’s winter shelter were he will be closely observed until the upcoming show. I have to make sure that branches stay in their desired position, that the moss stays fresh and I have to mist the thin copper wire that I used with water every now and than so that it will rust and get it’s desired dark brown color, instead of the shinning copper color it still has now! When this thin copper wire is bend to apply it around the branches, the dark (rusted) top layer will break off and disappear into the air, leaving the surface of the wire all shinning and looking new, and I don’t want that! This airborne copper dust can irritate eyes and dry out exposed skin, so be careful! My hands, face and lips are always dry after using copper wire and that is very annoying!
Friday 4-1-2013.
I just became another year older, 52 now and 25 Kilo’s lighter, a new year and a fresh start to become a happier person and to pursue my old dreams again! 😉
It was wonderful weather so I decided to take a long walk along the sea dyke that protects our coastline close to my home. Walking on this highly elevated dyke gives you a wonderful view of the sea and the many different birds that seek protection and shelter on it. It is also a great place to find many varieties off mosses that grow on the black boulders that were used to build the inclining dyke. These mosses grow directly on those rocks, without any soil, so they are very thin, ideally for the use as ground covering on my Bonsai! Collecting the moss was not as easy as it sounds, because of the steep inclination and the slippery surface of those rocks, but I managed to get enough to replace the weathered mosses and to add some mosses with yellow and orange
coloured long seed pots for more detail!
Below: The different mosses ready to put on, the top ones with the seed pots are the ones that I will use to bring more detail to the surface and depth to the whole image.
Below: The soil surface before I started. All off this moss was planted 2 years ago so that by now it is really attached and grown over and in between the open soil structure and looks really natural and not as if it is placed just before the show.
Below: After the new mosses were added. The green arrow shows what I meant by adding depth to the image and variety in the structure and colour of the soil surface.
I did not use much of that silvery ball like pieces of moss, they are different in colour and too symmetrical and round shaped and therefore looked out off place and unnatural. I think that like this the soil surface looks old and natural so I am happy with it!
Below: This is how the deadwood looks now after cleaning and carefully bleaching it in several layers of different strength Lime sulphur.
Just two more weeks until the Noelanders Trophy in Belgium, I can’t wait to show XL there and to meet all my friend from around Europe again!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
Hi, everybody,
I was asked a question on the IBC Forum that I would like to share with you all because my answer explains how I see my Bonsai!
abcd from France asked on : “With out long dead wood, a subject of much discussion I think ?”
Hi abcd, no not really, you are the first one ever! No just kidding, there was some debate in the beginning when years ago I showed the first styling pictures on the forum. But now it has come altogether better and all who have seen this tree in real life in my garden over this last years do like it! If you look at the picture below (that I just made especially for you ) that section was the new top live section meets that large jin and shari, that section is all naturally created by mother nature and it shows perfectly, in miniature, what happens for real in nature when the top of a mountain tree like Pine, larch or spruce dies back after being hit by lightning or an avalanche. The tree wants to survive so from around that point many new branches will appear from which one branch will become the new top section. Just like you can see on hundreds of trees high up in the mountains. But that is not the only reason why I made that Jin such an important part of this whole image, in my opinion, it adds interest to the whole story of this tree and it makes it (in my view) more exciting to look at! I would not think about it to remove it or even shorten it! But I do understand that this is a matter of taste! But I also know that it all looks and feels much better in real life!
Hope this answers your question?
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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This next question on the IBC Forum was asked by graham from the USA:
Graham wrote: Nice looking tree Hans, will you freshen up the deadwood features for the show? Nice find too…..they are tough so hopefully it will make it.
Cheers
Graham
My answer was: Thanks, Graham! Good question! Gives me the change to explain how I approach this styling on this particular tree. No, I will not clean it too much actually. Green algae and stuff that hides important features, yes, but I like it to look as naturally weathered as possible so no bleaching or something like that. This design is my own impression of a huge distance tree, but it is an imaginary tree image none the less and for that, to work (in my opinion) all natural looking part like bark, jins and shari should look as close to the truth as possible! So that the viewer, who recognizes those things in a blink, from seeing a thousand trees in real live, feels comfortable with the image he sees in front of him. It is my belief that when you feed the viewer the right information than you can create an image that is recognizable and believable to most, even when it is a fantasy tree like this one! With this design I want the viewer to see in one glance: how fare the image of my tree grows from where they stand and how tall it must be to look like that! And that illusion is created with open or negative spaces in and around this tree, these open spaces are hardly noticeable in these pictures, but in 3D they will do the trick much better! After that is all established, well then (I hope) that they can better enjoy the actual impression that I am trying to convey to them because they now know the facts of this tree and than they can better enjoy the fantasy and (hopefully) beauty of my tree and work! It must be a balance between natural and made up, for me that is Bonsai! But that is personal! Long explanation and I hope it gives some insight into how I think and work.
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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This next question on the IBC forum was from Taner (Turkey), he wanted to name my Larch! My answer explains how (XL) got his name from me!
Taner wrote: Oh god! This is another masterpiece that needs & deserves a name as we did for Tony’s dragon 
(May I suggest one?) It is great tree!!!
Best wishes
Taner.
My answer was: Hi Taner, you do me to much honour sire…..please do go on!!!! You can always suggest a name, I am curious what you see in my tree?….But it already has a name, XL as in Extra Large! That is the name I came up with when I had to carry it down a with meltwater soaked mountainside and realized that I had saved too much of a rootball to be carried by just one person! Especially because that one person, that was in line for a lower back operation, his legs had slowly sunken knee deep and were about to bend in the opposite direction, because he just would not let go of the tree! When my wife asked what happened: I mumbled something with my dying breath… tree…to Large! ..Extra Large…ha..ha…ha! You have to admire that even in desperation, I always try to be funny! That’s why it’s named XL and it grows slowly into its name to. I tried to style it in my way to look like an enormous tree and that seems to have worked, so XL is fitting I think?! But give me yours and surprise me?????
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
And yes I have been sampling my Remy Martin and chocolates again! 
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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Hope you all appreciate me posting this on my blog, I thought it could be of interest to those who follow my work on here?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.
The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 