The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer

Hi, everybody,

after a very hectic week, I want to show you some last pictures that I forgot to post in the earlier post about “Burrs” 2013, and I don’t want to forget anybody from who I have a nice picture off….?…. Bladie blabbla….it’s late I know! 🙂

Some more sing-along moments for all the people from all around Europe that were there! Unforgettable moments indeed! 🙂

Next is an interesting question that was asked by Chris over on the IBC Forum, it could be interesting for others too, so here we go:   

Beautiful lines. I saw you drawing out the tree, do you come up with the design and then sketch, or do you play around with poss. designs while sketching, then deciding upon the final styling?

I answered with:

Here is the drawing that I made on the Saturday evening for Steward. He was working on another off his trees and his amazing (UK) Yamadori Pine stood beside him on the table, I asked him is it OK that I make a design option for your Pine? He said: yes, please! So I grabbed my sketchpad and started to draw the outlines of the tree and the beginning of the main branches that I was planning to use. When those outlines are more or less similar that the actual tree, well then I start to draw the rest of the main branches and than the smaller branches until they are about the length that feels or seems right! Then the bundles of needles are made quickly until the outline of each foliage pad has reached more or less the right outline that feels right. More needles are drawn until everything is more or less in balance to me…that’s it really?! I have found out that by drawing your design onto paper or pc is very helpful to check if it looks all right and possible. And by setting your image with your hands into a drawing you will always remember them! You have created a blueprint in your head with the use of your hands. In this case, the drawing also helps the student to see with his own eyes what you are seeing as a possible future for his tree! This makes it all clearer and easier to understand and helps them to make a well-thought decision about the future of their own trees! And it is a nice souvenir as well! Steward was very happy with the drawing….I was pleasantly surprised that next day he asked me if I please would help him to style his pine! That was a brave decision from him because for my intended design some major branches needed to be cut off or made into a Jin! So that puts a little bit of pressure onto your shoulders…but that feels nice!

Here is the drawing that I made for Steward.

Concentrated at work on a very promising Itoigawa pre Bonsai!

My friend “Hick ups” 🙂 and Pavel.

And finally: how it all started! Early Saturday morning, organizer Tony Tickle introducing us the teachers to 36 ready to go Bonsai lovers! From left to right: Marcio Meruje (Portugal), Pavel Slovak (Czech Republic), Hans van Meer (The Netherlands, Holland), Will Baddeley (UK) and Last but not least Terry Foster (UK).

And before we knew it, it was all over again! I had a blast and it did me a ton off good to get there in the end! And who knows????

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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_________________ “I FLY SO HIGH AND FALL SO LOW”

For info about workshop’s and demo’s only: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

Hi, everybody.

last Thursday I had my Bonsai friend Dirk Mundorf from Germany over for our now traditional annual Bonsai fun day! When he arrived at 10 in the morning after his 3,5 hours drive we had a quick strong coffee and then we immediately started to work on the big Juniper he brought along with him. A few years ago we gave this tree it’s first styling in my garden and now it was time to give it it’s follow up styling. First, as always, the trunk and branches were cleaned with the help of steal and copper wire brushes. As soon as we started, the sun started shinning and it would do so all day long! 🙂

Below: Green arrows point to the new edge off the live line. Everything on the right of these arrows has died back.

Below: Carefully removing the dead bark with a copper brush.

Below: All the dead bark removed right up to the new live vain.

Below: All deadwood is carefully burned with a blowtorch to make it look more weathered and old.

Below: While Dirk torched the place I was wiring the safe side of the tree! 🙂 The deadwood was not treated with Lime Sulphur, that will be donat Dirk’s home, we did not want to stink up his car! 4 hours in a car with the smell of fresh Lime Sulphur up your nose is too much for civilized people! 🙂

Below: By the time it was dinner time, which was at 7 o’clock, we were still not finished wiring! That was 6 hours of strait wiring! So we enjoyed a spicy Suriname diner and some more coffee and then brought the tree inside for some more styling.

Below: The whole top section was not wired yet, but we wanted to bring the wired section into place anyhow!

Below: Slowly bringing all the wired branches into place.

Below: Even though the whole top section is not wired and therefore can not be placed into its wanted position, it still looks pretty good already! I am sure that Dirk will wire the rest of the tree in the next couple of day’s to bring out the best out off that top!

Dirk left close to 10 in the evening with a nice and almost finished good looking Bonsai and a big smile on his face! Next Spring we will meet again in my garden for another “Bonsai Fun Day” with lots of coffee! I can’t wait to work with my friend Dirk again!

Hope you enjoyed this little story?!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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“I FLY SO HIGH AND FALL SO LOW”

For info about workshop’s and demo’s only: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

Hi, everybody,

on the 8th of September, I gave a demo at SHO RYU KAI BONSAI CLUB that’s is situated in the famous LODDER Bonsai centre in Harmelen (The Netherlands). Marcel Witteman a member of this club took pictures of it all and he gave me kind permission to use them so that I could share them with you all! It was a short afternoon demo, so I was a bit pressured for time (as often with demo’s), but I got some kind wiring help from Filip Haesen (Belgium) that gave me some more room to explain and discus things with the club members!

Below: This demo tree (from Filip Haesen) that I selected is a Chuhin sized Juniper Itoigawa from Japan. Some years ago it was used in another demo after which it lost a lot of branches, especially on one side! It recovered well and now it is healthy enough to undergo its second styling by me! This is one of two possible fronts.

Below: Problem with choosing this side is that the first branch on the right side of the tree is placed almost at the top, so it can only be transformed into a literati Bonsai.

                                        Below: This is the other possible front.

Below: Problem with choosing this side as a front is that there is a reverse taper at the base of the tree.

Below: Having a long look while discussing all the possibilities with the students.

Below: After we decided to go with the second possible frond side (with the reverse taper), I removed all unwanted foliage and death stuff.

Below: Than with the help of a hard copper brush I carefully removed all the dry bark from the recently died sections, making sure not to damage the live veins. A cutback branch and an old dead one were converted in too short Jins. In this picture, you can clearly see that there are no branches growing from this side!

Below: After initial cleaning. Green arrow: Look how nice that newly formed live vain craws upwards the trunk. Red arrow: Here a section of deadwood needs to be removed so that the trunk will look thinner and more in balance with the bottom section of the trunk!

Below: Removing unwanted wood, while styling what stays. It is done with the purpose to reduce the visual thickness of the deadwood, but also to envisage the beauty of it. In other words: It has to look good! 🙂 The green arrow point at an uncovered recently died section.

Below: Stil styling the deadwood while Filip Haesen is wiring along.

                                                     Below: Almost finished.

                                               Below: Applying the last wire.

Below: The red line shows just how snake like the bottom section of the trunk coils upwards! The red arrow points at the only thicker branch of the tree. It is pretty straight so it needs bending to give it more movement. It will be the main character branch in this design.

Below: Bringing the foliage off the bottom branch into place. It is divided into two main layers.

Below: Slowly bringing layer after layer into its new place. In this picture, you can clearly see that with this side as the front the branch with the red arrow would be the first main branch. The only way to style with a first branch that high would be a tall Literati with not much foliage and a strange trunk. The green arrow shows at the only lower branch on the tree. It is useless with this as a front because it grows straight to the back. A windswept would not look right either with this trunk, in mine and the majority’s opinion! 🙂

Below: Bringing everything into its place, without match planes or thoughts! I love this bit, exciting and always a bit affright or maybe, anxious?! It makes me happy! 🙂

Below: The final resold. It’s a basic styling with not much harm or risk to the tree, so I am sure that in the good care of Filip this tree will recover just fine this time! It will be a nice Bonsai in just a few years time when more foliage has grown and more details/layers have been formed by Filip!

Below: The end result, for now! But the start is there! I had fun and Filip, the owner, was happy and the club members were happy! So I am happy! Yes a fun day indeed, thanks to the SHO RYU KAI BONSAI CLUB for having me, let’s do it again!? 🙂

I hope you all enjoyed this little photo story of a Sunday afternoon demo? 🙂

Cheers,

Hans.

Info: karamotto@hotmail.com

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