The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer

BURRS BONSAI WEEKEND 9/10/11 NOVEMBER 2012.

Hi, everybody,

I am glad to announce that on 9/10/11 November 2012, I will be a part again of the 7th episode of the unique and by now famous BURRS BONSAI WEEKEND!!!

This immensely popular Bonsai weekend is limited to 30 lucky participants so early booking is advisable!!

I can’t wait to be a part again of this wonderful event and I hope to CU there too!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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Hi, everybody,

I received some more before and after pictures from 2 members of the “Slovenia Bonsai Club” that I would like to share with you all.

1: Blaz (Pinki) Konec, urban yamadori Juniper.

This Juniperus was one of the toughest to style into a pre-bonsai! Most of the branches only had foliage on the tips and the ones that had enough foliage to work with were almost impossible to bend! So I discussed the possibilities with Pinki and explained that his juniper would be styled with future growth in mind! After wiring, the top section of the trunk and the branches were brought more or less into their future position. From this point onwards the tree needs to be encouraged, with pinching and heavy feeding, to back bud lower on those empty branches! When that happens over the next couple of years, it will be easier to give Pinki’s juniper it’s final shape!

                                                 Below: Before the work started.

                                            Below: The end result for now!

           2: Nik Rozman,  Larch yamadori collected in May 2007 by himself.

                                     Below: Nik’s Larch before collecting.

                                              Below: Before work started

We discussed his plane for the tree before he started and then Nik, bravely, started to remove unwanted branches and wired the ones that were left.

                                             Below: The great end result.

After Nik was finished, I only made some minor adjustments, so all the credits of this exciting styling have to go to Nik!

You can find more pictures of this Bonsai weekend on Nik’s blog:  Here and here.

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

here are some more before and after pictures made by the club members during the workshop.

First Roland Petek’s Juniper.  This is what Roland wrote on the IBC forum:

Before the workshop, I had another vision of the design with this tree, but after analyzing the tree together with Hans and after he explained what and what I believe is the most important thing, why he thinks that the
development of the design should go in this direction I decided to make it like this…and I’m very glad I did. Additional to this there was a good explanation how to achieve this design from Hans (strong bending of the trunk, branch structure …) At the end, Tomaž Kovšca helped me out with some details and this is the result.

                                            Below: before the work started.

                                            Roland concentrated at work! 🙂

                                                      Below the finished tree!

You can read and see more about this Bonsai weekend and much more on Roland Petek “Bonsai Living Art” web blog: http://roland-bonsai-eng.blogspot.com/2011/10/weekend-by-hans-van-meer.html

Next Janez Mugo pine:   

I am glad that I received pictures from Janez that show the before and after of his amazing Mugo that he styled during the workshop!
Below: The Mugo before the work started. Just look at the amazing deadwood on this tree! They are signs of the struggle that this old mountain pine had to go through during his life! So they must play an important role in the
future design!

Below: Right from the beginning it was obvious that the future design would be one in the cascading style, so we discussed all the possibilities how to accomplish that in a way that would show all the unique features of this tree! There are two major branches growing from the base of the tree. The red arrow points at the top one of the two. This branch is, although pretty and with a lot of deadwood, to straight and the foliage grows to fare away to be useful in the design. The yellow arrow shows the second branch that falls downward like a snake. This branch has beautiful deadwood running along it and is more suitable to be used in the cascading design! But even this branch would need heavy wiring and major bending to get to were we more or less wanted it!

Below: From this angle, it is good to see how straight that top branch is (red arrow)!

Below: Here you can see that Janez bravely cut off most of that straight top branch and made it
in to a still rough long Jin (green arrow). At home Janez
will try to bring more movement into that fresh jin! We discussed the
possibilities to do this with the help of steam to soften the wood! I am sure
that Janez will find a way to achieve this goal in one way or a other!

                                  Below: Close up of Janez deadwood work.

Below: The end result! Janez did a wonderful and brave job on material that wasn’t that simple to style! With only some guidance from me, he styled an amazing cascading pre Bonsai with a very promising future! Well, don Janez!

Matej Planinc Spruce:

Matej emailed me some pictures of his Spruce that he worked on during the workshop. I would like to share this with you all because the work that was don on this big Spruce was so much different from most of the other trees that were styled that day. Although there are some gentle curves in the trunk of this Spruce, I would still call this tree a classical example of a formal upright evergreen that you can see all over the Alps! So it was only logical that it would be styled in just that way, like a real live full-grown Spruce! So no major bending on trunk or branches would be necessary! But even though we decided to style this Spruce like it’s big cousins on the mountains, this those not mean that design mistakes were allowed! When you style your small tree to look like a real tree, you have to downsize the image in your head to Bonsai size. That will automatically mean that a lot of branches have to be removed to create the open spaces that you are used to seeing on full-size Spruces! If you don’t do this you will only create a small Spruce with the outline of a large one! It will end up looking just like a Xmas tree! Open spaces on any Bonsai will provide us with a lot of information about height and distance of the imaginary tree image that the artist wants us to see! So we selecting ideally placed branches and removing the unwanted ones! Were branches grew opposite of each other, only the best one was left on. Branches growing on the inside of a curve, obstructing the flow of trunk were cut off! The crossing and too thick branches and the ones that were obstructing the view of that mighty trunk line were also removed! On places of interest stumps of those removed branches were left onto (maybe) be converted into Small Jin’s. All branches that were left on were wired only to bring them more or less in the desired position and to open up the spaces between them so that light and air could reach the inside! This way many new buds will appear all along those, now still too long branches. So that in the next couple of years those branches can be made shorter and shorter! A new top was created to get a better taper on the tree! And after tilting this Spruce to the right it also has a wide root base that is not so clear to see in these pictures, so it is a very promising pre Bonsai that will only get better and better over the years!

                                   Below: Discussing the tree with Matej.

Below: The end result for now. The large stump you see sticking upward on the right side of the second curve was left on because it tells a logical and interesting story of the hard life this old tree had! It will be converted into a Jin. In the future when the branches have become shorter, they will be rewired again and then more movement will be made into them. But that’s for later!

Below: Some pictures that say more than a thousand words could ever do!

Thanks to the members of the Slovenia Bonsai Club for allowing me to use their pictures and for the wonderful weekend they gave me! Hope to CU all soon again!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,

Marcus Watts from the UK wrote on the IBC forum:

thats more like a demo – small crowd and a few
beers – what a refreshing way to style a tree Hans, keeping a ‘plan B’ branch in
case the one that was styled dies – in my mind details like that, actually
caring for the owners material, sets you apart from many of today’s stylists
where the instant ‘finished in a day’ image seems to be all that matters.
it looked like you had a good time, cheers
Marcus.

Thanks, Marcus,
during a workshop, I will always ask what ideas the owner has for his tree. If they have one or two, I will look if what they see in their tree is possible to achieve! If it is possible but there are better options with their idea in mind that I will explain that to them. If their idea is not doable I will explain why. If I see a better design for their tree than I will try to explain why I believe that is so, but I will still not enforce my idea or style on them. I really believe that a teacher should cherish and nourish the ideas that students have of their own! Students, especially the ones that are not too experienced yet, must be allowed to form their own imagination and way of styling. Otherwise, we will only end up with a lot of bonsai that look like the one that the teacher makes at home and that is simply wrong!
The demo, on the other hand, was a different story! Nik Rozman the owner of the demo tree, kindly allowed me to style his precious Pine in my own way! This way I could show how I work in my own garden on my own trees! Because of the terrible rain when I selected this pine in his garden, I had only seen it for just a couple of minutes. I selected it because of the movement of the trunk, but I did not have the change of forming an idea what to do with all those long branches?! So I started the demo with a blank canvas in my mind! What I did know was that no matter what design I would choose, I had to bring that thick trunk and foliage much closer to the trunk! So I started to apply wet raffia and heavy wire to be able to bend that thick trunk and some of the thicker branches! While I was doing this I went through a lot off possibility in my mind, but still did not have a fixed plan after the raffia and wire were in place! So I slowly started to bend the thick trunk as closely as possible to the trunk, while Nik was tightening all the gi wires for me! After having done that successfully I brought the lowest branch more or less in the desired position and than I suddenly saw the light and the future design for this tree! While holding that branch into place close to the trunk I looked up and smiled at the audience and said do you see that? And they all did! There was the possibility for a compact little Pine! I told them that I would only use two small branches and that this would mean that the rest of the branches would be cut off or shaped into Jin’s! So I asked Nik if it was alright to make his tree in this way?! He said it is your demo and I replied, but it is our tree! So he smartly suggested, make your image of a small tree out of just those two branches and when it works and it looks good then you can remove all those unnecessary branches! If it doesn’t look good you can go for the larger tree option with the branches that were left on the tree! Clever Boy!!!   So I started to bring the two branches into their places and when I was finally satisfied with their position I again ask Nik and the audience if this design was good enough to remove all those unwanted branches? I think they all agreed it was a good design and so did Nik, but at his request on a branch in the left top was saved as an insurance policy if things would go wrong! Again a smart idea by Nik! So I removed all unwanted branches but one and then started to shape the deadwood! So the end result of this little Pine is not only my work because I would not have been able to style this tree in this way without the trust and the permission of Nik! Here are some pictures of that demo and the end result.

                                               Below: Ooooops I have no clue!

                                          Below: The planed front of the tree.

Below:: Removing the bark from future Jin’s. Someone asked me why don’t you use power tools? I explained that doing this by hand gave me the time to bond with the tree. Giving me the change to come up with solutions and a design! Doing this with power tools needs a lot of concentration and then there is not much room for other thought!

Below: Wiring and power tools put a lot of pressure on a tree so before I started I tightened the tree to the rim of this training pot.

Below: Bringing the branches and foliage in place. Just look how fare the thick trunk is bend!

                               Below: The last small branch is poet into place!

Below: The end result. The long branch that is sticking upward is the one that is saved for extra security! 

It’s a shame that the nice wide base of the tree is not visible in this picture,
but I hope you can get the idea behind this design from it?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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Hi, everybody,
last Friday morning I took off from Amsterdam to fly to Slovenia. I was invited by the Slovenia Bonsai Club to give a workshop on Saturday and a demo on Sunday. After a two hours flight that felt like being on a roller coaster on speed, I was very relieved when the plane finally landed still in one piece at Ljubljana airport!
Still, green in the face I was picked up by my host and tour guide Tomaz Kovsca. He took me to see an amazing Bonsai garden/business with a wonderful Yamadori. But because it was raining cats and dogs this visit was cut short and I sadly had no chance to take any pictures! Then we drove to his friend Nik Rozman’s garden where I was allowed to select my demo tree for the Sunday demo. While under the cover of two umbrellas I quickly selected a lovely yamadori, Silvestris Pine. Then we drove to Tamaz his house to look at his wonderful Bonsai collection and from there he took me on a tour through the wonderful town of Ljubljana. Along the way, he told me a lot of interesting facts about the history of this city and his country! On the way to my hotel he told me that normally, it was starting to snow at that moment, that normally you could see beautiful mountains all around! I had to take his word for it because all that we could see were dark grey skies! The approaching of this bizarre weather frond gave me plain the hiccups on the way over here! After a good night’s rest Tomaz picked me up from the hotel and we walked to a more than hundred-year-old firehouse where this Bonsai weekend would be held. There I met up with the 14 very friendly Bonsai enthusiasts that would take part in the workshop. We started at 9 and worked too late that afternoon on some amazing material! And we only stopped once to have a very tasty lunch in one of the many local restaurants. After the workshop, we all went out to enjoy more local cuisine in a traditional restaurant. There was a lot of singing accompanied by guitar and that atmosphere made the food taste even better than it already was! Back at my hotel, very tired but happy, I had no problem falling asleep! 😀 The next day at 9, I started with my demo and managed to style the tree in just over 4 hours so that we all could have another tasty lunch in a traditional grill restaurant! After that we said our goodbyes and then Tomaz drove me to see jet another Bonsai garden from one-off his students. The weather was wonderful so I could finally see the scenery that Tomaz had told me about! All around me there were mountains to be seen with fresh snow on top! It truly is a wonderful country full of very friendly people! After our visit to his student garden, he drove me to the aeroplane. And we said goodbye as new friends, he was a wonderful host and I am sure that I will be back to meet him and the other guy’s again real soon! The flight back was much better and after the drive from Amsterdam to my house, I finally arrived home late in the evening. Tired but very happy with the great weekend that I spend with so many new Bonsai friends!
And from here I would like to thank them for their trust and friendliness!

Here are some pictures to give impressions of this Bonsai trip! More before and after images will follow when I have received them from my Slovenian friends!

Below: The whole bunch behind my finished demo tree. That left long branch sticking in the air is left one for security!

More pictures will follow soon!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com

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