BONSAI FOCUS 2015-4 EN PREVIEW

135/158
4/2015 July / August
English edition
Edición Español
Edizione Italiano
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Deutsche Ausgabe
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Bonsai Focus
EDITORIAL
3
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© Copyright 2015
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permission of the publisher.
Invasion from the US
Ryan Neil (US) was one of the headliners at
the Nöelanders trophy in January, so it gave
us the opportunity of inviting him over to our
studio for a demo. But what a struggle it is
to get great material for him to work on. Our
saviour was Carlos van der Vaart who came
up with a suitable tree. A sabina juniper, just
like Ryan's last demo I know but, sabinas
seem to be his favourite. He said to me that
he would have many sabinas if he lived in
Europe. It wasn't for that reason we decided
to let him work on another sabina. For Ryan
to excel you need to feed him with a really
nasty task so that his skills and artistry are
used to the maximum. This medium sized juniper
fitted this description perfectly because,
to put it bluntly, it was just plain ugly! Looking
at it more closely we found it had lots of
potential although viewing it for the first time
it was more like a big clutter of branches with
a very long 'stick' immerging from it. I had
little doubt that Ryan would work it out just
fine. We sent Ryan photos and were mightily
relieved when he said, 'yes, let's do it'. And it
proved to be the right candidate for showcasing
the magical stuff Ryan is capable of. Enjoy
his work on a totally 'different' sabina juniper.
From one American to lots of other American
contributors. It was not planned this way,
but just happened and a good thing because
we love to see even more American work
published here in our mag. In a contribution
from Randy Clark you learn how a firefighter
from Florida, David Cutchin, follows his
dream, working hard to make it as a full time
bonsai artist. It is amazing how many western
ceramists or potters make great pots for
bonsai in all kinds of styles and glazes and we
are happy to show the work of Sara Rayner,
another American, who changed her career
dramatically from general to bonsai pottery
after visiting a bonsai show in the late eighties.
Yet another American contribution to read
comes from Aarin Packard, the new curator of
the Pacific Bonsai Museum, who organizes a
special event on wiring: why to wire a tree —
or why not to.
Reports on events, help for daily maintenance,
techniques and our popular column by
Tony Tickle; it's all here in this edition of your
favourite magazine. Enjoy the read.
Bonsai Focus has a co-operation with
Kinbon magazine, Kyoto, Japan
Translations:
Peter Warren
Farrand Bloch
Chief editor

4 Bonsai Focus
THIS ISSUE
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Beginner
Advanced
On the cover
Taxus cuspidata
owned by Othmar Auer, Italy.
Photo: Bonsai Focus Studio
Scan the code
with your phone
Expert
34
6 News
Arco show, Bonsai Art Museum, Japan and Michael Hagedorn
8 Gallery
A selection of bonsai from Japan
10 Shohin with native trees
Morten Albek prefers to work on native material
14 Profile
Laurent Darrieux is a self-taught artist
10
18 Let's wire
Techniques to wire with pleasure
22 Step by step
Hiroki Miura shows us how to work with Tamarix
24 Shohin
How to transplant shohin conifers with Hiroki Miura
30 Drifting away
Using driftwood to make a natural-looking root stand
62

24
42
34 Maintenance
Get better results by partially removing the fresh new leaves
42 Masterclass with Ryan Neil
A small sabina juniper with lots of potential
52 Club spirit, a report
Louis Bourdeau reports from Geneva's Trophée des Clubs
54 Suiseki: The mitsubishi stone
A rare stone displayed in a rather modern way
56 Mastered without a guru
The pots of Sara Rayner
59 Tony's Column
Tony Tickle explores the influences that guide us
12
60 Expert opinion
François Jeker on Hugo Minder's hornbeam
62 Wireless
Special exhibition at the Pacific Bonsai Museum
by Aarin Packard
66 The subtle curve
Valentin Brose works on an Australian pine
71 Sowing the seeds
Starting bonsai from the very beginning 2: seeds
74 News
New bonsai book by Harry Harrington, Pots by Patricia Pas,
Salvatore's Myrtle ten years on
76 Firefighter goes bonsai
By Randy Clark: David Cutchin shows his skills
66

Bonsai Focus
GALLERY 9
Pinus parviflora, Cydonia, Dyosphyrus,
Cryptomeria, Stewartia, Pinus parviflora
Photo: Kinbon magazine, Japan
Pinus parviflora, Chamenomelis
Photo: Kinbon magazine, Japan

Bonsai Focus
TECHNIQUE
19
Tools to use for wiring
The minimum of tools required are a pair of wire cutters,
pliers and the correct thickness of wire, either aluminium
or copper
A wire cutter with long
legs has the advantage
that you can reach
deep into the foliage to
remove wire
Cheap jin pliers with a
thin beak
Stainless steel or carbon
steel jin pliers with a
thicker beak is a far better
option, for it has superior
grip on the wire
A normal wire cutter suitable for
cutting wires from 0.6 to 4 mm in
aluminium and 0.6 to 2.75 mm in
copper
A small wire cutter speeds up wiring
when doing detail work. You can keep the
cutter in your hand while wiring; just cut
the wire and continue
Copper or aluminium?
As a rule of thumb, conifers should be wired with copper and
deciduous with aluminium. As you start learning, there is no
need to be so definite. However, you should be aware that you
must always use a thicker gauge of aluminium wire compared
with copper. It should also be noted that once copper wire has
Heavy duty
A wire cutter has a limit of
wire thickness that it can
cope with. So for cutting
thick copper wire there are
big tools available, like this
290 mm sized Masakuni
wire cutter.
been bent, it will become hard
and difficult to re-bend. Aluminium
on the other hand becomes
weaker and more malleable.
Rather than trying to wire heavy
branches and create large and
difficult bends from the start, it is better to concentrate
on wiring secondary branches correctly and cleanly so you can
arrange them to form attractive foliage pads. For beginners it's
best to get over the fear of wiring by concentrating on achieving
technically correct wiring in a lower risk situation. There is no
way that you will be able to recreate professional wiring
immediately. However, if care is taken and the
work is checked for mistakes, then any
small problems will soon be corrected.
Use your index finger to move the wire
around the branch. Don't cut the wire too
short as you will need the extra length to
hold it
Anchoring is essential. See here
how the wire is anchored around
the jin on the right. Support the
wire when applying it to avoid
damaging the branch

52 Bonsai Focus
REPORT
Detail of the Bonsai Club
Ticino display that won
first prize
Club spirit
Together we are strong, battling for the best display
The Trophée des Clubs is an event organized by the Bonsai Club du
Léman, whose third edition was held on April 25-26 in Veyrier close
to the city of Geneva
Text and photography: Louis Bourdeau
This event highlights collective presentation of some European bonsai clubs.
14 clubs from Switzerland, Monaco and France displayed their trees in a
large, bright space of 600 m². Judges were Jean-Marc Defferrard, bonsai
professional from Geneva, Frederic Chenal, French professional, and Peter
Warren, from the UK, a professional very well known to Bonsai Focus readers.
They had to judge the displays at various levels and inspiration, but always
composed in a collective spirit and a real sense of harmony.
Some clubs opted for displays in the very classical Japanese style like Ticino
Bonsai Club, or Club Bonsai no Seishin, with great success. Others dared to
defy convention by choosing more original forms, but these were marked
by a real artistic sensibility, like the Bonsai Club de Monaco, Bonsai Club du
Limousin, or Bonsai Freunde Emmental.
The only individual tree given an award is a juniper by Nicola
Crivelli which won the Judge's Prize. The remaining seven awards
all went to bonsai displays
This year's winners are:
Overall winner: Bonsai Club Ticino (Switzerland)
Second: 'Castres Bonsai Passion (France)
Third: Bonsai no Seishin (France)
A great event that highlighted the club spirit and
the importance of presentation and display in the
art of bonsai.
Detail of the display by Bonsai Club no Seishin,
showing a Picea

Bonsai Focus
53
The next
'Generation'
From March 27-30, the small town of Neckargemünd,
close to famous Heidelberg, was the bustling centre for a
new generation of bonsai artists
The second prize was awarded to the
club Castres Bonsai passion for their
display
'Bonsaimotorworld'
Road trip to Japan
Text and photography: Guillaume Billaud
For the second time young bonsai Masters worldwide united
under the flag of Generation Bonsai, an event that celebrates the
new fresh energy encircling the world. By means of Internet and
social media, modern bonsai outside Japan is more prominent
than ever. High artistic value, advanced techniques, creativity in
unison, friendship and fun now reign among the rising artists of
a new generation. Traits that ultimately will help to bring bonsai
to a new level of public attention, as Michael Tran, organizer of
Maybe some of you readers already know about this, but
Mario Komsta has made the decision of visiting his old
Master by driving to Japan by motorcycle. It's a grand tour
criss-crossing many countries, but ever-energetic and
adventurous Mario thinks he needs three months to arrive
at his destination. Already on his way, he has made it to
Esphehan, Iran. Mario still needs to drive a whole lot more
miles to finally reach the nursery of Nobuichi Urushibata
in Shizuoka, Japan. Follow his road trip on Facebook and
see the daily videos of his adventures.
www.facebook.com/pages/Bonsaimotorworld/
Top left: Bjorn
Bjorholm works
on a Picea. Top
right: The demo of
Taiga Urushibata.
Above: Alexandre
Escudero's display
the event, believes. 'The
trees are great as they are,
but with interesting people
behind them, who display
a profound lifestyle with
artful trees, cooperation and fun, tied together and
presented in the new media, bonsai will shine in a
new light.'
This year's artists Taiga Urushibata, Bjorn Bjorholm
and Alexandre Escudero put their skills on display
for an ever-growing crowd of bonsai enthusiasts
from all over Europe, the youngest of whom are
between 10 to 16 years old. Like last year Heike van
Gunst contributed her passion for bonsai by her
presence on stage, as moderator and translator. We'll
keep you posted with news on the next 'Generation'
event in 2016.

Bonsai Focus
NEWS
75
The backyard in Manassas, Virginia, USA of Lloyd Carrera Santos
The garden and black pine of Edoardo Losio from Italy
Bonsai and display. . . Show us your bonsai at home
We were curious to see how you display
your bonsai at home. So we asked you,
our readers, to show us how you enjoy
your bonsai when returning home from
a long day's work. Bonsai can serve as
a moment of relaxation. These images
show some of your garden displays. We
would love to see more so keep them
coming. Just send your photographs to
editor@bonsaifocus.com
Michael Pistello from California, USA in his garden
Typically
Mediterranean
Salvatore
at work
in his old
studio in
Milan in
2005
The tree
at the
start of
2000
A flash back in time, to February 2005, 10
years ago and Salvatore Liporace is still in
his old studio right in the centre of Milan.
We did a photo demo on a not so familiar
tree, the Myrtus, a typically Mediterranean
tree which grows in the coastal regions of
Southern Italy. He was assisted by Olivier
Barreau, who was one of his students at
that time. The work began by dealing with
the large wounds caused by removing
large trunks. Wiring of this evergreen tree
is easy when achieving a good branch
set-up; it's a question of clip and grow
to improve its ramification. It blossoms
in spring with tiny white flowers and it
shows berries in autumn. It has matured
immensely over these ten years.
The tree just after
repotting in spring
2005
The blossoming
Myrtle in 2015,
now owned by
Xavi Massanet

80 Bonsai Focus
STYLING
Foliage reduction
Foliage reduction on this juniper is accomplished in two stages. The first
before any wire is applied to the tree and the second during the actual
application of wire. In the first stage green growth occurring on inner
branches is reduced. This will allow for better visualization of the branch
structure and create pathways for the application of wire in the second
stage. This is accomplished by cutting as well as fingertip pinching. The
objective is to eliminate downward growing branches; sucker growth
and growth in the crotches of branch intersections. The three photos on
the left illustrate this process. Lusher growth at the tips of the branches
will be allowed to remain and will be reduced as the process of detail
wiring begins and branchlets are moved into their final positions.
Foliage reducing before wiring
After wiring
Branches are wired, sometimes even up to the tips and positioned. As the
process proceeds it allows for the meticulous layering of growth on each
foliage pad and ensures that all branches receive optimal sun exposure
and air movement. It is these two elements which help ensure healthy
foliage growth and copious back budding
Repotted, the
final result
Initially, the wiring process proceeds
as it normally would with any bonsai.
However, David’s technique for detail
wiring takes a slightly different approach.
It involves trimming foliage tips and then
Detail of the
wired lower
right branch
applying detail wire (sometimes as fine as
a thread) at the same time

Bonsai Focus
NEXT ISSUE
81
Preview
Issue 136/159 September/October
TECHNIQUE
Not just bending, but bending using advanced techniques. Learn
how to bend to the maximum without damage.
WORKSHOP
Accent plantings are becoming ever more popular. We bring you
a 'how to' or 'how not to' workshop with these small plants.
MASTERCLASS
Bjorn Bjorholm harnesses every bit of power he can muster to
style a massive yew.
NATIVE
Walter Pall promotes the natural
style of native trees, this time it's
an old hornbeam.

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