August Club Meeting: Styling

Rui Ferreira from the Algarve area of Portugal gave up some of his European summer to enjoy the delights of a Victorian winter and share his wealth of bonsai experience with BSV members.

In addition to conducting workshops with members over the last couple of days, Rui's challenge for the Monday demonstration was to re-style a Juniperus squamata. Playing safe was not an option so Rui pursued his preferred vision of the tree recognising that only so much could be done at this time. See Rui with the tree before re-styling below.

Considering the re-styling, Rui liked the first movement in the trunk but was planning to tackle what he believed were the two major issues for the tree. The lack of taper towards the top of the tree and the sparse foliage. A drastic reduction was proposed as a first step towards a more compact tree as shown below.

This variety of juniper tends to be brittle so branches likely to require bending had been kept moist for most of the day to assist. Narrow jute webbing soaked in water and wrapped around branches prior to wiring and bending is Rui's preferred method. He has found that raffia can scar or mark the trunk. See the use of webbing on the main branch below.Jins are generally created by cutting halfway through the branch and then breaking the branch as this can help create good jins.

His favourite tool for removing bark is a tool used to clean horses hooves. Jins are usually left for twelve months for them to weather before using lime sulphur or similar.As the final styling developed, Rui decided the upper branch was too long with no growth and it was removed.For potting, a small round pot with a rough texture was preferred.

Rui noted that he had seen some great pots in Australia and he was sure options were available that would help capture the vision for this tree.Following final trimming, Rui was pleased with the "rough sketch" that had now been developed as is shown below. Future development will focus on developing compact growth and adding a shari to the lower trunk to make it less bulky.

The BSV thanks Rui for sharing his knowledge and experience and helping Members improve their bonsai skills.On display during the evening were many of the trees worked on during the workshops and display trees from Members. A selection is included below.

Rui Ferreira with the Demo tree before any action - Juniperus squamata

DemonstrationBSVAugust 29, 2017