The Bonsai Dilettante

2014 Bonsai-a-Thon Day 2

"Great events make me quiet and calm." ― Queen Victoria

Day two of the 2014  GSBF Bonsai-a-Thon was a lot of fun for me. I took my wife and son on Sunday and we saw the Japanese gardens and toured the art buildings, seeing, among other masterpieces, the famous Pinkie and The Blue Boy.  We had a better-than-expected barbecue lunch with the GSBF folks, too.

The main attraction for me was, once again, the demonstrations by the masters, and once again, we had six of them working side-by-side on different trees. Like on Saturday, I wasn't able to arrive in time to see the start of the demos, but I saw most of them.

Bob Hilvers styled this massive procumbens nana juniper, demonstrating how changing the angle of the trunk can change the entire appearance of your tree.

Al Nelson prepared this spectacular saikei, while promoting one of my favorite lines of poetry ever, from Trees by Joyce Kilmer.

Marcus Juniel worked on a San Jose juniper with a huge curvy trunk, showing techniques for carving out defects and bending heavy branches.

David Nguy styled this California juniper, explaining that it is important to leave growing tips in place while pruning, to maintain the vigor in your tree.

Cheryl Manning worked on this outstanding black pine, and among other things, explained how harmony is achieved by matching the relative movement of the trunk and branches. More movement in the trunk is complimented by branches with good movement.

Frank Goya was done with his saikei by the time I arrived. I assume he had some interesting stuff to say, too, but I only got to see the finished product.

Here are a couple of shots of the vendors' area:

I bought an Itiogawa from California Bonsai Studio. Most expensive tree I've ever purchase - almost $150 with tax. I'm using it as a mother tree for cuttings and scions for grafting.

I'll put up a gallery of the exhibits later.

2014 Bonsai-a-Thon Day 1

"Events tend to recur in cycles." ― W. Clement Stone

And so the cycle brought another GSBF Bonsai-a-Thon, although for me, it was a first. I had some stuff to take care of with my kids, so I didn't arrive until about an hour into the demonstrations. I knew there were going to be six artists doing demos. What I didn't know was that they were all working side-by-side, all at once, until they finished. So I arrived thinking I'd missed the first demo, but I'd catch the last five. As it turns out, I missed the first hour of everyone's demos. That was a bit of a bummer. I still learned a lot by watching the next 90 minutes or so.

Harry Hirao styled this California juniper with the assistance of David Nguy.

Mel Ikeda worked this California juniper and told stories about his dad's old bonsai nursery in Buena Park that closed shortly after I first became interested in bonsai back in the day.

Michael Sykes styled this foemina, and got it into a very shallow pot. I thought about bidding on this one, since I fancy the idea of making my own Goshin someday, but when the bidding got to $400, I knew I wasn't in the running.

Peter Macasieb potted and trained this massive twisted pomegranate. Despite its barren appearance at the end, this tree fetched the best price at the auction - $500.

Tak Skimazu worked on this shohin juniper leaving it in very small, shallow a pot. This one drew a bid of $300.

Cesareo Perez styled this boxwood into a fan shape. He estimated the age to get perhaps 50 years.

In addition to the demos, there were a handful of formally displayed trees, an auction and raffle, and vendors selling everything from trees and suiseki to tools, pots, art and moss.  I bought a few tools and a small-leafed olive. I also bought a rock. I'm not much into the suiseki, but I dropped ten bucks on a stone that looks just like a raw potato.

There it is, my first purchased stone from a bonsai event.

A Basic Instruction on the What, Why & How of Bonsai

“I don't want to believe. I want to know.”― Carl Sagan

A lot of beginners to bonsai, and a lot of strangers to the hobby of growing bonsai believe they know what bonsai is, and why and how people do what they do in bonsai. And a lot of them are wrong. But you can learn a lot about bonsai in just an hour or two, and this is a good place to start. I'm not sure who this guy is, but this 9 part video of a lecture given to a bonsai club under a tent in the rain is probably the best introduction to bonsai I've seen.

 

If you want to know the basics of bonsai, or even if you know, but want to understand how to explain it to others, this video set is worth watching.

Bonsai-A-Thon XVIII 2014

"A good example has twice the value of good advice." ― Turkish Proverb

Bonsai-A-Thon XVIII will be held at The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, located at 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, on Saturday February 22 & Sunday February 23, 2014.

Bonsai-A-Thon is the annual fundraiser for the GSBF Collection at The Huntington. I've never been to it before, but I'm planning to attend this year, at least one of the days. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. both days. Admission is free with Bonsai-A-Thon “early bird” registration between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Attendees will have access to all the Huntington collections on this trip as well as all bonsai activities. Here are the schedules:

Saturday, February 23rd 2013

• 7:30 – 9:30 am: Early Bird Registration: Free pass to all of The Huntington Gardens; Pancake breakfast available.
• 8:00 – 5:00 pm: Bazaar and bonsai exhibits: Top quality tools, pots and trees on sale; Masterpiece trees on display.
• 10:00 – 11:30 am: Guided tour by Jim Folsom: Highlights of plans for future expansion of Japanese Garden.
• 10:00 – Noon: Morning Demonstrations: Initial training and advanced techniques
• 11:30 – 1:30 pm: Lunch: Hotdogs and hamburgers available.
• 1:00 – 2:45: Afternoon Demonstrations.
• Demo presenters: Harry Hirao, Mel Ikeda, Peter Macasieb, Cesareo Perez, Tak Shimazu, Michael Sykes

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

• 7:30 – 9:30 am: Early Bird Registration: Free pass to all of The Huntington Gardens; Pancake breakfast available.
• 8:00 – 5:00 pm: Bazaar and bonsai exhibits: Top quality tools, pots and trees on sale; Masterpiece trees on display.
• 9:00 – Noon Trident Maple Workshop led by Ted Matson – limited to 10 people, for details, contact Ted at tmatson@earthlink.net.
• 10:00 – 11:30 am: Guided tour by Jim Folsom: Highlights of plans for future expansion of Japanese Garden.
• 10:00 – Noon: Morning Demonstrations: Initial training and advanced techniques
• 11:30 – 1:30 pm: Lunch: Hotdogs and hamburgers available.
• 1:00 – 2:45: Afternoon Demonstrations.
• 3:00 – 4:30 Raffle and Live Auction: Demonstration trees and donated trees, pots
• Demo presenters: Frank Goya, Bob Hilvers, Marcus Juniel, Cheryl Manning, Al Nelson, David Nguy

Other Features

• Extensive Bazaar Area –Select vendors selling top-quality tools, pots and trees (raw material to display-ready)
• Masterpiece trees on display
• Bonsai Exhibit - By Baiko-En Bonsai Kenkyukai Society
• Special Exhibit - local potters and their trees

For more information, contact Marge Blasingame, (626) 579-0420 margeblasingame@att.net.

The Winter Silhouettes Show January 18-19

“You can't get too much winter in the winter.”― Robert Frost

 

This is what winter looks like in my part of the world. It's not exactly a Christmas card, but it does have one cool thing about it. The trees drop their leaves and expose their structure for us to observe. Like at this show I'm going to check out next month.

Deciduous bonsai have traditionally been exhibited with full foliage, but a growing trend is to display them in winter, when their "bones" are showing. Here in Southern California, the place to see that is the Winter Silhouettes Show at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, located at 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia CA 91007.

This year, the Winter Silhouettes Show will be held on January 18 & 19, from 10 am - 4:30 pm. There will be demonstrations each day, and a dinner on Saturday at 5:30 pm. One of the clubs I'm in, Kofu Bonsai Kai, has been asked to contribute to the Saturday evening’s entertainment by competing in a tree styling contest. The dilettante has not be invited to participate, which is probably for the best. For some discussion and photos from a past Winter Silhouettes show, check out this thread from BonsaiNut.

Bonsai Tips for Beginners

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." ― Buddha Siddhartha Guatama Shakyamuni

A great way to learn about how to grow good bonsai trees is to attend club meetings with demonstrations and presentations led by experienced bonsai artists. This presentation was given at Dai Ichi Bonsai Kai by my teacher, Manny Martinez, a few months ago. It's filled with good advice.

 

I've watched it a couple of times, and thought I'd share it with anyone who follows my blog.

Satsuki Bonsai Society Show Demo

"I don't talk much ... Listen to my hands." ― Ben Oki

Yesterday, I went to the Satsuki Bonsai Society's show at the Chùa Bảo Quang Temple in Santa Ana. I got a chance to see Ben Oki work on a couple of prostrata junipers, assisted by David Nguy. I know David Nguy and have seen him work before. He's a very talented bonsai artist, founder of the Chino Bonsai Club, and he did a demonstration earlier in the day that I was not able to see. Ben Oki, however, I had not seen before. Mr. Oki was one of John Naka's students and friends. He teaches bonsai literally all over the world, and it is uncommon to have a chance to see him work here in Southern California.

I didn't have a good camera with me, but I did take a few pictures with my cell phone. Here are the before photos of the two junipers he styled for us.

and

and here is the after shot. The tree on the right (the first demo) was auctioned off with Mr. Oki's sketch and sold for $150. The tree on the left (the second demo) fetched $100. They spent less than half an hour on each tree. I would have spent half an hour starting at one of them trying to decide what to do first.

There was also an excellent display of various club member trees that I might post later as a gallery. Being the dilettante that I am, I thought that the Satsuki Bonsai Society was a group of people who focus on Satsuki azaleas, and expected a show filled with nothing but Satsuki azaleas. In fact, I think there was only one ― Harry Hirao's tree.