English Elm. Back to basics!!!

I bought this English Elm (Ulmus minor) last week at a local club I visited. I liked the tree and thought it had a promising future. Although the canopy looks finished, the branches were all straight and lacked movement. I usually cut trees back to basic lines and then work from there. Bottle of Single Malt for size reference

The back of the tree

An old trunk chop in the middle of the tree

An old root chop That will make for some interesting carving in the future

A large straight branch was removed first but all the rest except the leader will go too.

The first cut.

                          5 minutes later and all that's left is the trunk line. Wire was added to the first branch and     leader to add some movement.

Side view to show how the top was bent towards the front.

The back of the tree.

As is common with most collected Elms, they lack finer roots. This one is typical in having only a few and they are massive old sucker type roots. I decided as well as removing the bark to let the wood harden in preparation for carving, I would also layer the tree to produce better roots. All the work was done with a Makita and then the top edge of the layer was finished sharply with a Knife.

The carved areas on the trunk will be widened in the future as the tree callouses. This will hepl to add a natural die back appearance.

The back again. The bark and cambium are 15mm thick.

I am looking forward to carving this root on the back

I expect the roots will grow quickly and perhaps a couple of months. All new buds will be allowed to extend fully for a couple of seasons

The cut around the base of the tree was packed with Sphagnum Moss

A wall was created with three strips of pot mesh. They were wired together and the mesh was adjusted to  make it flush with the soil.

The mesh was then packed with more Sphagnum Moss and then top dressed with Acadama. This will stop the birds from stealing the Moss for their nests. All the bark removal was sealed with wound paste. The tree will now be fed well and turned regularly for a nice even root spread.

Carving will start in a Month, when the wood is hard.

Creating taper in a Taxus

This Yew has been carved over the last couple of years.Collected back in 2008/9, the Taxus was originally 20 feet (5/6 metres) tall. The taper wasn't great so I wanted to improve it. Rather than carve the taper into the deadwood, I decided to thin the outer wood and bend it inwards with a live vein.

                                                  This is the section of the front I pulled in

I released the section by using a Gigsaw to cut down the trunk. The inside was thinned to allow the live vein and deadwood to be moved inwards.

Once it was thin enough to move by hand slightly, I put a hooked screw on the inside of the deadwood

A hole was drilled in the deadwood next to the live vein and a Copper guy wire was used to pull the wood in to create the necessary taper. The foliage was left alone at this stage.

The area cut with the Jigsaw was then carved. Detailed carving will be carried out soon

You can just about make out the taper here. Notice the vertical branch on the tapered section?

Here is the vertical branch today. Time to add it to the deadwood

I used a branch splitter to start the process and then a Dremmel to smooth and get deeply behind and below the branch.

The back was sealed with wound paste, a piece of plastic hose was used to protect the bark and then a Copper wire was used to draw the branch to the deadwood.

 Objective complete. The branch will be left to grow freely this Summer and I hope to style this tree in the               Autumn. More refinement carving will take place in the next couple of weeks

The wire was replaced yesteday as it looked a little tight. I decided to use a blot across the branch and will move it ov a regular basis to stop scarring.

The whole process of this tree can be seen if you click the following link....

http://wildwoodbonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/taxus-baccata-big-boy.html

Thinning out a wid Welsh Blackthorn Prunus spinosa

I recently visited a friend of mine in Wales and before I left, he very kindly gave me this Blackthorn he had collected a few years previously. At this stage they are just a mass of inter twined twigs. Some dead and some alive. Now that it is finally in leaf it is easier to distinguish between the two.

The trunk line is better on this side

After much careful pruning I am leaving it here to see how the growth progresses.

I will update this thread with any new work.

Sloe motion.

            I re potted this Prunus spinosa into a Peter Krebs pot back in February. I have been watching the trees progress like a hawk over the months since and was starting to think the tree had died.
           Yesterday I breathed a sigh of relief when I noticed a couple of buds have started to emerge. What with the very long Winter and the re potting, I just think the tree was sulking.

Enough to give me a bloody heart attack!!!!

Some detail in the deadwood.

Today I worked on the deadwood in the middle of the largest trunk. I wanted to add depth by hollowing in behind the face of the wood and joining it up with the hole lower down. The full progress can be seen if you click the link
http://wildwoodbonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/triple-trunk-pinus-sylvestris-var-scotia.html

http://wildwoodbonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/triple-trunk-pinus-sylvestris-var-scotia.html

The final result...For now!!!!

I have arrived at this for a front. It has a more dynamic overall image and a great deal of negative space. For full updates and the whole styling so far, click the link.
http://wildwoodbonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/triple-trunk-pinus-sylvestris-var-scotia.html

http://wildwoodbonsai.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/triple-trunk-pinus-sylvestris-var-scotia.html

Triple trunk Pinus sylvestris var Scotia

You will have to be patient with this Pine as I am working on it over a number of days. Because of it's sheer size, I cannot take it into the workshop and so it becomes a fair weather tree to work on and I do live in the UK afterall.
This tree was collected from mountains near Inverness in Scotland 2005. It came to me in 2007-8 but I don't have any very early pictures. This first picture was taken at a local show in 2009. The pot is by John Pitt.

Since then all the wire has been removed and some major faults corrected. Some collected Sylvestris have quite compact foliage. Scandinavian,Italian and French examples for instance. This is not so with many trees collected in the UK and my impatience to get this tree in some sort of order meant that unnatural bends were  used to achieve a pleasing silhouette.

To correct the faults several areas were approach grafted and the tree was then allowed to grow unchecked for 2 years. All the grafted areas took successfully. The tree became pot bound and was re potted the Spring after this picture was taken.

This photo was taken a few days ago and nearly a year after the repot. The orientation was changed slightly as I want to bend the top over to the right some more and by changing the planting angle  to the left, good balance will eventually be achieved.

Here are some of the pictures of the approach grafts. All the red arrows show the sap direction and the s stands for the screws used to fix the grafts in place. Both the branch and trunk had the bark and cambium removed and the sapwood (Xylem) was cut to make the joint flush and more convincing. Cut paste was pushed around the wounds for protection.

The next job was to thin the tree out and remove old needles. This allows better application of the wire and lets light into the tree for better budding and air circulation.

The whole tree thinned out. This took many hours. I started to wire the bottom branch but wasn't happy with it. The branch above had much better branch structure and so I cut the branch out

I thought to improve the lines in the three trunks as well. They were all in a line and by pulling the smallest forward, it would give a better perspective in design. I placed an iron bar across the deadwood and held it in place with wire

A coil of alluminium wire was placed on the iron bar to keep the wire from sliding back down the bar

Here you can see the second approach graft. The red lines show where the cuts will take place

Again, the arrows show how the branch was twisted to shorten the branch and enable the graft.

The section that was removed.

Some ugly and unnatural bends were cut out of the second trunk as well

 The branch was then torn down and a channel carved to thin the wood and place some wires for bending

Wires were placed in the channel and held with wound paste.

The whole section was then wrapped with Raffia in preparation for wiring.

A view of the back of the lowest trunk showing the much better branch.

Branches that were removed from the lowest and middle trunk.

Wiring has finally started.

The lowest branch wired and roughly shaped . Final tweaking will take place after the whole tree has been wired and is ready for the final design work. 

The back of the branch again. The middle trunk will stand over the top of this smaller trunk and therefore shade out this trunk slughtly.

Now ready to make a start on the middle section of the tree. This is looking like a long thread and I will update in the next couple of days. Watch this space.

Another day and another branch to wire. Today I concentrated on the middle one.

Just started to wire.

All wired and stating the styling.

Just roughly placed for now until the largest trunk is finished.

Time to make a start on the largest trunk. There are three grafts that need separating. The first two were just separated for now.

This larger graft is on the front of the tree and very visible. I wanted to add some movement to this jin so working the wood while it is wet and full of resin is a good plan.

                             The branch was sawn through and then the bark was stripped off

                               The wood was then twisted by hand to create the better movement.

                                    Once the branch was twisted, I fixed it in position with a guy wire. When the resin and sapwood have dried properly, It should hold it's position.

         You can see here that by twisting you get some nice shapes and the wood separates in a nice way

                              Once it has dried, I will carve the cut end and open the cracks slightly.

         Time to start wiring the main trunk. I started on the left branch leaving the top of the tree to the end.

 Just the top left to do. Once the whole tree is wired, I will adjust the heights as There isn't much between the           height of the middle branch apex and the top of the branch I have just wired

                  I took this picture to show the depth of the branch from the side. F stands for front.

                                                                 One final session to go.....
Finished the wiring yeaterday. Heres a reminder of  how the top was...

It was really hot yesterday and I burned the top of my head. Once the top was wired, the branches on the right at the top were bent upwards as I wanted to bring the trunk top down and to the right with a guy wire.

Close up of the top before styling work started.

Chris R wanted to see the tree finished off  and I gave him the job of stripping a few jins and the shari.

Chris really enjoying himself

Working on the shari to remove old sap

I extended the shari round to the back more yesterday. Over the years the u shaped feature in this trunk has expanded a lot. This will create enormous inverse taper and ruin this feature. By adding the shari it will remain this shape and thickness.

The styling was finished last night as it was getting dark

This morning I took a better picture and have added more background for contrast. This is my favourite line for the trunks but it shows little character to the overall image and lacks negative space. The alternative is to compromise the line in the trunks slightly and go with the image below for now. I will turn some more branches to deadwood in time, once the branches have set. 

Thanks for watching

Or perhaps this as a front. Much better negative space and the lines in the trunks are less flat. I would like to move the little trunk more to the right but as it is under enough strain pulling it forward, I will let it rest for now. No need to compromise the health of  the tree for a quick fix. 

Time for some carving. I wanted to create a hollow in the largest trunks middle section and pierce through it to add a feeling of old age and decay.

I was kindly sent this new tool to try out. Made by Chris Guise who is an engineer, this tool adds a v shaped cut.

Once i had used a longer cutter in the Makita to hollow out this section, I got to try out this little carving bit.

I found it very useful and because of it's small size, you can turn the cut in quite a small area.

As you can see tha hollow was made so that some areas of the face were quite thin and this allows the piercing to take place.

Finer detail was then added with a very fine and small circular saw blade. This helps with the finest detail.

Then the whole area was run over with a small rotary wire brush to smooth and soften hard edges and remove any remaining tool marks.

The deadwood was covered in a mixture of Lime Sulphur and dark ink and then the surface wiped and LS applied again. This helps add further depth to the work and gives good contrast.

The deadwood has dried properly now

 And after a rest period, I also added to the bar and pulled the shorter trunk more to the right.