Earlier in the year, Tony Tickle asked me if I would be interested in attending Burrs 2011 as one of the guest artists. I jumped at the chance and last weekend made the journey up to Manchester. Burrs is a weekend workshop that has been running for a long time now and the students are assisted and taught by some of the best artists in Europe. First picture is of everyone that attended this year. The standard of the work and material was very high but best of all was meeting up with a lot of people I had chatted too online for a number of years. A very friendly and helpful atmosphere and I would reccomend everyone should give Burrs a visit. Brilliant fun. 
The artists from left to right. Tony Tickle, Carlos van der Vaart, Pavel Slovak, me and Terry Foster.
On Saturday morning Tony T explained to the students what would be happening over the course of the weekend. The gist of burrs is not to attain a finished bonsai image but to take your tree/s on their next step towards that goal. Tony asked that the artists walk around all the trees in the hall and each give their opinion on the next step.
Pavel and me discussing a front for the Mugo Pine of Steve's
Principally I was there to help out with the carving on the trees
Having refined the jins for Morea, the tree was wired and then styled by Pavel.
Steve's Mugo before styling. A gift from his friend Mirek.
The Mugo after Mirek's styling.
A Yew collected from the wild and owned by Mikey.
The tree was thinned and wired to promote strong growth were needed.
Bryans Sylvestris. Some intial bending had been made the year before.
First full style but still a way to go yet.
Dinner on the Saturday evening was made by Tony's wife Caroline and very tasty it was too. There had been an auction earlier in the day with a 19% donation going to the Movember charity that I was raising money for. Between about 30 people, we raised £320.00.
After dinner the guest artists were asked to give a small talk. Tony tried to put me off by running a slide show of me with different moustaches.
The talk I gave was about creating deadwood and along the theme of the weekend it was about developing the carving work over time.
The initial block carving on a Yew. Refinement will come as the greenwood matures and ages.
And again. The first styling of the tree was carried out by Tony and the concentration was on the position of the primary branches.
A small amount of carving on a large wound on a Pistachio
Some other styling on a Larch.
Tony opened up his garden over the weekend for people to view his trees and maybe purchase some material. I came away with this Hawthorn.
The other side.
A very unusual cascade Hawthorn.
another angle.
A rather feminine Sabina Juniper.
And another agle as well.
