The Bonsai Blog of Hans Van Meer

BONSAI EXTRA’S

No matter how good your bonsai is, it will look terrible in  the wrong pot! But this applies also to  the Scrolls, accents plants or stands U use!

I spend months looking around for items to  use in combination with the  Bonsai I’m showing at this “Ginkgo Award”. I  really injoy  these hunt for extra’s enormously, it is just like a treasure hunt.

I would like to show the two small bonsai stands I had custom made by Christoph Roggeman (CHR Furniture) from Belgium. This guy is amazing, I showed him two  stand I discovered in a Japanese Shohin Bonsai  book that I really liked and asked him can you make these two tables for me in this and that dimensions? And he said, Yes no problem!  He took the book along as a example to work from and now  a few months later I got them. Just look at the pictures, than you will understand why I like his work so much. Artist like Christoph   and Jeroen Huivenaar my mate from Holland, who makes my larger Bonsai stands are often forgotten to be mentioned in any Bonsai book, but the are  very important in the success off our presentation and make our work so much easier.

Last picture is a accent planting I’m using in the show. It is “Sempervivum”from the mountains in Austria in a really beautiful small pot from Gordon Duffett (UK).

I hope you like them? Be back soon!

Hans.

Last weekend I did some more refinement work on one of my Yews in preparation for the Ginkgo Award. Picture 1: Shows the small Shohin Yew before I worked on the ground coverage.

Picture 4: Here the branch is already removed and a small jin is left as a reminder. The branch above the one that is removed is brought down to more or less replace it.

Hans.

OK,  Irene it is time to start some work!

Irene told me that here Yew is growing real fine and there is a lot of new growth! That is a good sign, your tree is feeling happy so you are doing just fine! We are going to need a lot off new small branches to work with. This Yew is most certainly not the easiest tree to start this long distance styling project with. And  although the present shape of this Yew only Lents itself to be styled in a formal upright, almost broom like tree. Reaching that obvious objective successfully is by now means as easy as its sound.   My main concern,  when  looking at the pictures Irene gave me, is picking a frond side for this tree. on off the most interested side off this tree has a disproportional large root that needs attention and a loot off work, if we were to choose that side. But first I want Irene to remove that straight and unnecessary branch I marked with a red arrow on the picture. She may choose to leave a small stump, that might be used to make some sort off Jin from. And I want here to make a picture off the side I marked on the other picture( doted lines in the middle off the trunk), so that the root marked with the red arrow is on the left of the trunk. Because I believe that that side might be interesting to investigate for  a possible front ( the branch structure looks promising).

Back to You Irene,

hans.

Online Workshop.

My “Chat Mom” Irene B. from Bonsai Talk asked me to guide and help her with the styling of her Yew in a progressive online workshop here on my bonsai blog.  Because I’m a good  Son: I  can not say no to my Mom! So  I gladly accepted this nice idea.

As Irene lives in  Castroville,Texas, a long….long way from Holland were I live, we wile work only with the help of photographs and keyboard to keyboard information! This will be a first for me and her and it is quit a challenge I must admit! I hope I can live up to her expectations and that we can make this Yew into a beautiful bonsai together!

Here are the photographs Irene provided for me to work from, I will study them and work out a plane and come back with it later this week. In the mean wile (if you like?) you can work out what you would do with this material, so you can compare your ideas with mine and Irene’s!

   Have fun with it! I’l be back in a few days!   Hans.

These next 3 pictures are made by “ZEN” from Bonsai Talk Forum.

 AN OTHER EARLY   “VAN MEER”  BY “REMBRANDT” BY “ZEN”.

                                                                  “THE DEVINE DEMO”    BY   “ZEN”.

                                                             COMBINED BONSAI ART  PAINTING BY   “ZEN”

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This is the only picture I could find of the first workshop I ever did.

The picture was made by a old friend of mine, R van Rijn.

 The road to the “Ginkgo Award”.

Sunday 06-08-2007.

To day I did some dead wood work on “BIG RON”!

Most of this old Mugo pine dead wood  was treated some 2 months ago with Jin Seal “Lime sulfur” and today with the help of all kinds of metal brushes, I will remove very carefully some patches off the  white top layers  so that the colors of the original wood can shine trough, revealing all kinds of lovely grey colors  mixed with golden brown.  

The Jin in the first picture is very old and was worked on just slightly. To style it I carefully brook off little pieces off   the very brittle old wood until  I was satisfied with the shape. Than the wood was treated with Jin seal, that was applied with a cheap small brush. Today I scratched and brushed off some of that  bleached top layer. Now the end result looks very natural in my opinion and this is very important because it is one of the main focus points on the front of this bonsai.  

In picture 2 you can see a piece off wood that was custom made to be wedged between a large Jin and a heavy branch. Helping to  bend this stubborn heavily wired branch into the  acquired position.

In picture 3 and 4 you have a special backstage view of this bonsai. Revealing a very old and secret bonsai technique that is past on trough the ages,  from father to son, namely the  (screw and wire technique).

In picture 5 and 6 you have a nice view of the large shari part of this bonsai, seen from the back site. All these mixture of colors you see are created by removing parts off the bleached outer surface.  Revealing this beautiful patina. I hope you like this update? Until the next time,

hans.  

                                                                AN OTHER EARLY   “VAN MEER”.

                     DISCOVERED BY JOHN QUINN  FROM BONSAI TALK.

                                                                     AN EARLY   “AMARICAN”  MASTER.

                                                                   BY BONSAIAL FROM BONSAI TALK.

                                                                                           A  EARLY   “VAN MEER” .