The Bonsai Blog of Hans Van Meer

Hi everybody,
yesterday late in the afternoon, the all ready setting Sun finaly broke trough the clouds! So I finally was able to make
some pictures of some of my Hawthorns in their Autumn colors! And not a day to soon, last day’s rain and wind had thorn off a lot of foliage! And me moving them around to fast in a hurry did not help eather! And in the case of the largest one, well I did not realize just how heavy the tree realy was and having to carry it from one end of my garden to the other end , made me drop it just a little to hard on the table that I prepared for the camera! It snowed yellow leaves for a few seconds and left the poor tree allmost naked! Anyhow, I wanted to share some of these pictures with you all. I just love to see those seasonal changes in these little trees!
Below: This “Dutch” Hawthorn yamadori is still in training and the two bottom branches that were allowed to grow freely fore two seasons, still need to be shortened. And the rest of the branches needs more growth to fill out the desired image.

Below:This is a other “Dutch” Hawthorn” , the large and heavy one I mentioned before. It lost most of it’s foliage, but I hurt my back again lifting it, so we call it even! This tree has come a long way in the past years, almost all branches on it are new and it needs a bit more time to fill out the foliage, but I like the way it is coming along!

Below: This is one of my older Hawthorns that I collected with Tony Tickle in Wales, way back in ’97! It lives for many years now, in this especially for this tree designed pot by Brian Albright. I was absolutely delighted to show it in the 2005 “Ginkgo Awards” in Belgium! Since than it has not been shown in a other exhibition. I dont bleach deadwood on my Hawthorns so it is a bit hard to tell from this picture, but the life vain curls all the way upwards around the trunk like a snake! And it’s literally bursting with live bark is getting better and better as the years go by!

Below: This is one of my favorites trees in my collection, it was collected in ’99 in Wales. I was proud to show it in full bloom in the 2005 “Joy of Bonsai” (UK) and a year latter in the 2006 ‘Ginkgo Awards” in Belgium. Since than it has not been shown in any other Bonsai show. It needs some tinning out in the left top section and some smaller branches need to be wired to bring them back into place, but I like it’s image of a old tree and I love the bark that is getting better with each year that passes.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures?!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

Link to my Bonsai Website “Kara Motto” HERE !

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Hi everybody,

I received some more before and after pictures from 2 members of the “Slovenia Bonsai Club” that I would like to share with you all.

1: Blaz (Pinki) Konec, urban yamadori Juniper.

This juniperus was one of the toughest to style into a pre bonsai! Most of the branches only had foliage on the tips and the ones that had enough foliage to work with were almost imposible to bend! So I discussed the possibilities with Pinki and explained that his juniper would be styled with future growth in mind! After wiring, the top section of the trunk and the branches were brought more or less into their future position. From this point onwards the tree needs to be encourage, with pinching and heavy feeding, to back bud lower on those empty branches! When that happens over the next couple of years, it will be easier to give Pinki’s juniper it’s final shape!

Below: Before the work started.

Below: The end resuld for now!

2: Nik Rozman,  Larch yamadori collected in May 2007 by himself.

Below: Nik’s Larch before collecting.

Below: Before work started

We discussed his plane for the tree before he started and than Nik, bravely, started to remove unwanted branches and wired the ones that were left.

Below: The end result.

After Nik was finished, I only made some minor adjustments, so all the credits of this exciting styling have to go to Nik!

You can find more pictures of this Bonsai weekend on Nik’s blog:  Here and here.

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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Hi everybody,

here are some more before and after pictures made by the club members during the workshop.

First Roland Petek’s Juniper.  This is what Roland wrote on the IBC forum:

Before the workshop I had another vision of the design with this tree, but after
analyzing the tree together with Hans and after he explained what and what I
believe is the most important thing, why hi thinks that the
development of the design should go in this direction i decided to make it like
this…and I’m very glad i did. Additional to this there was a good explanation
how to achieve this design from Hans (strong bending of the trunk, branch
structure …) At the end Tomaž Kovšca helped me out with some details and this
is the result.

Below: before the work started.

Roland concentrated at work!

Below the finished tree!

You can read and see more about this Bonsai weekend and much more on Roland Petek “Bonsai Living Art” web blog: http://roland-bonsai-eng.blogspot.com/2011/10/weekend-by-hans-van-meer.html

Next Janez Mugo pine:   

I am glad that I received pictures from Janez that show the before and after of his amazing Mugo that he styled during the workshop!
Below: The Mugo before the work started. Just look at the amazing deadwood on this tree! They are signs of the struggle that this old mountain pine had to go trough during his life! So they must play a importand role in the
future design!

Below: Right from the begining it was obvius that the future design would be one in the cascading style, so we discussed all the possibilities how to accomplish that in a way that would show all the unique features of this tree! There are two major branches growing from the base of the tree. The red arrow points at the top one of the two. This branch is, although pretty and with a lot of deadwood, to straight and the foliage grows to fare away to be useful in the
design. The yellow arrow shows the second branch that falls downward like a snake. This branch has beautiful deadwood running along it and is more suitable to be used in the cascading design! But even this branch would need heavy wiring and major bending to get to were we more or less wanted it!

Below: From this angle it is good to see how straight that top branch is (red arrow)!

Below: Here you can see that Janez bravely cut off most of that straight top
branch and made it in to a still rough long Jin (green arrow). At home Janez
will try to bring more movement into that fresh jin! We discussed the
possibilities to do this with the help of steam to soften the wood! I am sure
that Janez will find a way to achieve this goal in one way or a other!

Below: Close up of Janez deadwood work.

Below: The end resuld! Janez did a wonderful and brave job on material that wasn’t that simple to style! With only some guidance from me he styled a amazing cascading pre Bonsai with a very promising future! Well don Janez!

Matej Planinc Spruce:

Matej mailed me some pictures of his Spruce that he worked on during the workshop. I would like to share this with you all because the work that was don on this big Spruce was so much different from most of the other trees that were styled that day. Although there are some gentle curves in the trunk of this Spruce, I would still call this tree a classical example of a formal upright evergreen that you can see all over the Alps! So it was only logical that it would be styled in just that way, like a real live full-grown Spruce! So no major bending on trunk or branches would be necessary! But even though we decided to style this Spruce like it’s big cousins on the mountains, this those not mean that design mistakes were allowed! When you style your small tree to look like a real tree, you have to downsize the image in your head to Bonsai size. That will automatically mean that a lot of branches have to be removed to create the open spaces that you are use to see on full-size Spruce’s! If you don’t do this you will only create a small Spruce with the outline of a large one! It will end up looking just like a Xmass tree! Open spaces on any Bonsai will provide us with a lot of information about height and distance of the imaginary tree image that the artist want us to see! So we selecting ideally placed branches and removing the unwanted ones! Were branches grew opposite of each other, only the best one was left on. Branches growing in the inside of a curve, obstructing the flow of trunk were cut off! The crossing and to thick branches and the ones that were obstructing the view of that mighty trunk line were also removed! On places of interest stumps of those removed branches were left on to (maybe) be converted into Small Jin’s. All branches that were left on were wired only to bring them more or less in the desired position and to open up the spaces between them so that light and air could reach the inside! This way many new buds will appear all along those, now still to long branches. So that in the next couple of years those branches can be made shorter and shorter! A new top was created to get a better taper on the tree! And after tilting this Spruce to the right it also has a wide root base that is not so clear to see in these pictures, so it is a very promising pre Bonsai that will only get better and better over the years!

Below: Discussing the tree with Matej.

Below: The end resuld for now. The large stump you see sticking upward on the right side of the second curve, was left on because it tells a logical and interesting story of the hard live this old tree had! It will be converted into a Jin. In the future when the branches have become shorter, they will be rewired again and then more movement will be made in to them. But thats for later!

Below: Some pictures that say more than a thousand words could ever do!

Thanks to the members of the Slovenia Bonsai Club for alowing me to use their pictures and for the wonderful weekend they gave me! Hope to CU all soon again!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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Marcus Watts from the UK wrote on the IBC forum:

thats more like a demo – small crowd and a few
beers – what a refreshing way to style a tree Hans, keeping a ‘plan B’ branch in
case the one that was styled dies – in my mind details like that, actually
caring for the owners material, sets you apart from many of today’s stylists
where the instant ‘finished in a day’ image seems to be all that matters.
it looked like you had a good time, cheers
Marcus.

 Thanks Marcus,
during a workshop I will always ask what ideas the owner has for his tree. If they have one or two, I will look if what they see in their tree is posible to achieve! If it is posible but there are better options with their idea in mind, than I will explain that to them. If their idea is not doable I will explain why. If I see a better design for their tree, than I will try to explain why I believe that is so, but I will still not enforce my idea or style on them. I realy believe that a teacher should cherish and nourish the ideas that students have of their own! Students, especially the ones that are not to experienced yet, must be allowed to form their own imagination and way of styling. Otherwise we will only end up with a lot of bonsai that look like the once that the teacher makes at home and that is simply wrong!
The demo on the other hand was a different story! Nik Rozman the owner of the demo tree, kindly allowed me to style his precious Pine in my own way! This way I could show how I work in my own garden on my own trees! Because of the terrible rain when I selected this pine in his garden, I had only seen it for just a couple of minutes. I selected it because of the movement of the trunk, but I did not had the change of forming a idea what to do with all those long branches?! So I started the demo with a blank canvas in my mind! What I did know was that no matter what design I would choose, I had to bring that thick trunk and foliage much closer to the trunk! So I started to apply wet raffia and heavy wire to be able to bend that thick trunk and some of the thicker branches! Wile I was doing this I went trough a lot off possibility in my mind, but still did not had a fixed plan after the raffia and wire was in place! So I slowly started to bend the thick trunk as closely as possible to the trunk, wile Nik was tightening all the gi wires for me! After having don that successfully I brought the lowest branch more or less in the desired position and than I suddenly saw the light and the future design for this tree! Wile holding that branch in to place close to the trunk I looked up and smiled to the audience and sad do you see that? And they all did! There was the possibility for a compact little Pine! I told them that I would only use two small branches and that this would mean that the rest off the branches would be cut off or shaped in to Jin’s! So I asked Nik if it was allright to make his tree in this way?! He sad it is your demo and I replied, but it is our tree! So he smartly suggested, make your image of a small tree out of just those two branches and when it works and it looks good, than you can remove all those unnecessary branches! If it doesn’t look good you can go for the larger tree option with the branches that were left on the tree! Clever Boy!!!   So I started to bring the two branches into their places and when I was finaly satisfied with there position I again ask Nik and the audience if this design was good enough to remove all those unwanted branches? I think they all agreed it was a good design and so did Nik, but at his request on branch in the left top was saved as a insurance policy if things would go wrong! Again a smart idea by Nik! So I removed all unwanted branches but one and then started to shape the deadwood! So the end resuld of this little Pine is not only my work, because I would not have been able to style this tree in this way with out the trust and the permission of Nik! Here are some pictures of that demo and the end resuld.

Below: Ooooops I have no clue!

Below: The planed front of the tree.

Below:: Removing the bark from future Jin’s. Some one asked me why dont you use powertools? I explained that doing this by hand gave me the time to bond with the tree. Giving me the change to come up with solutions and a design! Doing this with powertools needs a lot of concentration and than there is not much room for other thought!

Below: Wiring and powertools put a lot of pressure on a tree so before I started I tightened the tree to the rim of this training pot.

Below: Bringing the branches and foliage in place. Just look how fare the thick trunk is bend!

Below: The last small branch is poet into place!

Below: The end resuld. The long branch that is sticking upward is the one that is saved for extra security! 

It’s a shame that the nice wide base of the tree is not visible in this picture,
but I hope you can get the idea behind this design from it?!
Cheers,
Hans
van Meer.

Hi every body,
last Friday morning I took off from Amsterdam to fly to Slovenia. I was invited by the Slovenia Bonsai Club to give a workshop on Saturday and a demo on Sunday. After a two hours flight that felt like being in a roller coaster on speed, I was very relieved when the plain finally landed still in one piece on Ljubljana airport!
Still green in the face I was picked up by my host and tour guide Tomaz Kovsca. He took me to see a amazing Bonsai garden/business with wonderful Yamadori. But because it was raining cats and dogs this visit was cut short and I sadly had no change to take any pictures! Than we drove to his friends Nik Rozman’s garden were I was allowed to select my demo tree the Sunday demo. Wile under the cover of two umbrellas I quickly selected a lovely yamadori Silvestris Pine. Than we drove to Tamaz his house to look at his wonderful Bonsai collection and from there he took me on a tour trough the wonderful town of Ljubljana. Along the way he told me a lot of interesting facts about the history of this city and his country! On the way to my hotel he told me that normally, it was starting to snow on that moment, that normally you could see beautiful mountains all around! I had to take his word for it because all that we could see were dark grey skies! The approaching of this bizarre weather frond gave my plain the hick ups on the way over here! After a good night rest Tomaz picked me up from the hotel and we walked to a more than hundred year old firehouse were this Bonsai weekend would be held. There I met up with the 14 very friendly Bonsai enthusiasts that would take part in the workshop. We started at 9 and worked to late in that afternoon on some amazing material! And we only stopped once to have a very tasty lunch in one of the many  local restaurants. After the workshop we all went out to enjoy more local cuisine in a traditional restaurant. There was a lot of singing accompanied by guitar and that atmosphere made the food taste even better than it already was! Back at my hotel, verry tired but happy, I had no problem to fall a sleep! The next day at 9, I started with my demo and managed to style the tree in just over 4 hours so that we all could have a other tasty lunch in a traditional grill restaurant! After that we sad our goodbyes and than Tomaz drove me to see jet a other Bonsai garden from one off his students. The weather was wonderful so I could finaly see the scenery that Tomaz had told me about! All around me there were mountains to be seen with fresh snow on top! It truly is a wonderful country full of verry friendly people! After our visit of his student garden he drove me to the airplane. And we sad goodbye as new friends, he was a wonderful host and I am sure that I will be back to meet him and the other guy’s again real soon! The flight back was much better and after the drive from Amsterdam to my house I finaly arrived at home late in the evening. Tired but very happy with the great weekend that I spend with so many new Bonsai friends!
And from here I would like to thank them for there trust and friendliness!

Here are some picture to give a impressions of this Bonsai trip! More before and after images will follow when I have received them from my Slovenian friends!

Below: The whole bunch behind my finished demo tree. That left long branch sticking in the air is left one for security!

More pictures will follow soon!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

Hi everybody,

last week I spend most of my time walking along the coastline not to fare from were I live. It was the warmest week on record with temperatures way above the twenty degrees mark! It was amazing to enjoy the warm sun this late in the year after such a bad bad Summer! Would you belief that I even had a lovely swim in a mirror like still sea on the first two days of October! But in between this Indian Summer fun I managed to restyle my Spruce that I brought back from a workshop and demo weekend that I did in August 2008 for the “Norsk Bonsaiselskap”in Norway. Link:  http://hans-van-meer.ofbonsai.org/2008/08/ A student from Sweden had brought along this yamadori, that he had collected himself, to work on. After the workshop he swapped the tree with one of the organizers for some pots and other Bonsai related paraphernalia. And  I bought it from them because I liked it and it would be a nice reminder of the great time I had in friendly Norway! But I got there by airplane so there was one major question to be answered…would it fit into my trunk?! Well my friend Rune, were I stayed during that weekend, helped me to pack my little stowaway tree like it was a priceless desk lamp!

People often ask me why I always bring such a big trunk along? Well this is why!

And this is the first picture of the tree unpacked and safe in my garden.

And this is how the tree looks after I restyled it a few days ago. I must look
for a better pot though, I dont like the color of this one !

I think that this simple little tree already has a nice and pleasing image, but I dont like were the bottom left branch is growing from. It is disturbing because it grows from the inside of that curve! I will replace it as soon as the branch above it has thickened enough. For now it is back to growing happily for a few more years and then we will see what happens! Before I know it, it will be time to go and find me a nice pot for it!
This Friday I will travel to Slovenia to do a weekend workshop and demo! I can hardly wait to go and work with all those new Bonsai friends!!! I will post images from that trip as soon as I get back home! So watch this space!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

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Hi everybody,

on 17 September I gave a workshop at V.B.V “De Leie” in Deinze (Belgium). All day I worked together with about 10 very enthusiastic students and the day was over before we all  knew it! I enjoyed my self very much working with these very friendly people and I would like to share some images from this fun day with you! If you are looking for a fun Bonsai club in the aria of Deinze (Belgium) here is the link to their site: http://www.vlaamsebonsai.be/?q=node/49

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Next weekend I am heading to Slovenia to do a workshop on the Saturday and a demo on the Sunday! I am so happy that I am able to do this fun stuff again!

Cheers,

Hans van Meer.

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