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Just a quick post for those clubs, organisations and individuals out there looking for bonsai demonstration, workshops, teaching and private work this year. I have been taking bookings since late last year and my schedule is filling up fast.
So far I will be working with clubs and individuals around Victoria (Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat), Canberra, Sydney and Western Australia.
I still have some openings and would love to get to other parts of the country and share ideas and knowledge with new faces.
Tasmania, The Northern Territory, Queensland, New Zealand or anywhere else for that matter, if you are looking for a demonstrator I would be keen to discuss how I can work with you.
I am a Level 1 demonstrator with the AABC but am also able to organise work on private collections and or targeted teaching for individuals.
If interested, send me an email and we can go from there.
nichigobonsai***gmail.com
Note: to use email address, substitute *** with @
Its always difficult watching or listening to recordings of yourself and it is no different when I watch the below video of myself working a juniper and saying ‘um’ way too many times. (something to work on…..)
Back In August, the Bimer bonsai club invited me to fly up to Brisbane to run workshops and conduct a demonstration for their members.
While demonstrations are always a rush for time, I was quite happy with the transformation of this tree and think it shows what can be achieved with stock that is fairly well available at nurseries around the country.
The full video of the demo and a final image of the result is posted below. Enjoy!
The result of the hour or so demonstration.
For those interested i have been invited to participate in a short discussion about my thoughts on Bonsai, my experiences in Japan and the up coming workshops I am running in conjunction with my close friend Natasha.
An interesting tree I stumbled across recently.
A synergy?
I am assuming the show will be download-able at some stage and I will supply a link if and when it becomes available via a future post. For those wanting to catch the show live, It will be broadcast on ABC local radio Central and Western Victoria at around 7am this Saturday.
Audio is available HERE
For those interested in the workshops, they will be aimed at teaching people to see and interpret the world through bonsai as an artistic medium rather than via a set of rigid rules. It will guide you through the process of reflecting on how we see the world, how we might become comfortable within this and how we might communicate this to others; An awakening through bonsai if you like which can and will be applied widely outside of bonsai.
Recently featured in Country Style magazine, her property, skirted by forest, will provide the perfect backdrop for learning and sharing ideas.
Another highlight of collaborating with Natasha is that the workshop will be teamed up with a beautiful 2 course kitchen garden lunch cooked from locally sourced, grown and foraged ingredients set in her stunning garden. Natasha is an incredibly passionate, talented and welcoming host who is sure to make the day a very special one.
Further details can be found at her site: http://www.natashamorgan.com.au/
Unfortunately my camera was playing up a bit and most of my pictures were blurry. A few did make it through though and a few of wide range of trees that were on display can be seen below. Enjoy.
This year I was lucky enough to be invited to demonstrate at the AABC/BCI national convention that was held on the Gold coast.
For the demonstration there were a few logistical difficulties on getting stock to work on from Melbourne (1700km away). I ended up buying a juniper over the phone from Sydney and then was lucky to have someone drive it up to Queensland for the convention for me. The down side of this was i didn’t really get to inspect the tree prior.
I flew up from Melbourne the day of the demo and arrived an hour or two before I had to start. I had requested some ‘interesting’ material and I was surely presented with a unique tree.
The mound of juniper pre-work.
I spent the hour or so before I needed to be on stage cleaning out obviously dead growth and trying to get my head around the twists and turns of the trunk and where the foliage originated from.
After a busy session on stage next to Tony Bebb from Queensland and Chris Di Nola from Sydney, I managed to wrestle the tree into what I think is an interesting tree along side the other demonstration results.
After the demo.
After I had finished I had some time to reflect on the tree for a while and I decided that in hindsight the lower branch was probably not needed. I ended up leaving that decision up to the new owner. (as the tree was auctioned).
Branch gone?
You may have noticed the towel in the above picture. It is covering a large branch and foliage that is earmarked to be removed in the future. In order to keep the tree growing strongly and able to recover quickly I left that branch on rather than cut it off for an instant bonsai image.
At the end of the day the tree would have looked more finished for the demo if id removed the branch but the health of the tree would have been more at risk and the future development would have been more slow. If you leave more foliage on during major styling the tree recovers more quickly, has less chance of reverting to juvenile growth and will generally save you a lot of time in the trees journey from stock to show tree as the tree doesn’t go into a slowed down state while it recovers. A small sacrifice now leads to big gains down the track and being auctioned I didn’t want someone to go home with a dead tree.
Part two.
I’ve been a little slow on processing these images but better late than never. Below is the first half of the conifers from the Taikan-ten. The second half should be along shortly and then we will be back to regular programming. Until then… Enjoy.
As expected there were some truely spectacular deciduous trees on display.
I have developed a healthy obsession with the dwarf flowering quince ‘Chojubai’. While looking over my photos this became very evident as I had taken photos of many of them even if they were merely being used as accents. I am sure that if you look over the below images you can see why I enjoy them so much.
Nichigo Bonsai 