Spruce Yamadori first syling

After a long wait finally it was time for the first styling of my Spruce. It is a yamadori that was collected by me (OK not completely by myself, bcs of the size with the help of a friend Matija). Start working on such tree is a special moment for me. The tree deserves respect and to really enjoy working on it you have to take the needed time, you want to have peace, not be under any pressure and of course be in the right feeling.

Spruce (Abies Picea) - after collecting

At this stage my goal was just the first rough design with minimal stress for the tree. Therefore I left on the tree much more branches and foliage that won’t be needed in the final image. I also didn’t make any fine wiring of the small branches.

Spruce (Abies Picea) - before the styling

Before and during the work I devoted a lot of time to analyze the tree and key problem of this tree, which is on the other hand also one of the most interesting parts of the tree, is the natural deadwood top. The upper third of the tree died in nature a long time ago and over time nature shaped the dry wood, which is now a very interesting element, but at the same time it is a serious nightmare. The upper third of the tree is completely without any branch, no green mass, nothing. The possibility to style a classic straight spruce based on the “struck by lightning” principle would be easy to do, but I decided to go for another possibility. The idea is that the interesting deadwood natural top will be included in the design but the strongest branch on the back side of the tree will be gradually bend up will be developed in a new, living top, which will complement the natural, deadwood top.

Natural dead top

Another challenge is the mighty old trunk, which is entirely straight without any movement. In fact, this is not a problem, but it is necessary to take into account in the analysis, as this can be something that can affect the final image and can be a very uninteresting element. One way to eliminate straight lines that are not desirable is to create a more dynamic, non-linear crown, which covers the straight trunk, and to style the sharis and jins in the way to add movement. In this case this is my plan but at this stage the branches unfortunately are not long enough so it’s just not possible.

The third challenge is the very thick branches. Because over them there were no other branches and therefore enough space and plenty of light (due to the dead top) they began to grow, as is usual for the spruce, straight up. For this problem at the time and the existing level of my knowledge, I have not found a better solution than bending of the main branches and to cover the most problematic areas with use of small secondary branches.

Spruce (Abies Picea) - after first styling

And this is the current result. At this stage as already mentioned just a very rough shape, which indicates the direction but is still far from the final, desired image. The following development will be focused in the development of the crown, which will over time come much closer to the front of the tree and cover some parts of the trunk. The left side of the crown will be longer, the right side will have more empty spaces. The right upper part of the foliage will be less of a mirror image of the left side as it is now. And of course all the deadwood, all the jins all sharis will be designed in a way that will add dynamics.