Juniper three years later

I bought this tree in 2010 at the international Slovenian Bonsai Club exhibition. In the same year I styled the tree for the first time. 

2010-05 - Juniper start material

2010-05 - Juniper start material 

After a quite sad end result of the first styling I found out that for a decent shape more radically steps in the change of the trunk line have to be made. 

2010-06 - After the first styling

To be able to bend the thick trunk I had to carve the inside of the trunk at the point where I wanted to change the trunk line. After the carving job the tree was left to rest for one season. The vision of the design at this time was to bend the trunk down and style a smaller compact tree. Next year at a workshop with Hans Van Meer he convinced me to make a literaty style, so  my vision changed completely and today I’m really glad for making this decision.

2011-10 - Before second styling

2011-10 - After second styling

After the second styling my feelings about the tree ware somewhat divided. I liked the design when I was in a good mood, and didn’t like it when I had a bad day. So the tree was left alone for a while and was unfortunately even a little bit neglected. 

In the last couple of workshops at TORA I again started to work on the tree with an easy, slow, analytical approach. The whole group discussed different design scenarios. While cleaning the trunk, searching for the live vein, analyzing the tree we talked about different ideas of the end design. Tomaž even drew a sketch of the future design, which took into account several design aspects, including the golden cut (the sketch is available in here). Thanks Tomaž :)

2012-12 - Before the last styling

So finally after a couple of workshops I managed to finish the next styling and im quite happy with the result.

2013-01 - After the last styling

The tree made some nice development in the last three years and I believe it is on a good way. In the next steps I will work on the deadwood, search for a pot and take good care of it.

Progress in three years