Noelanders Trophy 2013

One of the greatest bonsai events in Europe, the Noelanders Trophy is behind us and I’m full of new impressions which I have to process first. But the most important things don’t need to be processed, you can simply feel them. To keep it simple my first thoughts are: "It was great to meet bonsai friends from all over the world, feel the good atmosphere and of course enjoy the great trees".

Noelanders Trophy 2013 Winner - Picea Jezonesis by Luis Balino

NT 2013 best deciduous bonsai - Fagus Crenata by Luis Vallejo

NT 2013  Nomination - Pinus Sylvestris by Mariano Aisa

NT 2013 Nomination - Olea Europea Sylvestris
by Garcia Fernandes Erasmo

NT 2013 Nomination - Shohin composition by Mark and Ritta Cooper

NT 2013 Nomination - Acer Palmatum by Udo Fischer

NT 2013 Nomination - Pinus Pentaphylla by Pedro Paes Mamede

NT 2013 Nomination - Pinus Pentaphylla by Luis Vallejo

NT 2013 Nomination -  Shohin composition by Nancy Vaele

Pinus Sylvestris - Mauro Stemberger

Prunus Mume - Andreas Roth

Larix Decidua - Martin Nielsen

Ulmus Parvifolia - Bill Gordon

Pseudocydonia Sinesi - Frederic Chenal

Juniperus Sabina - Luis Vila

Pinus Sylvestris - Milan Karpisek

Pinus Parviflora - Sandor Papp

Cryptomeria Japonica - Alexandre Escudero

Prunus Spinosa - Tony Tickle

Acer Palmatum Deshojo - Mike Rose

Junipeus Chinesis - Sian Lim

Acer Palmatum Kashima - Peter Tombs

Pinus Mugo - Andre Dorfinger

Juniperus Chinesis Itoigawa - David Yarranton

Acer Palmatum - Walter Pall

Crataegus Monogyna - Tony Tickle

Juniperus Chinesis Itoigawa - Mauro Stemberger

Pinus Sylvestris - Walter Pall

Juniperus Procumbens - Christian Vos

Punica Granatum - Frederic Chenal

Larix Decidua - Hans van Meer

Pinus Mugo - Jorge Campos

Pinus Parviflora - Marc Bauwens

Pinus Sylvestris - David Benavente

Juniperus Sabina - Andrea Melloni

Juniperus Sabina - Vila Gonzalez Luis

Pinus Uncinata - Vaclav Novak

Juniperus Chinesis - Saverio Noviello

Pinus Sylvestris - Alex Gomez Lopez

Carpinus Koreana - Marek Gajda

Betula Pendula - Hermann Haas

Noelanders Trophy 2013 - First Impressions

As usual the expectations for the Noelanders Trophy are very high. And this year was no exception. The quality level of the trees is high and the whole event is great. Here are some first photos. More photos from the exhibition and demonstrations will be posted soon.

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

2013 - Bring It On

Some kind of a bonsai season beginning for me has become the Noelanders Trophy exhibition, which gives me some kind of start-kick, files me with expectations, gets me additional motivation and energy and then things start rolling. Despite the fact that the exhibition is in two weeks Tomaž, Miha, Tomaž, Janez, Matej and I opened the season this Wednesday at the TORA workshop.

We had a good start, so let's see .... 2013 Bring It On.

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.