Making Picea Bonsai Free Session
In this video I take Picea raw material and show you the process required to develop it into a Bonsai.
This first time you’re coming here so i’m very pleased to welcome you and they’ve chosen the two pieces that you may have seen me do on youtube showing how to make it into a formal upright tree so i’m going to give them a free quick lesson so which is your show let me start on yours the one on the turntable okay so if you hold the camera for me it’s recording so what we do if you remember from the youtube you will have to take it out of the pot tease around the roots at the base so that you can see where the trunk starts so look at it it’s well over two inches thick you see how thick that trunk is is massive isn’t it so we don’t want the branches that low those are what we call sacrificial branches those are the branches that have helped to make the trunk thick remember in bonsai you’ve got to be prepared to cut if your namby pamby afraid to cut then you won’t get very far also you don’t need the tree that tall if you select one point which is going up that becomes the new leader so i can either cut it here so the tree is only that high shall i do that yeah okay so again we’re going to be a bit bold i’m going to take good 12 inches off all that’s coming off so we’ve reduced the height instantly so if that is the leader coming up we’ve got a choice of several leaders anyway let’s see where the best front is look at that trunk massive there lovely thick trunk so we’re going to find the first pair of branches to wire and we’re going to keep the front value open i’m just making sure the branches are in the right place and also the widest part seems to be like here if you look at the tree carefully see this looking from here is wider than looking at it from here okay so i will prefer to keep this as the front so the branches are going to be split out either side okay that will be a low spreading branch remember you don’t have to have the branches low you can go higher up and start do you want to start from low can we start a little bit higher okay okay we start from a little bit higher then let’s see where we can go okay right we are going to do a little exercise for me are you going to are you chickening out all those branches you can cut off yeah yeah i’m happy with that okay you do it all these just cut it off this is what frightens people but i think i know what i’m doing i think so it’s showing the trunk every time once you see the trunk it begins to look like a tree i always remind people that in bonsai we are creating a tree we are not trying to create a bush so once the trunk is visible then it looks like a tree okay we stopped there right now yeah okay we stopped there so you can see the lovely trunk which is there and this is still the widest part here so you can see like you know when you trim some of these great big conifers or pine trees the trunks look like this in your neck of the woods there are quite a lot of pines okay so the first major branch is that one there and this one here i like meeting my youtube fans so always ask to see me finding the right grader y is half the trick i think for this you need like three three and a half let me just see if there’s any other one what’s that three and a half mil yeah i think it may be a bit thick but i think i can oh this let’s see if this one if this doesn’t hold see already we’ve got so much offer if that doesn’t hold we can always change to another one so we measure the right amount of wire so what remember two branch principle so we’re wiring these two branches together i hope this one holds i’ll show you a few branches then you can do the rest at home i think the difficult choice is that first cut and then knowing where to start from once it started then the rest is easy don’t trap the little twigs it doesn’t need to go to the end see i think that holes now if it wasn’t strong enough you can always put another one but that holds see so cutting all those low branches hasn’t affected it one bit you know it’s okay then usually the thinner ones we’re trying to create space between the branches what we call the pads should be spaced evenly and except for keeping the front open we need a few back branches as well the back branch gives it depth and perspective so that can be a back branch i can see where i’m going and the next branch can come maybe like that see i keep placing it to see where i can go see if that goes there then i don’t need this one you understand so i’m placing it like that so these two i can wire straight away and let’s see on this side this one can also come there or even here then i can get rid of this one i make decisions very fast so this comes with experiences so i don’t expect you to do the same a lot of people think long and hard saying which branch should i cut but it will come don’t worry have you done much wiring so far so far no i’ve just been keeping i’ve got a little pot of cardboard okay that one by the way once you get warmer weather keep it outdoors don’t keep it indoors all the time although they’re sold as indoor bonsai uh they don’t like the room being too warm to dry indoor bonsai yes but some of the indoor ones are semi-tropical trees which can’t stand hard frost so that’s what you’ve got to be careful yeah oh good see i don’t think i need this even it’s too close okay you can always test it and see test it and go along see that’s okay what a lot of branches lots of choice and then you can clean up these trunks with a branch cutter you can get really close see how it’s coming along huh yeah then you’ve got to ask yourself which is the next one i don’t want branches coming straight at my face if i wire it i’ll wire slightly to the side like that oh let’s see which is the next one there this can be watched so these two can be worn no i like when you’ve taken all the trouble to come come here and the lovely present you gave me so on a class you would be doing this under my guide and see this is what we teach people to do in fact if you pick any tree i can then show you what you could do with any of those trees now this one i don’t know yeah you can so we usually mark the front by sticking a piece of wire in there that will always remind me that i’m working see this is the frontal so we put a little marker so when you pot it it’s going to be this way are you confident to do the rest um or you want me to help you select some more branches yeah yeah okay it’s not so much done any wiring it’s selecting the branches which is going to be the difficult thing you know okay this can come down there that can come about this way as long as there’s space between branches you get the idea huh like this one is going to be too close i can tell straight away it’s going to be too close so this can be one all these can be one that can be why now just place it down and see the space and then what i don’t want to do all because you won’t learn if i do it all yeah you know you’ve got to get the con the top one of these will go up and then the rest will still form like a cone like that so there you go i’ve started that off you can buy a plastic pot or micro pot you then it’ll look instant bonsai straight away yeah so you’re looking to use get hold of two and a half three three and a half those are the three essential grades of wire to use okay let me start the other one off as well so this one all have fairly nice thick chunks i’ll show you the type of what you call it rake that we use you can either use the stainless steel prong one like this or i prefer to use these because i work mainly on big trees you see if you’ve got to get all that off yeah as far as you go till you find the main root can you see how much more trunk there is yeah lots of trunk there beautiful trunk look at that flare spraying at the bottom so you can t somewhere at the back and then let’s see again this tree is not as tall as the other one but we still don’t need it to go all the way to the top you always have to control the leader if you don’t it’ll reach the sky some nice paster beautiful base it’s a very underrated species you know people never think of using these trees for bonsai but it’s only recently that people have been using these as christmas trees it’s not a common variety if you want a smallish christmas tree then this is a nice one to use so you got to tease more at the back like that and that is a good base there okay even now i have to think sometimes how to start the branch this is still the nicest part maybe these two once you select the front then the rest will fall into place so this and this can be used i work very fast as you probably gather so if you work a bit slower it’s not your fault it’s just that i have this habit of working first because i’m used to doing it and then there’s a special place we call the gin plus that helps to do the wire like that i think this one is a bit too thick but it’s okay see making the bar just hang down see all conifers have branches that hang downwards so that can go down this can go down and i think don’t need this don’t need it that long these thin ones can usually come out so these two can be wired like that this can be wired like that all these little ones near the trunk can be taken off stir stick with this thick one so you can always give a little twist to the branch you don’t have to have it dead straight i better mark the front so that you remember which is the front like so like so so the brush is either side now we’ve got to keep thinking where will be the next branch is that too close oh i need that one do i need this one absolutely right it’s too close see you got that one to fill that spacer now this one can maybe no even this is too close see this can come like that the one in the front can be removed don’t need that at least you have a choice you see once you have a choice then you’re all right this seems to be a very thick branch i’ll get rid of it look at how much you’re getting rid of see and keep going and if you are green fingered are you a clean gardener these can be struck as cuttings you get new plant by sticking it in soil very easy to propagate so keep going that this very thick one i’m taking out you don’t want them too thick you’ve got one at the back so those you can wire the second wire so as you go up make it conical then keep selecting the branches as you go up all right yeah thanks be bold don’t worry not that difficult already you’re there i would say you’re more than not dead keep wiring it place it down to see how it looks and then decide and then why keep wiring and if they’re too long you can reduce it so keep going up there you can still find you see keep finding the path all these little ones you can remove you get the idea all right okay happy thank you all right so you need to get some wire as well and a pot okay i hope you enjoyed your your time okay okay guys thank you okay [Music] you
