My first Bonsai

As promised here are the photos of my first bonsai ever. I was taking the ABS mentor program at the time. My mentor was Ron Martin from SC. Ron passed away a year or so back, but he taught me a lot before his death. Through the class I had to pick out the material, style it, make my own soil, make the decision on the pot and then pot the the tree. It was a good learning experience for me and I would recomend it to anyone who does not have a Bonsai society, or club near by. At the time I did the class I had no idea that the Virginia Bonsai Society even existed. I am glad that I got involved  in the society since having local talent to help is the best opportunity to learn. As you can see this juniper is very primitve, but it may turn into something yet. The front has changed and that is why it is potted the way it is in the last picture. I just repotted it this year before doing a total restyle, so I will wait another year before repotting it again to put in the pot properly. However, it will most likely be going in a different pot when I do repot it.

Study Group Time

Last weekend our study group got together and worked on Junipers. Every couple of months we get together at one of the members house. The host picks the material for study and we will discuss the material and work on them together. It makes for a very enjoyable learning experience. One of our members Chris Schmuck, who is new to our area, is a very talented artist. He came to us from Pennsylvania. He has studied with Jim Doyle when He was in Penn. Chris helped me a great deal that day and I learned thing about wiring, and visually looking at the tree in a way that I had not seen before. The first picture is of my tree that I restyled. Unfortunately, it is not the best angle for a picture and I neglected to take a before photo, but I have been working on this tree for 4 years now and it has seen some changes. In a future post I will give a better chronological showing of the tree.