Having been laid low for the last few weeks I have been severely limited in what I can get done around here. This time of year we start to get real busy buying new stock and preparing trees for sale later in the year. Over the last few weeks all I have been doing is working on oaks, carving and wiring one after another. Feels like I have been trapped in a recurring dream for a while now but at least the trees turned out Ok. Sadly there are still a whole bunch still to do but I have to move onto other things now. Here are some before and afters of the more impressive trees.
G.
Quercus faginea. £895
Quercus faginea. £1595
Barbary oak. £895
Barbary oak. £795
Barbary oak. £750
Early days but coming along. Quercus faginea. £225
Firstly let me take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2018. I know it’s a bit late but I have good reason. If you stop by here regularly you will know that our only holiday throughout the year is the Christmas week. I generally treat myself to a skip and spend the week grafting my ass off. This year though Christmas holidays came early and with some rather unexpected and unwelcome consequences.
The last couple of days before the holiday were quiet as we stopped shipping parcels and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get ahead of the game. I moved here ten years ago and we constructed a bench out of waste pallets as a temporary measure which has been falling apart ever since. Now was the time and so with two absolutely awful dark drizzly days in prospect I decided to jump in.
Time for new benches (about 10 years ago). That pole weighs over 200Kg! Trust me I know 🙂
Once we cleared all the rotten crap away we had to dismantle an overhead cover frame work we no longer used. This I built from telegraph poles and 6×2″s. It all came down nicely and the crap was cleared away but then we had to get those poles out of the ground. I figured out a way to pull them up but not to the full 3′ that was buried so I just man-handled them the rest of the way, should have done this in summer when they were not full of water! Still with everything laying on the lawn it looked like we had Eddie Hall over training at Fingal’s Fingers.
Fingal’s Fingers anyone?
Ramon busted his hump over the two days leaving me to finish off on the Saturday which I did, that rescued all of the Christmas week for me or, so I thought. Simple, a little expensive but should last longer than I will. We are on a slope so levelling up benches is important.
Sunday morning I felt a little worse for wear but carried on regardless. Christmas day the whole family turned up and Sarah cooked a meal fit for a king. Trouble is I was in a bad way and barely managed to stay upright long enough to eat anything. Then, come Boxing day morning it became evident that something had gone very seriously wrong. I know pain, the list of examples I could share would leave you wide mouthed and in hysterics if you share my cruel outlook. One time I broke both arms at once, the right one folded up and snapped completely. What made it worse was the face plant I completed on the road after I got back on my bike to ride home (as my right arm concertinaed up). The police found me in a bus shelter passed out. However this time the pain was worse. For all the world i thought I had ripped my own buttock off, the pain in my right side and leg was simply inconceivable and I was ABSOLUTELY unable to to move even a single inch. All the pain killers in the local Tesco store did nothing and so mid morning Catherine was forced to call out an ambulance since I could not move, there were no doctors available and 111 left us hanging. In a few minutes a couple of wonderful young fellas arrived and eventually (another shocking story) got me something very strong to take the edge off.
I spent 9 days unable to move and screaming the house down every time I tried to move. New years eve I passed out four times trying to get up. Now I am up and about a bit, no thanks to my doctor, and the NHS physio’ I have still not been able to see (nothing until February). The tales I can tell leave me heartbroken regards the state of my once proud nation. I really do not want to go into the details of all this further, it’s a supremely painful memory in every respect. However my absolute life saver has been a local osteopath who has been an angel. The laymans explanation was that I crushed the right side of my body (carrying telegraph poles on my shoulder). That resulted in everything going into spasm and squished all the nerves in my arse, leg and lower back. Time to loose some weight and get back to pumping iron again, unless I am broken in half i’m not giving in yet, FUCK PAIN!
I’m up and about a bit now and started lifting, which I have been threatening to get back to all year, just a shame i was a bit too late. Sorry if you have been trying to get a hold of me but I was occupied. I have to offer a sincere and tearful thanks to Catherine who has been more than an angel through all this and has been carrying the business these last couple of weeks (and 500 parcels). I have been doing my best, here is an oak I did in the midst of my suffering.
It’s officially the shortest day today. I HATE this time of year with a passion, the cold, the wet and above all the dark, I really struggle to keep myself going at this time of year. The idea of drinking a whole jar of ‘shine’ and laying out on the freezing grass in my kecks until it’s all over often crosses my mind. However at 4.27pm today the year clicks over and the days begin getting longer. Maudlin aside there are folk that depend upon me so as my parents say ‘must get on‘.
Being as it is Christmas and all I thought I would share a secret I learned many years ago. It’s served me well and put money in my pocket. In some circles bonsai is something of a competitive sport. The drive to own a perfect tree and a better one than our peers is strong in many people, bonsai is a game of one-upmanship to those folk. Go to any bonsai selling event or nursery sale and as the doors open see what I mean. My opinion of that is to wonder why folk are so keen to own somebody else’s bonsai work. In the motorcycle world there is a t-shirt around that states “It’s not about what you can buy, it’s about what you can build”. In reality just splashing some cash isn’t that hard. With the right motivation anyone can get off the sofa and earn money. However if you are going to make something truly worthwhile and valuable to both yourself and others, building it is the way to go. A quality, and unique, build brings satisfaction of a job well done, demonstrates hard learned skills and dedication as well as respect and possibly even a little envy from our peers. Any skill mastered has the ability to open up a path for us in life that just could leave the world at our feet.
Take this message to heart, it could change your life.
That’s exactly how I ended up here. Nearly thirty years ago I started to keep bonsai. I had no money but just worked as hard as i could with crap, stumps and skip rats and after ten years as my skills got better so did my trees, strange that. A family friend who had done well in life imparted a simple gem of wisdom too me as a teenager that I hold as invaluable today and has been a guiding principle of my life. – “Use what you’ve got to get what you want”. I had a couple of broken down electric drills, a flexible drive shaft and some home made cutting bits and some absolutely crappy stumps i nicked off a demolition site. Not much of a start but a start none the less.
It didn’t take me long to realise my first “bonsai” material had it’s limitations. These were my very first bonsai and worthy of a photo!
Finding bonsai material is really easy, it’s literally everywhere even in horrible overcrowded Blighty. If you live in an urban area you have at your feet a massive variety of material in the gardens and parks around you and the scruffy sort of thing we need is easy to procure as the owners are usually keen to see the back of such things. I have been paid by property owners to remove some superb material. If however you are too old, infirm or bone idle to go out and find what you need there are plenty of folk happy to sell you such things including us. Whenever I put something a bit special on our web site it creates an almost instant response and will often sell in minutes. However our web site, and nursery are full to the rafters of what some might consider ‘crap’. That only serves to show how little some folk know. Because of how I started all this malarkey I still love a nice big stump more than just about any material I have, they are often a blank slate for our creativity. Remember, this is about what YOU can build and the process of creating bonsai is a building project just like a house, a car, a bike or any other complex entity.
Most folk go out of their way to avoid procuring trees with big pruning scars. As a general rule I go out to find those trees on purpose, the price is always better. All that’s required is to hollow out those big cuts and folk will fight to own the results. A scar is just that, a big shady hollow is an attractive feature that draws the eye and can be developed as a focal point of an otherwise sub standard bonsai. Trees where I live are very big, fat and the oldest ones are ALWAYS hollow and who doesn’t love the mystery of a deep dark hole?
Who doesn’t love a deep dark hole?
Last week this thumping great hornbeam turned up. I love hornbeam, a much underrated British native. It was a bit sad that that massive cut had been shaved down flush. Did someone really think it would heal over? This did limit my options somewhat but you have to make the most of what you have at hand. Carving took an hour as did the wiring and as hornbeam bend like they were make of French cheese some gnarly branch lines a easily achieved. Give the work a couple of years to mature and this tree will have doubled in merit and value. SIMPLES!
G.
Hornbeam as delivered.
Elephant in the room? Who thought this was a good idea? Nice red wound sealant.
A good stump here would have helped a lot.
Bark removed prior to hollowing. Always keep in mind how future callous tissue will develop. This can really add some magic.
Big holes look good if they are connected by small ‘windows’ from other areas.
Years ago I started keeping bonsai as a nice quiet distraction from a hectic lifestyle. For years I struggled with how slow everything moved, plants are indolent in relation to dragsters and big motorcycles. In time I came to terms with the pace of bonsai life and nowadays some might say I have slowed my work down too much, like I could care less.
The trouble is that my bonsai hobby spiralled into something of a tornado that sucked me into what i do today, I had no intention of that happening. Ironically my bonsai business now causes me all the stress I hoped it would ease over twenty five years ago. Whilst everyone is running around here dealing with the Christmas madness, 2017 is ancient history for me. I’m mucking about booking flights and cutting deals for stock for next year and the year after. It’s not even the shortest day but I have been busy making plans, juggling finances and getting ready for the new years exertions including plans for my Christmas holiday which will see me building new benches this year.
If I say so myself i am getting quite good at all this juggling and even though the fat bloke with the red coat and white beard hasn’t been by yet I have had my Christmas box, the first delivery of stock for 2018. A big truck rolled in last week in the pouring rain and this lot fell off the back. There are a few gems and some good low priced stock. Much of this will be progressed before the spring, some will be on the web site soon and just maybe a couple I will keep for a while.
G.
Quercus faginea
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Quercus suber
Quercus faginea
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus
Pistacia_lentiscus
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Prunus dulcis
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Olea sylvestris
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Pistacia lentisus
Juniperus sabina
Junierus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Juniperus sabina
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus
Carpinus betulus
Crataegus monogyna
Crataegus monogyna
Crataegus monogyna
Crataegus monogyna
Crataegus monogyna
Olea sylvestris
Tamarix spp.
Ulmus minor
Prunus Cerasifera
Prunus Cerasifera
Quercus ilex Subsp: Ballota, commonly called Barbary oak
As you might expect with the Big C on the horizon this week has been a busy one at KB. Everyone is doing a good job and pulling their weight so I had a chance to pull my, not inconsiderable, weight out to the workshop and passed the time digging some holes.
Anyone who stops by here regularly will have heard me banging on about how tough it is to sell raw material. Still, that means more for me 🙂 This week I made a start with a trident maple that had some seriously ugly pruning scars. A few minutes spent hollowing and the tree now looks a lot more interesting. It may not be pretty but that’s a matter of personal preference and besides it’s early days.
Next up was a tree I bought in the spring, a beautiful craggy old prunus mume. I love these but in all the years I have had bonsai never got a hold of a decent one. This ball of rot came in from Japan over last winter and has been growing like a weed all summer. All I had to do was clean out all the soft material and the beautiful natural (and very hard) wood simply appeared. By the looks of the buds this is going to be in flower in just a few weeks time.
My next project was always going to take a bit longer. A couple of years ago I bought a number of these massive oaks. I guess they were a little intimidating to folk because we didn’t sell a single one. This particular lump intrigued me because there were some holes in the bark with no wood beneath. Turns out the trunk was hollow top to bottom. Once I poked a hole with my Terrier & Dremel all i had to do was link it all together and rough up the outside a bit. An hour and a half of ugly wiring (first work on oaks needs some heavy metal work) and the tree was all good. Not a bad start if I do say so. Given another couple of years this just might be a star.
Lastly I thought you might like to see an unsung hero of the Kaizen Bonsai payroll. This is Harley who works security doing a bit of quality control…….
If you stop by here from time to time and listen to my dribblings you will be familiar with the fact we are always busy. It has been said that I have the best job in the world, mucking about with bonsai all day and getting paid. ANYONE who runs a business in the UK will know that ain’t the case. In summer I spend a lot of time watering and pruning in a topiary kind of way and in spring I typically re-pot around four hundred and fifty trees. However finding the time to actually create bonsai from our hundreds of yamadori trees or properly prune and refine mature bonsai almost never happens any more. Being successful is always a double edged sword and as much as I love edged weapons of all kinds, ending up on the sharp side of one was never in my dreams as a young boy and yes, I was a boy once, a long long time ago.
Last week was the first quiet week we have had in 2017. Orders were all simple and quickly despatched which freed us up to go do some bonsai “which was nice”. I buy a lot of what I believe is nice material. Sadly often times folk can’t see the bonsai tree for the wood and so, in order to keep stock moving, I have to get the ball rolling. Even after all these years it never ceases to amaze me how an hour spent carving and wiring will transform a grizzly stump into something half presentable. Here are a few of our projects……..
G.
Hornbeam, carpinus betulus, a beautiful British native but a tough challenge.
Early days but everyone is always banging on about getting smaller trees. Small enough?
5 years on the nursery and not a sniff. Seriously, what’s not to love?
Again early days and scope for refinement but it got dark 😉
Another of those hornbeam stumps.
British native trees work up well.
Siberian maple that was about twice the size before I clipped it out.
Massive evergreen oak with tiny leaf. Two years from collecting in Spain.
Garden sabina juniper. I did the deadwood on behalf of the previous owner.
Ramon did the wiring and most of the styling. A little sand blasting and a tweak here and there. Who said garden junipers are no good?
