Dec 22, 2015 | General
The old saying goes ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy‘. Which, I guess, makes me the dullest of all. Early next year my daughter turns 23 and the last time I went on holiday was two or three years before she was born. I have a few reasons for that, firstly being bonsai and holidays don’t mix and seeing as my bonsai are worth more than my house I am not happy just jetting off with the family for a week in the sun whilst someone else takes care of things. Secondly holidays are, in general, expensive. I prefer to put my money into things that have tangible and lasting value and have done that since I was 10 years old. As a result I have, what i think, is some cool stuff and a nice house paid for at the tender age of fifty. Not a great achievement by some standards but for a dumbass who flunked out of school with virtually nothing i’m happy enough.
I decided more than fifteen years ago that i did not like to have a job, it just got in the way all the time. Seeing as I didn’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of at the time my only solution was to make my life my job. I sat on a river bank fishing one winters day thinking about all the different things I did as hobbies and work. After a bit of deep cogitating it became obvious the thing that really put air in my tyres was bonsai. I packed up and went home and have never been fishing since. At that time I dropped a dozen different things I was doing, sold everything and put all my eggs in one basket. I worked at bonsai a minimum of eight hours a day seven days a week whilst barely holding down a nine hour a day job. This mind set and relentless activity set my future in stone. So, having made my work my life what need do I have of holidays?
Over the last five years things have changed a lot around here. I know some folk think I have this idyllic life spending all my time on cloud nine tweaking bonsai. However the reality is a little different, we run a business in Britain, based in a very small specialised sector where volumes are very low and cost are high due to tiny manufacturing volumes. In Britain today if you run a business the burden of cost put upon you by the powers that be are increasingly debilitating and maintaining customer satisfaction whilst making wages is more difficult to achieve every year. The truth of the matter is simple. Prices today are almost half what they were twenty years ago. As an example when Bonsai Mart first offered Akadama in the early nineties the price was £16.99 plus £9 postage and they were not charging VAT. Today the price is £14.45 plus £8.89 shipping and including 20% VAT. In that period your money has decreased in value by half. In Japan there has not been any price rises for decades as their economy has all but frozen and remains in a deflationary territory even today. So if we take the VAT off todays price the ‘doorstep’ price is £19.45 as opposed to £25.99 over twenty years ago. Working the figures backwards the gross profit margin way back then was £13-14 per delivered bag. Today that margin is £3.45 and remember that money has halved in value. Oh! also don’t forget that way back then standard shipping was seven days and many companies promised to get you your order within 28 days. Back then you didn’t have to spend the equivalent of a small mortgage every five years to create a web site. There was no need to pay a living wage, offer staff pensions or ever offer more than seven days paid holiday and…. i could go on all day but you get the picture, running a business today is not very easy and not always much fun…….
And that brings me to the point I had almost forgotten I came here to make. At the end of today we will be shutting up shop until January. It has become customary here to take the Christmas and new year period for ourselves. Catherine is fed up with spending 10 hours a day doing parcel labels and I am fed up with all the other stuff including starting at 4am. Thanks to you all and you continued support 2015 has been another record one for KB. For the first time since we started I actually feel a sense of stability and security in the business. I have been constantly hounded by a sense of impending doom and imminent failure since day one. But, thanks to all you lovely people and your continued support and patronage I think we just might have a future. We achieved a lot this year behind the scenes and are planning some significant steps forward with some very unique special products next year and beyond as we invest and grow the business. Our intention is to be a one stop shop for EVERYTHING you need and offer the best quality delivered FAST and at the best doorstep price we can.
We are all entirely exhausted and need a break. We are all sick, tired and sick and tired. In spite of my clever plan it’s true ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy‘. We have a few loose ends to tie up and a few emails to do. I have to give my old van it’s annual wash and then it’s time to spark up the Cohiba I have been saving and pop the cork on a bottle we were given and we will be raising a glass to you all. Tomorrow if my head is not too bad I will be throwing a leg over the R1 (or the dirt bike, depending upon the weather) and put a good few miles under my belt. After that I think I will probably end up back in the polytunnel working again because at heat I am a very VERY dull boy!
Seeing as it’s the winter solstice I thought I would share some dawn pictures I took whilst out with the dog before dawn today. Not much compares to Norfolk skies in the early morning.
Have a great Christmas and a prosperous new year.
Best wished from Graham, Catherine and all the folk at Kaizen Bonsai.
G.
Dec 18, 2015 | General
When you get through as many trees as we do in the course of a year there is a tendency to become decidedly unimpressed with a lot of it. This time of year I will be very happy to have cleared out all of our little Chinese elms. I started at 4am yesterday packing the things and didn’t get through until 7pm. I do understand that, to the recipient, the simplest of bonsai arriving can be a red letter day and I still remember the palpable excitement I felt when my first bonsai went on the windowsill twenty five years ago, but when you move more than a thousand bonsai a year it’s tough to get excited about all but a few special bits. That’s why I have come to love yamadori so much, there are never two plants the same.
A series of early mornings and late nights gave me the chance to get a very unusual yew whipped into shape recently. I bought this very old tree at a show five or more years ago. It quickly became obvious the pot was not exactly brimming with roots. That summer the tree went very backwards. A couple of years later the little thing was doing decidedly better and I sold it to one of my top guys. He then traded it back in against something else and I was right back where I started. This summer the tree took off like a firework. I only work yew in the winter and now was the time to get busy.
This is such an unusual shaped tree it was always going to be a challenge but then I get fed up with going through the motions with ‘standard’ bonsai. I hollowed out the trunk a bit with my new Little Terrier DH and then tidied up the remaining deadwood with our new blast cleaning set up. Add a little wire and, hey presto, one very unusual bonsai tree, or at least the beginning of one. Sorry you cant see the base of the tree very well in the pictures. I love little trees like this because they tend to annoy a lot of people who like a bit more ‘formula’ in their bonsai but I love this little yew (and annoying people) and it’s a keeper…..for now.
G.
Dec 16, 2015 | General
After 25 years mucking about with plants I am pretty good at identifying species. I also have a penchant for unusual types and have got myself in all sorts of trouble gathering up strange trees. However I am currently stumped. I bought this tree off a price list where it was described as callistemon. I doubt it is that. The leaf looks like jasmine but then it threw up this beautiful flower. Anybody got any ideas?
G.
Dec 7, 2015 | General
There are two things in life I really love. Big V8 engines and Scots pines. Ying and Yang, perfect balance. This morning we took delivery of some awesome scotties and as I sit here now all I can see out of the window is my favourite things 🙂
The truck isn’t for sale but the pines are (mostly). As I get these sorted out I will be adding them to the web site. There are some very impressive BIG trees amongst this lot. I am looking forward to getting to grips with them.
G.
Dec 7, 2015 | General
It’s a rare day indeed that I get to work on trees. In fact I do less bonsai work now than when I had a proper job. However we recently had a quiet few days and that coincided with a light frost and all the larch dropped at once. Perfect timing to get some trees done.
When you move as many trees as we do and buy in so much stuff it’s inevitable a few waifs and strays find their way onto the benches. At the moment we have a lot of very average little larch knocking about amongst the better ones. A few early morning sessions and late evenings sorted out a few. It’s been a while since I did that much wiring!
G.
Dec 4, 2015 | General
Somewhere along the line I got saddled with the tag of being a wood carver in bonsai. For sure all my first trees were carved but that was only because I was too poor (and tight fisted) to buy good material. Once I got the hang of it everyone wanted to see how it was done and ever since 1999 I have been travelling all over doing carving demo’s …… Thinking about it I guess it’s kind of obvious.
Truth be known I hate wood as a working medium. I got the highest grade in woodworking in the history of my school but never followed it through. I ended up working with paper (I was in print for 21 years) but my first love was metal. I started gas flowing cylinder heads at nine years old. Sure it can be hard to work with but it just does what you want it too and does not care. Wood is finnicky and needs a skilled, considerate and caring hand. So, outside bonsai I never carve wood, I chop a lot up for my fire but I am not remotely interested in making beautiful things out of it. There are numerous incredibly skilled folk out there working with wood who’s work I love to see but couldn’t hope to emulate.
I would not even want to guess at how many trees I have carved over the years. I have always said deadwood does not make good bonsai. My favourite bonsai tree has no deadwood whatsoever. In fact my top three favourite bonsai have no deadwood at all. On the other hand I have a garden full of skip-rat stumps and so carving is on the menu here every week. Having done so much carving over the years I got a good view of the carving tools available and having sold those tools now for close to 12 years I get a lot of feedback.
A few years ago I designed the Terrier carving tool which has gone on to sell thousands to almost every country in the world. That was followed by The Little Terrier which has enjoyed similar success. However there was one massive gaping hole we needed to plug. For years now our customers have been crying out for a tool to run in a small Dremel style machine that actually did the job. Our Weasel did a good job but those are currently unavailable. The problem with the little power tools is that they can only run a thin shaft to mount a cutter and based on experience any tool with a cut rate worth a dam was going to bend very quickly in all but the most experienced hands. A couple of years ago I came up with a solution to the problem. A new carving tool that fitted over the output shaft of the small machines. It took me a while to figure it all out and put it in the hands of a competent manufacturer but today it’s here and ready to go.
After untold hours of testing and modification we believe this is THE most effective and INDESTRUCTIBLE carving tool out there and it eats wood as fast as a starving pit bull can eat a Big Mac.
A fast cut rate is of no value if the tool is unsafe. My better half has never used power tools in any form and yet with this in her hands she took to carving like a duck to water. If you have never used carving tools for bonsai before we have absolutely NO hesitation recommending you start right here. There are two versions available to fit Dremel machines and another to fit 99% of all to look alike versions out there.
For the first month only this tool is available at a small introductory discount but will have to go up to the full price early in the new year.
There are more new Terriers coming in the new year, stay tuned!
I think everything else you need to know is on the item listing. Let us know how you get on with it and please send us pictures of your projects. I’m off to do some stump work…….
G.
