What's new
Talk on Bonsai display & design
What's new
Talk on Bonsai display & design
One of our members gave a talk on Bonsai display & design : this talk gave us an interesting insight into how the Japanese display their trees - which seems to have as many rules as growing the trees themselves !
An example of Bonsai displayed with accent plantings
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Here Duncan uses a photograph to |
Beginning work on the |
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Getting movement into the design |
Showing the use of jins and |
The Potteries Bonsai Group has been fortunate enough to have a return visit by John Fleet, a knowledgeable grower of Bonsai pine trees. John, a local man, is always only too happy to pass on his experience and expertise and is so passionate about the subject that he refuses to make any money from his talks, even going so far as to refuse reimbursement of his travelling expenses.
Advice on members' trees
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Advice on repotting |
It's a jungle out there |
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One-to-one assistance |
Encouraging hands-on learning |
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Gathering around for a lesson |
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February's meeting was well |
Graham tidying up a |
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John looking very |
Roy looking very serious |
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Duncan's a picture of concentration as he works on his yew tree |
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The Potteries Bonsai Group was recently invited to put on a small display of trees, do some demonstrations of bonsai techniques and offer help and advice to potential customers in the bonsai section of Stapeley Water Gardens, a large garden centre 30 minutes drive from Stoke.
The event took place over a full weekend and was very much enjoyed by those taking part with potential customers of bonsai trees finding the help and assistance from club members very beneficial, especially the lady who asked “if I buy this, it doesn’t need to be fed or watered does it”!!!. Our club also benefited from the potential for new members and we were pleased to see our numbers swelled at our next club meet by people who had stopped to talk to us and ask advice at Stapeley so we must have done something right!.
A large number of people passed by during the weekend and I lost count of the number of times I overheard someone say to a friend or relative “oh look bonsai, I had one of those but I killed it!”. I think any bonsai grower will agree that we’ve all been there, which in my opinion makes events such as this all the more important in order to help new owners to possibly overcome some of the potential pitfalls of looking after their first tree. How many people have been lost to this fascinating pastime I wonder because their first tree did not survive and they did not try again for fear of further disappointment.
Credit must be given to Stapeley Water Gardens for setting up this event and wishing to assist their customers rather than merely being interested in a sale then showing no further interest in the welfare of the trees sold.
Rob, the member of staff who co-ordinated with us, was very helpful and showed great interest and expressed his hopes for further events in the future and we would like to thank him for his assistance and for the free food and items donated to the club by Stapeley Water Gardens, our club will certainly return again when invited.AP
A few photographs from the weekend can be seen below
A SMALL DISPLAY OF MEMBERS' TREES
DERRICK WORKING ON A TREE ...
... AND GIVING ADVICE TO A CUSTOMER
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ROSS WITH A CRYPTOMERIA |
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ROY WITH A COLLECTED PINE |
A ROCK PLANTING IN PROGRESS
THE COMPLETED PLANTING
John Pitt, who is not actually a member of the Group has very kindly given us the following text and pictures regarding a workshop run by Dan Barton which he attended.
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Before and after |
Spruce - before and after |
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Several of us spent a memorable two days with Dan, his artistic flair and teaching methods have to be experienced to be fully appreciated, his jokes aren't bad either. The material brought along to the workshops ranged from some large collected pines, yews and hawthorns etc, to some exquisite imported Chinese junipers. The first task each day was, as a group, to go round everyone's tree and discuss design possibilities, this insight into how Dan studied each tree and, with the group's participation, and the owners consent (usually), decided on the design and style of each piece of material, this was for me the best part. We all learnt new techniques and benefited from Dan's help and encouragement throughout the day, the quality of trees we all produced was amazing and I'm sure there were one or two future prize winning specimens created. I know we all learnt a lot about design and practical techniques, but the main benefit, for me, was the way Dan gave us confidence in our own abilities. |
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Work in progress ... |
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Dan Barton - Wednesday 11th April 2001
The Potteries Bonsai Group was fortunate enough this week to host a visit from the internationally renowned bonsai artist Dan Barton. Dan was invited to our club to talk and to comment on our members' trees in progress.
A good turnout was assured from our members and a small number of non-members also turned up to gain the benefits of Dan's advice and experience. No-one was disappointed as Dan demonstrated his skill and knowledge of bonsai and threw in the odd joke, witticism and humorous anecdote for good measure.
The evening passed very quickly and went on much later than usual with no one wishing to leave. It seemed that Dan would talk as long as we would listen until we reluctantly called a halt to the evening - everyone leaving well satisfied with the proceedings.
Some pictures are shown below of Dan assessing members' trees, apologies for the rather poor quality of the photographs.
AP
Larch
Forsythia ** Dan Barton or Rolf Harris
- can you tell what it is yet ?
Hornbeam
Chinese Juniper
Windswept larch
Members' trees on the stage
