Been really busy the last 2 weeks and this is the first time in while I could sit down and post on the blog. So without any other interruption....
Bob was our wonderful demonstrator of the month of April. He was so excited that he drove down the Thursday before! Bob brings a unique laid back point of view of bonsai and it showed at our transforming demo. Bob is the proud owner of Kimura Bonsai Nursery in Northridge and has a ton of good material to work with. He has studied under Frank Okamura and currently studying with Kenji Miyata.
Bob has brought a really doozy of a juniper of some type. He has a really nice nebari, old bark and interesting trunk line. The rest well was the magic he brought to the night. The only plan he had was to jin a large branch in the back that wrapped around the front.
After jinning that main branch on the back, he put his attention to the single branch left and wrapped it tightly with raffia. Bob mentioned he like using raffia verse the other type of material because it will rot off when its time. Also it doesn't look as ugly with the black or green tape. As you see in this picture his wrapping technque is spot on. I had the opportunity to assist Bob up close and I have to say its really tightly wrapped on.
Bob wired the is branch and bam! A finished tree right in front of us! The tree went from zero to hero right in front of our eyes. He even said, I'm not sure how this tree will look at the end but, it looks good i'm going to buy some raffle tickets!
So he did! From the looks of that day everybody did. Yes, we at Baikoen throws in the kitchen sink too! On a side note, Bob has some of the best stories about his past. So if you have not asked before please do. Especailly, how he got into bonsai.
A really awesome looking tree. But, unfortunately I did not win.
The tree goes home with Greg!!!!! What a lucky guy! Well, I hope you guys will join us for next month!