Detailing Your Pine
The process of detail styling a pine is one you either love or hate. Hopefully it's the former, because this process is what actually transforms your pine from a bush in a pot to an awe inspiring piece of artwork. If one examines most American bonsai books from the last four decades, and compares the pines we see in these resources to the pines we see in the Japanese exhibition books, a major difference is the detail styling. Of course there are differences in the basal material itself, but almost any pine can be made to look better with detailing work. By better, I mean looking like a true miniature aged tree, with layers of foliage, movement, balance, and visual cues of great age. Such trees are an inspiration.
Wiring is not a task which comes naturally. In fact, non-bonsai people would likely relate its fun-factor scale in the same category as scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush! But have faith, because if you keep it up, several things will eventually happen.
First, your technical skills will improve to the point that the wire starts going on more easily. Suddenly you know what size and how much wire to cut off; you know which branch to anchor to which; you find it more and more natural to avoid crossing wire; and you stop knocking off all the buds and foliage on the branch you are wiring! In other words, you get good at it. Before long you can wire in your sleep!
Secondly, as you work, something happens to your trees. They become transformed before your very eyes, as you sit there! The scrappy shrub turns into a magic character, looking more and more awe-inspiring as you work it to greater and greater detail. The psycho-emotional consequence of having this creative energy rewarded over and over again as you detail more trees is quite significant. Psychologists refer to this process as positive reinforcement. This phenomenon is a major drive towards shaping what we do and want to do in our everyday lives.
Thirdly, your artistic eye becomes better trained. The sloppy pine needles pointing in every direction, the rising bottom branches, the overly long straight sections of your trunk and branches - all of these things begin to jump out at you. Your trees begin to look more refined as you learn more ways to correct these deficiencies, and your concentration and awareness of styling cues increases. Eventually this translates into the development of a better eye for styling and greater ease in spotting the "hidden tree" in your material. This doesn't necessarily mean all your trees have to appear Japanese styled; they simply must become the best tree for your individual tastes. In fact, you develop more and more of an individual style, eventually to the extent that others may at some point recognize your trees.
Thus, you have become transformed! You no longer walk by your trees thinking: "arrrgh, I dread having to wire that, maybe next time..." In fact, you begin looking for things to wire. And as you wire, if you are lucky, you eventually reach the point where wiring a tree becomes like a "runner's high". You become totally absorbed, at peace with the world.
However for now, I'll begin by describing a year of care of a pine which is old enough to style but is still essentially unstyled. In addition, I'll be directing most of my comments towards black pine, or two-needle pines, unless specified otherwise.
Among the primary goals of the various tasks in pine care are to equalize the strength of all parts of the tree and to induce dense compact growth. Without accomplishing both of these goals, your design will suffer.
Ideally, from a standpoint of styling, we would wish to have every candle tip identical in size, needle length, and number of new buds put out. No matter how hard you try, this will never happen. Auxins from each growing candle suppress all proximal growth (growth closer to the trunk or roots) such that the candles at the end of each branch are stronger than the ones in the middle. These auxins tend to flow downhill with gravity but never upwards, thus causing the top of the tree to have stronger growth, a property referred to as apical dominance. Thus, we will constantly battle to try to increase the strength of the lower and inner growth relative to the upper outer growth. If we don't accomplish this, the weaker areas fail to ramify, turn spindly and elongated and eventually die back. None of this is good for maintaining the design of your tree.
The process of detail styling a pine is one you either love or hate. Hopefully it's the former, because this process is what actually transforms your pine from a bush in a pot to an awe inspiring piece of artwork. If one examines most American bonsai books from the last four decades, and compares the pines we see in these resources to the pines we see in the Japanese exhibition books, a major difference is the detail styling. Of course there are differences in the basal material itself, but almost any pine can be made to look better with detailing work. By better, I mean looking like a true miniature aged tree, with layers of foliage, movement, balance, and visual cues of great age. Such trees are an inspiration.
Wiring is not a task which comes naturally. In fact, non-bonsai people would likely relate its fun-factor scale in the same category as scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush! But have faith, because if you keep it up, several things will eventually happen.
First, your technical skills will improve to the point that the wire starts going on more easily. Suddenly you know what size and how much wire to cut off; you know which branch to anchor to which; you find it more and more natural to avoid crossing wire; and you stop knocking off all the buds and foliage on the branch you are wiring! In other words, you get good at it. Before long you can wire in your sleep!
Secondly, as you work, something happens to your trees. They become transformed before your very eyes, as you sit there! The scrappy shrub turns into a magic character, looking more and more awe-inspiring as you work it to greater and greater detail. The psycho-emotional consequence of having this creative energy rewarded over and over again as you detail more trees is quite significant. Psychologists refer to this process as positive reinforcement. This phenomenon is a major drive towards shaping what we do and want to do in our everyday lives.
Thirdly, your artistic eye becomes better trained. The sloppy pine needles pointing in every direction, the rising bottom branches, the overly long straight sections of your trunk and branches - all of these things begin to jump out at you. Your trees begin to look more refined as you learn more ways to correct these deficiencies, and your concentration and awareness of styling cues increases. Eventually this translates into the development of a better eye for styling and greater ease in spotting the "hidden tree" in your material. This doesn't necessarily mean all your trees have to appear Japanese styled; they simply must become the best tree for your individual tastes. In fact, you develop more and more of an individual style, eventually to the extent that others may at some point recognize your trees.
Thus, you have become transformed! You no longer walk by your trees thinking: "arrrgh, I dread having to wire that, maybe next time..." In fact, you begin looking for things to wire. And as you wire, if you are lucky, you eventually reach the point where wiring a tree becomes like a "runner's high". You become totally absorbed, at peace with the world.
However for now, I'll begin by describing a year of care of a pine which is old enough to style but is still essentially unstyled. In addition, I'll be directing most of my comments towards black pine, or two-needle pines, unless specified otherwise.
Among the primary goals of the various tasks in pine care are to equalize the strength of all parts of the tree and to induce dense compact growth. Without accomplishing both of these goals, your design will suffer.
Ideally, from a standpoint of styling, we would wish to have every candle tip identical in size, needle length, and number of new buds put out. No matter how hard you try, this will never happen. Auxins from each growing candle suppress all proximal growth (growth closer to the trunk or roots) such that the candles at the end of each branch are stronger than the ones in the middle. These auxins tend to flow downhill with gravity but never upwards, thus causing the top of the tree to have stronger growth, a property referred to as apical dominance. Thus, we will constantly battle to try to increase the strength of the lower and inner growth relative to the upper outer growth. If we don't accomplish this, the weaker areas fail to ramify, turn spindly and elongated and eventually die back. None of this is good for maintaining the design of your tree.
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