A Black Pine Restyling

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A Black Pine Restyling

• By Laurence LeClaire

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Introduction

• In June 2007, I purchased a Japanese Black Pine
  from Ruben Guzmans garden (a longtime Danville,
  CA bonsai artist) in preparation for a Marco
  Invernizzi workshop the following November. It
  was my first more serious purchase of a black
  pine. The tree was 25 years old with great bark
  and decent ramification. - great material to
  practice wiring and have a nice tree with a few
  years work.
• Marco worked with me an entire day wiring out the
  branches and twigs and helping bend some fairly
  thick branches using heavy wire and raffia. Since
  then, Ive been slowly removing wire and
  performing the standard candle cutting/bud
  selection on the branches every year. But as my
  bonsai education grew over time since the trees
  first styling, I came to the realization that the
  tree had a limited future. By that, I mean the
  trunk lacked any interesting movement except a
  single bend near the base. Even with extensive
  wiring of all the branches, I felt the tree would
  always be upright and Christmas tree-like. I was
  losing interest in the tree and considered
  selling it.
• Thats until I picked up an issue of Bonsai Focus
  magazine where an article documented the restyle
  of a large pine tree. The article described how
  to introduce bends in large diameter branches
  trunks by drilling out the interior hardwood of
  the branch/trunk and then bending with rebar.
  Better yet, the tree in the article had an
  uncanny similarity to mine! I was so excited
  about my new project I couldnt sleep that night.
• So, at our February gathering of my San Francisco
  bonsai study group, I took the challenge. Enjoy
  the photos from the days work and the final
  result!

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Step 1 - The Plan

• First, I made a drawing of the final design.
• We decided a single bend across from the first
  branch would be the only drilled bend.
• The rest could be made with heavy wire and
  raffia.
• A new apex would be made from the 4th major
  branch.

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Step 2 - The Drill.

• An incision was made just above the first branch.
• A hole was drilled into the incision and the
  center heartwood was removed by pivoting the
  drill sideways several times.
• Care was made not to remove too much xylem and
  not to harm the cambium.

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Step 3 - The Bend.

• A length of rebar was inserted in front of the
  bend.
• The bottom is anchored into the soil against the
  rim of the pot. A block of wood is butted between
  the trunk and rebar.
• A piece of rubber is inserted between the wood
  block and bark for protection.
• A length of copper wire was used to pull the top
  of the trunk towards the rebar making the trunk
  bend at the drilled region.
• Note the top 1/3 of the tree has been removed at
  this point. After the bend, the two edges of
  cambium were aligned perfectly.
• A nearly 45 degree bend was introduced in the
  line of the trunk.

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Step 4 - Raffia and Wire

• Next, I applied layers of raffia to the trunk
  around the branches to be bend downward and to
  the 4th branch that would serve as the new apex.
• 4 copper wire was then wrapped around each
  branch and anchored properly to support the major
  bends about to be applied.

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Step 5 - After the Bends.

• All the major bends have been applied.
• Time to thin the needles and wire out each branch
  to its final position.

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Step 6 Further Styling.

• After lots of wiring and needle plucking, the
  final design of tree is realized.
• The top of the tree appears much weaker than the
  lower, most likely due to the spreading of the
  branches to fill in the new top.
• In two years, the raffia and rebar can be removed
  and the redesign should hold.
• The photo above does not reflect the depth in the
  new arrangement of the tree and the new layers of
  needles are not evident.

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Step 7 After a year and half of growth and a
repot

• Tree is stronger than ever even after radical
  styling from the year before. A leader candle was
  allowed to extend without cutting the year before
  to help pull energy through the main part of the
  tree to aid with healing the bends

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Conclusion

• Before

• After