Reinventing the wheel

I wasn’t happy with the very light colour of fired raku clay I used for making my bonsai pots and I decided to mix it with an iron oxide to make it darker. An oval pot for one of my junipers made of this clay is shown on the first picture. I had a small leftover of this clay and thought what if I smudge it on the surface of another pot to make it look dark while it is made of the usual light clay. Little I knew that it’s a basic pottery technique and the clay I smudged is called slip. However, it is usually diluted to consistency of a glaze and painted on with a brush. The pot that resulted from my first use of slip is shown on the second picture and it will house a small Black Pine.

27th Annual Show of the School of Bonsai

Three days ago I went to the 27th annual show of the School of Bonsai, Sydney. I understand its primary aim is to showcase the work if the school’s students, but their work is quite uninspiring. Last year’s show was similar, but Ray Nesci’s private collection was opened for public viewing and it has a number of really beautiful trees. This year, a small suiseki display put up by George Reisiss was more impressive than the bonsai trees. The group of trees shown on the picture popped up at this show and at the show of Bonsai Society of Australia this year. It is composed well, but some of its tree trunks have ugly scars which diminish its aesthetic value. Bonsai of this standard is pretty much as good as it gets at Sydney exhibitions this year.

Dillwynia sieberi drawing

This is my drawing of a shrub I studied for two years. Its name is Dillwynia sieberi. The drawing shows an inflorescence. The flowers are pollinated by bees. Marked "a" on the drawing is the chamber formed by two ‘keel’ petals housing pistil and stamens. Marked "b" is the location of nectaries and marked "c" is one of the ‘wing’ petals. When a bee lands on the flower in search of nectar it pushes the 'wing' petals which open up the chamber to expose pistil and stamens for pollination.

I am growing a Dillwynia plant in a shallow pot in my garden, but I don't think this species makes good bonsai material.

Bonsai Society of Australia Show: 物の哀れありません

I went to the Annual Spring Show of the Bonsai Society of Australia. There were some decent trees on display (like the Japanese Black Pine on the picture). However, I didn’t see anything exquisite or superb. There was not one tree that evoked “物の哀れ” (mono no aware). My wife encouraged me to buy an Azalea with purple flowers, labeled ‘Redwings’. It was inexpensive and therefore will need a lot of work.

Resurrection of Pink Serissa

At the end of last year, I got a lovely little Pink Serissa (Serissa foetida). I was just beginning to consider how to train it as bonsai (left picture), when my dog Bella ate it to the ground. The stump of the main stem soon rotted away and I lost all hope for the plant's survival, when suddenly a leaf bud sprouted from something that looked like a surface root. Look at this plant now (right picture)!

趣味は盆栽です

私は日本芸術品と日本歴史と日本文化好きです。今年は日本語の勉強を始めます。趣味は盆栽ですけど近縁の芸術品好きです。この芸術品は焼き物と日本庭園と水石と日本建築と書道と墨絵と浮世絵です。

08.08.08

It is 08.08.08 and I decided to make an entry just for the hack of it. It is ironic that today I am working on my pollination paper (addressing reviewer's comments). It is the same paper that has been mentioned in this blog more than three years ago on 15.05.05. Nothing has changed and this is how pathetic I am. On the picture is the mamei pot I made. It is for the smallest kind of bonsai.

My first matcha-chawan

While dealing with unsatisfactory bonsai pots I tried to make a tea bowl or chawan. After six weeks and three firings it came out fine. I am even thinking of flogging it on Ebay. It is a traditional tea bowl style used for serving thick tea or koicha during the Japanese tea ceremony. I have shown it to a couple of Japanese and they liked it. It also sparkled my interest in other clay utensils for the Japanese tea ceremony, especially ceramic tea caddies or chaire. I also started drinking matcha or Japanese powdered green tea. I like it and don't ask me why.

Bonsai shelf extended

After puting up the shelf I realised that I will run out of shelf space this spring. Today, I added a lower shelf and it should keep me out of trouble for a while. I am thinking of going to Japan to see the Kokufuten bonsai exhibition in Tokyo and the bonsai village in Omiya. I hope this plan works. Finding cheap flight tickets could be a start.

Bonsai bench completed

Today I put up a bench for my bonsai plants. Hopefully, this will stop my dog from destroying smaller plants. We shall see!

My best Bonsai pot so far

Last week, after a series of unsuccessful attempts, I got another bonsai pot finished. It is 18 x 13 x 6 cm, made of buff raku trachyte clay with some black iron oxide added for darker colour. It was bisque fired first, then glazed and fired to stoneware. It is slab-built and therefore hand made in true sence. I made it simple and rugged, which would suit a Japanese Black Pine or similar.

Lost half of my potential Bonsai

By now, I lost half of my smaller plants because of my dog Bella. She was so merciless to some of them that I couldn't even find what was left of them. I had tears in my eyes. To finish on the positive note my Chinese Flowering Quince is flowering again and I am going to make bonsai shelves to protect them from Bella.

Chinese name seal

A couple of days ago I made a Chinese name seal for myself. It has four characters rendered in Zhou style. First character means "thick", second means "plum" and together they mean Bird Cherry (Prunus padus). Third character means "river" and the fourth means "seal of". "Bird Cherry river" is the meaning of my surname in Komi language. Komi people lived along that river before the area became a part of Russia in 16th century. There are subspecies of Bird Cherry native to Japan and China and they are used for bonsai.

Bonsai Destroyer

Until now my bonsai trees had no natural enemies that couldn't be dealt with, but last Friday my family has got a new member who happens to be a perfect bonsai destroyer. Her name is Bella and this is her photo. She is an 8-month old cross between Labrador and Golden Retriever. I love her anyway!

My first hand-made bonsai pot

Last weekend, I finally got my first self-made bonsai pot. First picture shows a slab of clay flattened with a rolling pin. I used this slab to make the base of the pot. Second picture shows walls and legs of the pot cut from a similar slab. Third picture shows the pot before bisque firing. Fourth picture shows the pot after it has been bisque fired, painted with glaze and fired again to melt the glaze. I am not satisfied with the quality of this pot and my pottery skills have a long way to go, but at least this pot can house one of my bonsai trees!

Trunk bending devices

I found that buying commercially made trunk benders is expensive. Here are three examples of trunk bending devices that I made and used lately. The device marked "A" bends the trunk at an acute angle with a sharp turning point and allows a branch to grow through it.

Bonsai mention in the Taiheiki

I was reading The Taiheiki (a 14th century chronicle of medieval Japan) and came across a passage talking about bonsai and suiseki in the garden of Tani-no-do Temple: "The towers of forty-nine cloisters stood above rare trees and curious rocks by a pond, most like to the inner close of the Tusita heaven". Tusita is the Japanese name for Maitreya, an Indian prince nominated by Buddha to be his successor, so Tusita heaven loosely means paradise. By the way, in the book this garden has been destroyed by the bad guys.

The beauty of a tree and classic philosophy

In his dialogue titled ‘The Symposium’ Plato claimed that all trees are imperfect copies of an ideal tree, which exists outside the realm of human perception. He observed that some trees are beautiful and some are not and tried to explain why it is so. He wasn’t very successful, though. The Ancients also found that the concept of beauty itself was impossible to define. Socrates often asked his audience to define beauty and always showed through reasoned argument, that that all proposed definitions lead to paradox or absurdity.

Juniperus conferta yamadori

Two months ago, I found this oldish Shore Juniper (Juniperus conferta). Two weeks ago, I pruned about 50% of its foliage, while it was still in the ground. Two days ago, I finally lifted it (see image on the left). Didn't get much of the feeder roots. The image on the right shows this tree after it has been pruned and potted. I put it in full shade and really hope it survives. The Shore Juniper is native to Sakhalin Island (Russia) and closely related to the Common Juniper (Juniperus communis). This species is sometimes referred to as the Japanese Shore Juniper, but Shore Juniper is a more accurate name because Japan renounced its claims for southern Sakhalin in 1951.

P. S. The tree died a few months later. It didn't have enough of fine feeder roots.

Styling a Thuja-like conifer

Had a day off yesterday, which gave me a chance to do some further styling to a coniferous plant similar to Thuja. The image on the left is how it looked before styling, the image in the middle is how it looks now and the image on the right shows what I am trying to achieve.

My daughter's recovery

Today my daughter is sick and I got a day off. While she was having a nap, I got a chance to prune one of my prospective bonsai trees. It is a small Trident Maple. I got it on sale from a hardware store about a month ago (left image). Since then I planted it in a bigger pot, bent its lower trunk and cut its entire upper crown (right image). Now, one of the former side branches is the new apex. I am yet to wire and bend the branches, but it will take a couple of years of pruning and wiring for it to become a bonsai. When my daughter woke up, she felt much better and her temperature came down.

P. S. To see what I did with this tree 3 years later see the following entry: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/root-graft.html

Growing Bonsai

My son is 11 cm taller than me now.

It has been more than a year since I started a regular non-research job in a zoo. I am unhappy with my job and I deal with it by growing bonsai. Crazy...

I still haven't published many of my research papers, which makes it even more annoying.

My son is taller than me?!

I am savouring the last few weeks of being taller than my son. At the moment he is eleven-and-a-half and about 5 mm shorter than me. It will be cool if he grows up to be a tall guy!
Other than that, I'm finished with the first version of my pollination paper. Now, I am incorporating the first round of corrections suggested by my research supervisor. After that it will be off to my co-supervisor, which is quite exciting.

I'll give it a try!

Decided to try this blogging. May be I will like it and contnue posting such entries.
It is Easter long weekend, but I'm at uni busting my butt doing pollen counts. My right hand hurts after making 15 thousand mouse clicks yeasterday and I'm planning to do the same today. I will finish it today at any cost.
My wife and kids are returning from Singleton today. Must call them after finishing this. My two days in Singleton were really enjoyable. Lake St Clare, Hunter Valley Gardens and the winery will be something to remember. Bye for now.

P. S. I had no idea where this blog was going. I dabbled in bonsai throughout the 90’s, but in those days I moved a lot, which wasn't conducive to growing bonsai. At the time of this blog post, I had two little trees in bonsai pots growing in the balcony of my small flat. I have been growing one of them since 2001 and still have it today. I must admit that I was completely isolated from the bonsai community and had limited access to the information about bonsai (January 2014).