Orlando Bonsai » carving

OrlandoBonsaiTV’s latest “How to Bonsai” video – Podocarpus Styling

Sandy Racinski — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 05:37:09 +0000

Paul Pikel has a new video that explains how to style a Podocarpus bonsai. His pal Cosmo loves to watch him work especially when he’s preparing a tree he hopes to display at the Epcot Flower and Garden Show. Podocarpus is a common shrub in Florida so maybe you’ll want to try your hand at styling one of these too.

Click on the YouTube link below to watch.

http://youtu.be/GmRXw55caCw

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New Daiza

Paul Pikel — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:23:56 +0000

I haven’t done a Daiza carving for quite sometime, and today I felt motivated to do so. Using Rosewood I carved this little Daiza in a couple of hours. It still needs a lot of refining and a nice finish. However it really made this rock look good.

Daiza Rough Carving

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Refining Jins

Paul Pikel — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:13:41 +0000

Sometimes it’s hard to represent nature in a bonsai due to un-natural cuts. However with a little work you can create dramatic aging of your trees to look very natural. My Blue Alps Juniper had a lot of branches removed with the thoughts of adding jins to help with the over all look of the finished bonsai. I really enjoy the color contrast of the reddish bark, bluish foliage and the white jins.

I had removed these branches last year, so the wood was completely dried, and ready for carving. The following images represent the before and after carving. Please keep in mind that Lime Sulfur will be applied after the final carving to bleach the wood white. I used a Dremel tool for the carving and sanding of the jins.

Jin #1 before

Jin #1 After

Jin #2 before

Jin #2 after

Jin #3 before

Jin #3 after

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Finally a replacement

Paul Pikel — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:37:15 +0000

I have been looking for a new podocarpus to replace the one I sold a couple of years ago. However the search has ended. As I was visiting Mike Rogers I noticed in his nursery a podocarpus with all the features I was looking for. Great nebari, nice movement in the trunk, and lots of carving to do. Plus it already had nice branch placement, what a bonus. The reason I loke carving on Podocarpus is because hen the tree is finished, the contrast between the dark bark, white jins, and dark green foliage can not be beat.

Pre-bonsai podocarpus

The tree is about 36″ tall and will need a lot of work to get the basic structure set. I plan to let this tree sit during the growing season and then this fall put it into a bonsai pot. Better start saving now, it’s going to be a costly one.

Close up of nebari

Pay no attention to the weeds, I really need to start pulling those before taking pictures. But there is a nice jin on the left side and a wide root spread overall.

Close up of podocarpus top

Just look at all the jins!!! That is a carvers heaven. I just can’t wait to see this tree when it’s finished. The colors and textures will be amazing.

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Arbortech: Must have for Bonsai

Paul Pikel — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:12:15 +0000

The most important thing about my on-line store is that I actually use the items that I sell. One item in particular is the Arbortech Mini-Grinder. Once I used one of these for the first time, I became a distributor so sell them. They are just that good!

Old wound scar

I’ve been working on large Neea Buxifolia for a few years now, but for the past couple it has been sitting in a greenhouse growing out. I was hoping to heal a large scar from a big cut made to shorten the tree. However it never healed. I knew if I ever wanted to develop this tree I needed to do a few things.

First would be to remove the old wood on the scar, and trim the cambium to promote healing of the wound. The best tool for this job, Arbortech Mini Grinder.

Carved trunk

Here is the after photo of the freshly carved area. Notice how the green cambium is now showing, and how I was able to remove the dead wood down to hard healthy wood. Also I used this opportunity to create some taper in the trunk. It was a large flat scar before, but now it is rounded and moves from wide to narrow. This should heal nicely.

Non-conifer cut paste

When it comes to big scars I use one product (Cut dressing 6044) more than any other. I’ve seen this stuff work on old wounds where normal cut paste didn’t. It stays on, and slowly flakes off as the tree heals.

Applying Cut Paste

Cut Paste Applied

It helps to warm a small ball of it in your hand before applying. Then just spread it over the wound, and covering any exposed cambium.

Neea Buxifolia

At this point I am just trying to develop the trunk line, and some minor branches. This tree has a long way to go, but this should give us a great start.

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