Feb 21 2013

Swindon winter Image show 2013 Pre-report

This weekend is the first major show of the year in the UK, The Swindon winter Image show has become a firm fixture on the Bonsai Calendar for many of UK’s Bonsai artists. This is my third year of showing trees and (as you would expect) the quality continues to improve. It’s a great meeting place for folk to catch up on gossip (as if) plan their year, buy sundries and trees and generally talk bonsai!

I love shows at this time of year because for lovers of deciduous trees they can enjoy the structure and work that artists have put into their bonsai. GREAT deciduous bonsai take many years of painstaking work to achieve fine ramification and the members of Swindon bonsai club are amongst the best in the UK at creating wonderful delicate and beautifully presented Beech, Hawthorn, Maples and Oaks in their winter glory.

I will be showing my Myrtle for the first time ever. This tree has never been out of my garden, regular readers of this blog already know this tree from a previous post. I recently changed the angle and position of the tree in the pot after a survey from blog viewers as to whether I should change the pot. Myrtle is NOT native to the UK and preparing the tree for exhibition has been quite a challenge. The tree is in FULL LEAF and will probably be the only ‘greenery’ in the show apart from Pines and Junipers.

Dec 31 2012

Highlights from the Blog in 2012

This is my personal review of the Blog over the last 12 months, if you have missed any of these they are all available in the ‘Past Posts’ archive that you can access in the column on the right of the page.

January 13^th Launch Blog

In January I wrote 26 posts that included many ‘archive’ stories from visits and articles that I had written over the years, these continued into February with a further 32 posts. It is not possible to maintain that level of quality content throughout the year with a low point in June and July each with only 5 posts, the reason was simple… I was busy with actual bonsai in my garden!

One of the early highlights was the video of repotting and repositioning of the Fat guy Hawthorn, this has had over 22,000 views on YouTube. My coverage of the Noelanders Trophy also received a very high visitor rate. BUT my favourite entry was the video from Le Bonsaï Club du Léman BEST bonsai event Video EVER!

One of the purely ‘teaching’ posts was “Building a heating bed for overwintering Bonsai and Yamadori” this has been one my most popular posts with lots of email questions from visitors to the blog.

In February I started my ‘Bonsai Potter showcase’ series. Over the last 11 months I have video ‘interviewed’ 11 potters across Europe and they have been very forthcoming with sharing techniques, ideas and experiences, I still have many more potter to chat to… so keep watching.

March is a busy time for me as it’s the moth that I collect Yamadori in earnest, on one of my trips I came across some of the oldest Yews Trees growing in cliffs in Europe quite amazing.

In April I was busy planning my upcoming Tour of Europe that was taking place in May, My post on Hawthorns coming into leaf and using my new photo set up for the first time created a lot of traffic.

May was my month away from home Touring Europe and at the end of the month I visited Israel. When I travel I take my ‘tech’ with me and I was able to post almost daily on my travels. I have quite a few ‘trips’ organised for 2013 so expect more of the same J

June I was busy in my garden so posted archives from Israel.

July was the month I had waited 3 years for, where I was to cut my large Yamadori yew into two trees My very good friend Terry foster was on hand and the subsequent carving and sandblasting proved popular videos.

I did not post in August because I had nothing to say and I was away on holiday for most of the month 🙂

September I posted mostly archive content including “bonsai is NOT expensive” one of my many ‘rants’ on my Blog.

October was the build up to Burrs 2012 so I posted mostly ‘archive’ content.

November and Burrs 2012 was at the start of the month, this gave me a huge amount of content for the blog, I also commissioned a Professional Video of the event

December my post on Mizu Goke and the benefits to bonsai by Owen Reich was a real honour for me to post. Owen recognised that I have a long reach with the blog and he wanted to take advantage of that to engage a wide audience (over 3,260 people follow the blog).

I launch my blog almost 12 months ago; I have posted 133 times and received 305 comments, over 366,000 views, 7,566 on my busiest day. I wanted to be entertaining, inspiring, sharing, and teach, I hope I have done that well and engaged with the wider bonsai family both in the UK and beyond.

Oct 16 2012

Bonsai Potter showcase #9 Bryan Albright Video

Bryan is one of the most established artists of the Bonsai potter circuit his pots are famous worldwide and are used by many of the best bonsai artists to enhance their work.

I met Bryan at the first Ginkgo Award in Belgium way back in 1997 and I have many of my exhibition trees in his pots. Bryan has the uncanny ability to create ultra simple understated pots that bring out the best in ones trees.

A bonsai artist in his own right Bryan and is the winner of the Noelanders Trophy VI, his understanding of matching the correct pot to the tree is an asset to any artist.

In this video Bryan talks about how he creates is iconic Nanban pots, and the influences old Japanese pottery has on his work.

The majority of Bryan’s work is by commission he does hold stock and it is available from his extensive website.

May 29 2012

Now I am in Israel for a week at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens Bonsai Event

Yesterday I arrived at Tel Aviv airport right in the heart of Israel. I was met by Ofer Grunwald who was dressed as a large white rabbit with a pink tummy! This was the start of my Israeli odyssey. When I left the UK it was 28c and very hot for May. Here in the north of Israel it is also unusually hot for May… its 38c! Enrico Savini and his student Tommaso Triossi are here to as we are doing a demo at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens later this week. Today we were blessed with a yamadori hunt, not to collect as it is way too hot… but to investigate and recommend to Ofer what to look for and what to collect. Here are a few images from the trip so far…

Perhaps you should not collect yamadori here

May 18 2012

European Bonsai tour #8 the finishing line

In arrived in my home at 10.00am on Tuesday after staying the night with Stone Monkey near Tunbridge Wells in the South of England. My European Tour started on 2^nd May and finished on 16^th May. I visited 7 countries and travelled 5239Km/3256miles.

I met many wonderful people, plus a few crazy ones! Ate really good food, drank in moderation and perhaps talked too much. Thanks for following my epic journey, I have an enormous amount of material for this blog including over 2 hours of video, 1500 photos and lots of great stories that will feature here over the next few weeks.

For now though here are my personal reflections and statistics from the tour:

Best roads: Germany

Worst roads: Slovenia

Best Food: Italy

Worst Food: Germany

Most enthusiastic bonsai Nation: Hungary

Highest point: 1760 mtrs in Austria

Lowest point: Sharing the stage with a Prima Donna

Best Night Out: Ljubljana

Strangest drink: Fruit of Myrtle Spirit (Italian homemade)

Best bonsai personality: Marc Noelanders

Hero: Tomaž Kovšca (organiser of EBA Ljubljana)