Varšava

I spent this weekend in Warsaw. It was a good thing ... Far away from everything, a lot of time for thinking. Jure, thank you for opportunity that I was able to be a small part of you life!

Ta konec tedna sem preživel v Varšavi. V bistvu še dobro ... Stran od vsega, veliko časa za razmišljanje. Jure, hvala, da sem bil lahko delček tvojega življenja!

Marek Gajda organized a small bonsai exhibition as part of festival of far-eastern culture and he invited some friends to take part. Nik was taking care of music in the car, I was trying to avoid all holes in a bad Polish roads. But because of great hospitality of organizers you quickly forgot all troubles on the road!

Festival was taking part in old factory complex in Warsaw downtown. Bonsai exhibition and demonstrations were taking a lot of interest among visitors.

Marek Gajda je v okviru festivala vzhodnjaške kulture organiziral manjšo razstavo bonsajev in v goste povabil nekaj prijateljev. Nik je v avtu skrbel za glasbo, jaz sem se skušal ogniti luknjam na slabih poljskih cestah. Gostoljubje organizatorjev popravi še tako slab vtis. In tudi tokrat ni bilo nič drugače!

Festival se je odvijal v opuščenem tovarniškem kompleksu v središču Varšave, zelo podobnem centru Metelkova v Ljubljani. Razstava bonsajev in demonstracije so med obiskovalci požele veliko zanimanja.

Warsaw is the city where new quickly replacing old

Varšava je mesto, kjer novo hitro nadomešča staro.

Festival area

Prireditveni prostor

Demonstrations were taking part outside of the main building

Demosntracije so bile pred glavno stavbo

Marek Gajda - demonstrator in organizator

This is the only photo from my demo

To je edina fotografija z moje demosntracije

There was a lot of interesting events and presentations

Na festivalu je bilo tudi veliko drugih zanimivih dogodkov in predstavitev

Exhibition hall was small but for 60 trees quite good. Only the exhibition shelves were too narrow.

Razstavni prostor je bil majhen in špartansko urejen, a za približno 60 dreves čisto primeren. Le razstavne police so bile nekoliko preozke.

Nik and Piotr analizing Nik's juniper

Nik in Piotr analizirata Nikov brin

One of the best trees on the show: Piotr's Larix

Eno od najboljši dreves na razstavi: Piotrov macesen

Interesting species . subtropical Duranta erecta. A new thing to me.

Zanimiva vrsta - subtropska drobnolistna duranta. Zame novost. 

The main bonus of this exhibitions is for sure meeting a new friends and seeing old ones. We, Nik and I, were enjoying a company of Polish, Czech and Dutch friends and spent a three wonderful days in their company!

Glavni dobropis takšnih srečanj je gotovo spoznavanje novih prijateljev bonsajistov in poglabljanje starih prijateljstev. Z Nikom sva v družbi poljskih, čeških in nizozemskih ljubiteljev bonsajev preživela tri čudovite dni!

DEŽ

Zala in Natasha did find their shelter from the rain in Tora on basic workshop. Many of you are asking about workshops in Tora: it's very simple - just call in or write an e-mail, we'll find a free date! Of course we'll take also students from abroad!

Zavetje pred dežjem sta Zala in Nataša našli v Tori, na tečaju za začetnike. Veliko se vas zanima, kako in kaj je s tečaji in delavnicami v Tori: pokličete ali pišete, dogovorimo se za termin in to je to! Seveda sprejemamo tudi tečajnike iz tujine.

This time we ended a workshop with demonstration of re-potting, Raje was taking care of new shipping of trees for a sail.

Tečaj smo tokrat zaokrožili s prikazom presajanja, Raje je bil namreč ravno sredi urejanja nove pošiljke za prodajo.

GRAHKA

I couldn't resist not to create another one. In nurseries you can not find very often so appropriate and cheap material as Chamaecyparis pisifera is. Of course I picked the largest one, it did weight over 100 kg in those pot with humid clay ... One big ugly bush. Is bonsai hiding in there?  

Nisem se mogel upreti, da ne bi naredil še ene. Tako dostopnega in hvaležnega materijala kot je grahsta pacipresa v drevesnicah ni na pretek. Jasno, izbral sem največjo, s posodo z namočeno ilovnato prstjo je tehtala dobrih 100 kg ... En sam velik zanemarjen grm. Se v njem skriva bonsaj?

After several hours of cleaning and digging  for nebari - to find a nebari I removed almost a third of all substrate - and cutting brunches the skeleton of future design started to show up.  

Po večurnem čiščenju, odkopavanju nebarija - da sem prišel do njega sem moral odstraniti skoraj tretjino prsti - in rezanju odvečnih vej, se je pokazal skelet bodoče oblike.

Next day I worked on dead wood, details and of course I did wire all brunches. And at the end I shaped the tree. Because of the position of the brunches this time I decided to go for a toll, elegant tree with a lot of details. Good nebari (interesting is, that I didn't see yet a Chamaecyparis with bad nebari) with wide base give enough of optical stability that I could afford this kind of design. The tree is not small, height from nebari to top is around 100 cm. Of course this tree will shine just after a year of pinching and after re-potting in a shallow round pot. My experiences can tell you, that you can do a miracle in a year on this species!

Drugi dan je prišlo na vrsto urejanje suhega lesa, podrobnosti in seveda žičenje. In na koncu oblikovanje. Tokrat sem se zaradi položaja vej odločil za visoko elegentano drevo z veliko podrobnostmi. Dober nebari (zanimivo, nisem še srečal garahste paciprese z zanič nebarijem) s široko bazo daje dovolj optične stabilnosti, da sem si takšen dizajn lahko privoščil. Drevo ni majhno, končna višina od nebarija do vrha je dober meter. Do izraza bo seveda prišla šele po letu vršičkanja in presaditvi v nizko okroglo posodo. In iz izkušenj lahko povem, da se v letu dni na tej vrsti da napraviti čudeže!

LOV

Today was a yamadori-hunting time! Perfect weather, perfect trees! Some first-class Picea yamadoris are now in new home. When you carry a 50 kg or even more weight on your back, it is obvious why yamadoris are so expensive. They are still too cheap, aren't they Raje!? 

Danes je bil čas za lov na jamadorije. Popolno vreme, da o drevesih ne govorimo! Z nama je v dolino prišlo nekaj prvorazrednih smrek. In ko na hrbtu prenašaš 50 kg in več težak tovor je odgovor na vprašanje, zakaj so jamadoriji tako dragi, kristalno jasen! Še prepoceni so, a ne Raje!?

PRAGA

This weekend we were in Prague. The capital of Czech republic impressed me again. Completely preserved old city is fantastic. Outstanding architecture, details which enthuse, silhouettes which pay a glory to artists from the past ...

Ta konec tedna smo preživeli v Pragi. Češko glavno mesto je name spet napravilo izjemen vtis. Ohranjen stari del mesta je fantastičen. Izjemna arhitektura, podrobnosti, ki navdušujejo, silhuete, ki pojejo slavo umetnikom iz preteklosti.

We were there for a Czech national exhibition. With their long tradition they are among the most bonsai-developed nations in Europe. Exhibition was held in old Strahovsky monastery, in it's cloister. The atmosphere was meditative but the trees were somehow lost under vaults ... As usually the pots were great. Even a completely average tree was planted into a outstanding pot. Czech have a really great potters!

Namen obiska je bila češka nacionalna razstava. Z dolgo tradicijo Čehi sodijo med najbolj bonsajsko razvite evropske nacije. Tokrat je razstavo gostil Strahovsky samostan in njegovi križni hodniki. Vzdušje je bilo gotovo posebno, meditativno, a drevesa so se kar nekako izgubila pod oboki ... Tako kot običajno so navdušile posode. Še tako povprečno drevo je posajeno v vrhunsko posodo. Čehi imajo res izjemne lončarje!

The main demonstrators were Rob Kempinski from USA and Toru Suzuki from Japan. I really don't like to criticize my fellow bonsaists because I know how difficult is to show everything you know at the demonstrations. But Rob did show a really bad technique this time. His excuse is maybe the fact that he was working on Pinus sylvestris for the first time ... I am sure that he knows to deal better with the subtropical species that he usually works on!

Glavna demonstratorja sta bila Američan Rob Kempinski in Japonec Toru Suzuki. Zelo nerad kritiziram kolege bonsajiste, ker tudi sam predobro vem, kako je včasih na demonstraciji težko pokazati vse kar znaš. Žal pa je Rob Kempinski tokrat pokazal res zelo slabo tehniko in razočaral. V opravičilo mu je morda to, da je na rdečem boru delal prvič ... Prav gotovo subtropske vrste, na katerih dela običajno, veliko bolje obvlada!

Toru Suzuki

Rob Kempinski

American way ... This time - no good!

The interwiev with president of Czech bonsai association Vaclav Novak will be published at web pages of Slovenian bonsai club, the reportage from Prague will be also published there!

Intervju s predsednikom češke zveze Vaclavom Novakom bo objavljen v spletnem časopisu Slovenskega bonsaj kluba, tam bo objavljena tudi širša reportaža o dogajanju v Pragi!

OBLJUBA

Official photo!

Tu je še uradna fotografija!

NADALJEVANJE

Well, let's start with second part of the season. Last two days I was working on Nitra, Juniperus chinensis which I styled at demonstration in Slovakia. During summer I was letting the juniper grow freely and now It was calling for new wire.


No, pa začnimo z drugim delom letošnje sezone. Za uvod sem se zadnja dva dni ukvarjal z Nitro, kitajskim brinom, ki sem ga prvič oblikoval na demonstraciji na Slovaškem. Čez leto sem ga pustil nekoliko svobodneje rasti in zdaj je klical po škarjah in žici.

I cut all old wire, thicker one has done its job and brunches stayed at desired position. But there was a lot of work on pinching and wiring smaller brunches. Now a few season of precise pinching and wiring is still missing, but we are getting there! At the end of the day the light was not good enough for a decent photograph, but I'll post it soon!

Popolnoma sem ga razžičil, debelejša žica je v letu in pol opravila svoje delo in veje so obstale v željeni poziciji. Zato pa je bilo veliko dela z vršičkanjem in natančnim žičenjem manjših vej. Do končne podobe mu manjka še nekaj sezon natančnega vršičkanja in nekajkrat ponovljeno žičenje. Ampak napredujemo! Za spodobnejšo fotografijo mi je ob koncu dneva zmanjkalo prave svetlobe. Pošljem kmalu!

P.S.: Tora is ready for new workshops, so if you are interested just call me!

P.S.: Za tečaje in delavnice je odprla vrata tudi Tora, če vas zanima pokličite!