DELAVNICA

Yesterday I couldn't stay in Sempas till the end of the club's workshop. Members of Slovenian bonsai club were gathered at first spring workshop hosted by David and his Severnoprimorska section. Some new faces, all satisfied, weather was so good that we moved a part of workshop outside and enjoyed the sun. Good trees, most of them even top quality, I was impressed by David's Prunus mahaleb with amazing movement. From such a material a fantastic bonsai can be done.

Žal včeraj nisem mogel ostati v Šempasu do konca klubske delavnice. Člani Slovenskega bonsaj kluba smo se zbrali na prvi spomladanski delavnici, gostitelj je bil David z svojo Severnoprimorsko sekcijo. Nekaj novih obrazov, vsi zadovoljni, vreme pa nam je tako služilo, da smo del delavnice preselili kar na prosto in uživali v soncu. Dobra drevesa, večina kar vrhunskih, navdušila me je Davidova rešeljika z izjemnim gibanjem. Iz takega materijala res lahko nastane fantastičen bonsaj.

In our club such or even better material is not rare. I am looking forward for next workshops!

V našem klubu takšnega in morda celo še boljšega materijala ne manjka. Veselim se naslednjih delavnic!

UTRINEK

I was checking my photographs on computer when I saw this photos of red pine that I was shaping during last year's demonstration in Warsaw. This are photos before (after the upper part of trunk was already twisted) and after:

Med pregledovajem fotografij sem naletel tudi na fotografije rdečega bora, ki sem ga oblikoval na demonstraciji lani v Varšavi. Tu sta sliki prej (ko je že ukrivljen zgornji del) in potem:

Movement is OK. The crown will be slimmed a bit in a year or two, it is still too dominant. Then I'll re-pot it and this is it. I like literati style more and more because of it's expression.

Gibanje je OK. Krošnjo bom v sezoni ali dveh še zreduciral, je še nekoliko predominantna. Potem pa posoda in to je to. Literati slog mi je zaradi izpovednosti veno bolj všeč!

KRALJICA

I was wandering what to do with this morning when Miha called me: "Would you go?" Of course! We changed the gray city with gray nature, but in nature is easier to deal with this grayness. Miha was planning to collect an ancient Cotinus coggygria on stone. Fantastic nebari growing over rock for two hundred years, roots are one with stone. This is a great finding for this species but nearly impossible to collect. Together with roots Miha must dig out stone too. So we changed our plan and went for it's brother nearby. Also good movement and wide nebari for this species. Good finding!   

Ravno sem razmišljal, kam naj z dopoldnevom, ko me je poklical Miha: "Greš?" Seveda grem! Sivino mesta sva zamenjala za sivino narave, a tam jo je veliko lažje prenašati. Miha je imel v načrtu izkop starodavnega ruja na kamnu. Fantastičen nebari, ki že dvesto let raste čez kamen, korenine so s kamnom zraščene v celoto. Za to vrsto izjemna najdba, ki pa bo zelo težavna, če že ne nemogoča za izkop. Skupaj s koreninami bo Miha namreč moral izkopati tudi kamen. Zato sva se raje preusmerila na izkop njegovega brata v bližini. Prav tako sijajno gibanje in za to vrsto širok nebari. Dobra najdba!

And then we went wandering around. To graze our souls. When we went towards car for the second time, I find Her. No photo can show all her charms as they are in nature. More then two hundred years she fought with stone and wind, one can feel a deep respect when standing near such a tree. Fantastic movement, old bark, dead wood ... She has all that yamadori must have. In one of this days I'll devoted a lot of hours to her - as archaeologist I'll dig out her roots and move her into training pot. And then ...

In potem sva se šla sprehajat. Še malo popast dušo. In kot se velikokrat zgodi, sem potem, ko sva se že drugič odpravila proti avtu na poti domov naletel Nanjo. Nobena fotografija ne more prikazati njenih čarov takšnih, kot so v resnici. Več kot dvesto let se je borila s kamnom in burjo, človek ob takšnem drevesu občuti globoko spoštovanje. Fantastično gibanje, skorja, suh les ... Ima vse, kar naj bi krasilo jamadori. V teh dneh se ji bom posvetil za več ur - kot arheolog dragocene zgodovinske artefakte bom izkopaval njene korenine in jo preselil v posodo. Potem pa ...  

BONSAJSKI VIKEND

This was a ... bonsai-weekend! :-)  In Saturday me and Tomaz were wandering around in Karst and enjoyed a great nature, nice afternoon ended chatting at Valter's stone table.

Ta konec tedna je bil ... bonsajski! :-)  V soboto sva s Tomažem vandrala po Krasu in uživala v čudoviti naravi, popoldne pa zaključila z debato za kamnito mitzo pri Valterju.

Sunday was busy again. Blaz asked me for help at juniper shaping, Grega used this day for basic workshop. Grega is curious guy, he has a lot of interesting questions about bonsai, bonsaism impressed him much. Even after he did wired ALL branches on spruce.  

V nedeljo pa spet bolj delavno. Blaž me je prosil za pomoč pri oblikovanju brina, delavnico pa je izkoristil tudi Grega, ki je prišel na tečaj za začetnike. Grega je zvedav fant, ki je imel ogromno zanimivih bonsajskih vprašanj in ga je bonsajizem navdušil. In to tudi po tem, ko je moral ožičiti VSE veje in vejice na smreki.

Blaz worked on Juniperus chinensis with interesting movement and a lot of dead wood. This time we didn't go all the way with shaping, because we decided that is better to rest a tree for a while. Beside that also our time was running out ;-) . We positioned all main  branches and set a nice future for this juniper. Adrian, who came all the way from Cakovec, Croatia, was observing all together and he saw how the work in Tora is held. International students are mostly welcomed in Tora!

Blaž je delal na kitajskem brinu z zanimivim gibanjem in ogromno suhega lesa. Tokrat z oblikovanjem nisva šla do konca, ker sva ocenila, da je drevesu bolje dati nekaj počitka, poleg tega pa nama je tudi časa že zmanjkovalo ;-) . Pozicionirala sva vse glavne veje in brinu določila lepo prihodnost. Z natančnim dizajnom se bova ukvarjala kasneje. Vse skupaj je pozorno opazoval Adrian, ki je prišel na obisk iz Čakovca na Hrvaškem in spoznal način dela v Tori. Mednarodni študentje ste v Tori seveda prav tako nadvse dobrodošli!

DELAVNICA

Last time I mentioned a workshop for three students that I want to organize in near future. I didn't even publish a date when all free spots were already taken! Because of huge interest I'll organize more workshops in the future. Thank you all who trust our school, it is a great pleasure working with you!

If you feel pleasant restlessness and expectations in the morning then you gonna do what you like doing. Joze, Roland, Jan and Miha probably feel the same this time. After some basic workshops it was a pleasure to work on good material from experienced bonsaists. All four of them worked on broadleaved trees, Acer campestre, Acer palmatum, Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica were the species we worked on.    

Zadnjič sem zgolj omenil, da bom ob prvi priložnosti organiziral delavnico in da bo prostora za tri učence. Še datuma nisem utegnil objaviti, ko so bila mesta že zasedena! Zanimanje je tolikšno, da delavnic tudi v prihodnje ne bo manjkalo! Hvala vsem, ki šoli TORA izkazujete zaupanje, užitek je delati z vami.

Če zjutraj pred delavnico čutiš prijeten nemir in pričakovanje, potem gotovo delaš to, kar te veseli. In isto so najbrž občutili tudi Jože, Roland, Jan in Miha, ki so tokrat prišli v šolo; po nekaj začetnih tečajih je bilo užitek delati na kvalitetnem materijalu bonsajistov, ki že obvladajo osnovne veščine. Vsi štirje so delali na listavcih, poljski in japonski javor, gaber in bukev so vrste, ki smo jih obdelali.

Jan and Joze working

Miha was working on great Acer campestre

Some "special" techniques

Joze concentrating

Only in TORA you can work in T-shirt with snowy mountains for background

In the school we never rush, we never cut a shortcut because that could harm the tree. All of them did a great step forward today, towards final goal - bonsai. Far from being "finished", only with thoughts how to go on. With broadleaved trees this is the only possible way. 

V šoli ne hitimo do končnega rezultata, ne ubiramo bližnjic, ker bi to pomenilo škodo za drevesa. Vsa so danes napravila velik korak naprej h končnemu cilju - bonsaju; daleč od tega pa, da bi bila "dokončana", le z mislijo na naslednje korake. Pri listavcih je takšen način dela pravzaprav edini možen.

The final touch ...

Before ...

After first step

Before

After ...

Every student learned something new today. That is the purpose of such workshops - to improve bonsai-skills, to get the right feeling for different species and for shaping. A little detail with wiring, special work on deadwood or protection of it ... Bonsai-knowledge is endless. Interesting is that sometimes you need just a little hint and everything is then logic and clear. And this is school for. See you next time!

Vsak med študenti se je danes naučil nekaj novega in to je tudi namen takšnih srečanj - piljenje bonsajskih veščin, pridobivanje občutka za posamezne vrste in oblikovanje. Podrobnost pri žičenju, posebna obdelava in zaščita suhega lesa ... Bonsajsko znanje se zdi neskončno globok vodnjak; zanimivo pa je, kako včasih rabiš le majhen namig in vse ti postane logično in kristalno jasno. In tudi temu je namenjeno šolanje. Se vidimo naslednjič! 

MATER

Grey winter morning developed into full-filed day. Even sun break trough clouds. After some clicks on FB we, Roland and me, were on our way to yamadori hunting. Red pines are my obsession for quite some time now, beside junipers they are my favorite species. So we went to explore new habitat, which not turn out so good. After an hour of walking we went back to our car and drove to my old hunting ground - a real paradise for red pines. (Well for quite some time this is not only "mine", isn't so Janez O. ;-) ) Even though I was there for many times the ground is so waste and there is so much material, that you can always find something new. Even this time I was not disappointed.

Sivo zimsko jutro se je razvilo v izpolnjen dan. Pa še sonce je posijalo. Z Rolandom sva se po nekaj klikih na FB-ju hitro dogovorila za lov na jamadorije. Že nekaj časa so rdeči bori moja obsesija, saj so poleg kitajskih brinov moja najbolj priljubljena bonsajska vrsta. In sva se najprej odpravila raziskovat novo lovišče, ki pa se ni izkazalo za preveč obetavno. Zato sva po slabi urici hoje odšla nazaj do avta in se odpeljala do mojega starega lovišča, pravega raja za rdeče bore. (Že dolgo to ni več samo "moje", a ne Janez O. ;-) ) Čeprav sem bil tam že nevemkolikokrat pa je območje tako veliko in materijal tako številčen, da se vedno najde kaj novega. Tudi tokrat nisem bil razočaran.

Meanwhile, as he looked at all this wealth, Roland whispered: " oh my God ..." I was in the same mood after exceptional finding, which I called "mother of all red pines" ... Well, probably it isn't so good, but I didn't yet see a red pine with such a movement. World class!

Med tem ko je Roland ob pogledu na vse to bogastvo vzdihoval: "o mater ...", sem bil sam podobnega mnenja ob izjemni najdbi, ki sem se ji čislal s kar: "mater vseh rdečih borov" ... Tako hudo najbrž ni, je pa dejstvo, da rdečega bora s takšnim gibanjem še nisem videl. Svetovna klasa!

To je samo detajl debla ...

This is only a detail of the trunk ...

I'll be back at appropriate time to collect. Now it is a right time for such trips, to locate the trees which will be collected in spring: days are already longer and there is not too much snow in the lower hills.  

Ponj se vrnem ob pravem času; sicer pa je zdaj kar pravi čas za take izlete, za lociranje dreves, ki jih bomo izkopali spomladi: dnevi so že daljši, snega v nižinah tudi ni preveč.