Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Summer maintenance

Currently we are doing lots of maintenance work here in NikArt Bonsai Studio. Today cutting new growth and deadwood preservation on some Taxus.

Trenutno v studiu opravljamo veliko vzdrževalnih del na bonsajih. Danes smo krajšali letošnje poganjke na tisah in ponovno premazali / zaščitili suh les.

Before
Pred

After
Po

Before
Pred

After
Po

Another interesting work was bringing some shape back to this nice wild olive. I've had this tree for 8 years now but since I can't provide the best protection during winter for it it has never grown very well. So this was only the second wiring during all those years. Still, slowly but surely it will grow up to be a nice bonsai one day.

This one is available

Drugo zanimivo opravilo pa je bilo ponovno oblikovanje in postavljanje oblike na tej divji oljki. Ta bonsaj imam sedaj že 8 let, vendar nikoli ni najbolje rastel. Razlog je bila izguba potrebne energije med zimo. Žal mu namreč ne morem zagotoviti najbolših prezimovalnih pogojev. Posledično je bilo to šele drugo oblikovanje v vseh teh letih. Počasi mi pa morda vseeno uspe iz njega narediti lep bonsaj.

Če je kdo zainteresiran, je ta oljka na voljo.


Before
Pred

After
Po

Friday, July 22, 2016

Mugo and Thyme

Pinus mugo slowly getting denser. But it still needs a few years and a new pot before it will be ready for exhibiting.
The stump in the right will eventually be worked on of course.

Tale gorski črni bor se počasi vendar lepo gosti. Še vedno pa mu manjka par let in nova posoda preden bo pripravljen na razstave.
Štrcelj na desni strani moramše oblikovati v primeren jin.




Before photo from 2013.
Slika pred oblikovanjem iz 2013.


In the meantime this Thyme is flowering like never before. 
Medtem pa je tale timijan v polnem cvetenju.



Photo from one year ago.
Slika izpred enega leta.


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Kusamono

Here are some more of my kusamono. In my opinion it is important to have a good selection of nice kusamono in my garden since this improves the quality of each composition for an exhibition.

Tu je še nekaj mojih spremljevalnih rastlin. Po mojem mnenju je pomembno, da imam v vrtu dobro izbiro kakovostnih spremljevalnih rastlin, saj mi te omogočajo izdelavo bolj kakovostnih kompozicij za razstave.











Friday, July 1, 2016

Preserving deadwood

It was once again time to give my Thiuja occidentalis 'Smaragd' its annual clean-up. Nothing unusual only pinching new laggy growth from this year to better show the structure of the tree.

Ponovno je bil čas, da svoj ameriški klek ponovno nekoliko očistim. Nič neobičajnega, le ponovna zaščita suhega lesa in krajšanje letošnjih poganjkov, za bolj razvidno strukturo krošnje.


After cleaning-up the crown.
Po čiščenju krošnje.


Eventually after inspecting the base of the trunk I noticed something I was afraid of, but knew would happen some day. A good part of the deadwood at the base was very soft, wet and rotten.
It is tipical for dead wood to rot faster when in contact with soil because it is in contact with water the better part of time. And since this tree is fairley young, which means that its wood is not very hard, wood rotting accures even faster. Therefor this was no surprise to find such a sight after 9 years of having this tree. 

Naposled sem po pregledu nebarija odkril, da je večina suhega lesa mehka, vlažna in gnila. Nekaj, kar sem vedno vedel, da se bo enkrat zgodilo. 
Za les je zelo značilno, da najbolj gnije ravno na tistih delih, ki so v neposrednem stiku z zemljo, saj je tam ves čas vlažno. Še en razlog pa je to, da je to drevo relativno mlado in ima posledično bolj mehak les. Mehkejši kot je les, hitreje gnije. Skratka, odkriti takšno stanje po devetih letih, odkar sem začel z delom na tem drevesu, ni bilo nobeno presenečenje.


Already a soft scratch with a wire brush or even chopsticks tore off some soft parts of the wood. 

Že z zelo nežnimi potezami krtače ali kitajske palčke sem lahko odstranil gnil les.


So what to do next? If I had left this untouched the rotting would continue until it would eat away the whole dead trunk at the base. You can't really prevent rotting of deadwood at soil level, but there are a few ways to noticably slow it down. First you have to remove all or at least most of the soft rotten wood, until you get to the wood that is still hard.

Kako nadaljevati? Če nebi nič ukrepal, bi se gnitje enostavno nadaljevalo in prav kmalu bi odgnil ves mrtev del debla pri nebariju. Gnitja mrtvega lesa, ki je v stiku z zemljo praktično ni mogoče povsem preprečiti. Obstajajo pa načini, kako ga močno upočasniti. Kot prvo, je potrebno odstraniti ves les, ki je mehak in gnil, da ostane le trd les.



Then you wait a little for it to dry out and then burn it with a torch. Fire is known to make wood harder. But you have to be carefull not to fire it too much which will just turn the wood into coal and you will end up with even less of the trunk.

Malo počakamo, da se les posuši in ga nato nežno oplazimo z ognjem. Ogenj ima to lepo lastnost, da les otrdi. Vendar ne smemo pretiravati, ker hitro lahko pridemo do oglja, ki pa tudi naposled odpade in se obseg debla še dodatno zmanjša.


Next step is to apply lime sulphur. This is the most commen technicque to preserve deadwood on a bonsai, so why bother trying to figure anything new out. But since this part will be more exposed to water apply more layers of the lime sulphur.

Naslednji korak je tretiranje z apnenim žveplom, ki je najbolj uporabljena metoda za zaščito suhega lesa v bonsajizmu. Zakaj bi izumljali nove tehnike, če ni potrebno. Ker pa bo ta les izpostavljen vlagi bolj, kot drugje, za vsak slučaj nanesemo več slojev.



To further harden the wood aply a thich layer of wood hardener. I use a product called Paraloid B72, which works quite nicely. Then wait for it to dry again. 

Za še dodatno ojačanje lesa sem na koncu nanesel še debel sloj trdilca lesa. Uporabil sem sredstvo Paraloid B72. Nato sem spet počakal, da se je les lepo posušil.


At the end add fresh soil to the base. I used a well draining soil - a mixture of pumis and kiryu in a 3:1 ratio. 
As I mentioned earlier, it is impossible to permanently stop wood rot on parts that are in constant contact with the soil, but there are ways to slow it down considerably.

Za konec sem ponovno dodal nekaj svežega substrata. Uporabil sem dobro propustno mešanico pumisa in kirya v razmerju 3:1.
Kot sem že omenil, je gnitje suhega lesa na nivoju zemlje in pod njo nemogoče povsem zaustaviti. Je pa mogoče to močno upočasniti.




This is the tree now, with its slight different new look.
Takšen je nov, malce drugačen izgled bonsaja.



It's hard to belive it was made from this raw material 10 years ago.
Kar težko je verjeti, da se je vse začelo pred desetimi leti s tem materialom.