Kusamura Bonsai Club
Palo Alto, California
Celebrating 60 Years of Bonsai
3rd Friday of the Month (except Aug.)
7 PM to 9:30 PM
Making Dramatic Bends in a Pine
By Dave Curbow
I've had a tall, thin black pine for many years. I like this tree, but it's difficult to design. Over the years I've looked at images in bonsai books and online to find inspiration for how to improve this tree. I've recently found something and have begun this tree's redesign. The redesign requires adding a couple of major bends - bigger than I've done in the past. I've use raffia and heavy copper wire in the past. I've also used rebar and guy wires. The bends on this tree required something extra.
This story tells how I made those bends, mistakes made and how I plan to correct those mistakes. I hope you'll find this helpful for when you need to do somethign similar to your trees.
Initial State
The image below shows the tree before I started this new project. As you can see this isn't a good Bunjin because it too many branches. It also isn't a good informal upright because the first branch is too far from the base and the trunk is too thin. But it has good bark, a consistent taper and a gentle "feeling" about it.
Initial State
The image below is what I found to inspire me. As you can see it also has a long distance between the roots and the first branch. But this tree has used that excess length to make several dramatic bends. That's what I'll try to recreate in my tree.
Found on web somewhere
October
The first step in making dramatic bends is to tightly wrap raffia around the trunk and branches to be bent. Since this is a common technique I'm not going to describe it here. I also carefully wrapped foam pipe insulation (found in plumbing department of hardware stores) around the base of the trunk to protect the trunk from the length of rebar (pipe).
Raffia applied
Next heavy copper wires are applied along the length of the trunk that I planned to bend. I used a pair of #6 copper wires.
Copper wires
Many people use a "jack" to make big bends in trees. A jack is a specialized bonsai tool which is basically a long lever with hooks to grab the tree securely while bending the tree (and wire). They're also usually very expensive! I've found an alternative that works well for me - and is inexpensive. A bar clamp is used in building furniture and is often used to hold very wide pieces of wood together. You can buy them with different lengths of bar. The one I have is 28-inches long.
The two black plastic pieces at the "face" of the clamp are soft enough not to damage the bark much. One also swivels a bit to make it easy to attach the clamp to irregular shapes, like a branch. One part of the clamp stays fixed to the end of the bar while the other end can be moved until it goes around the wood, or branch to bent. Then the trigger is slowly squeezed to close the clamp more, and more until the necessary bend is achieved. Up to 300 pounds of pressure can be applied - which can move a large branch!
Bar Clamp - usually about $20
Using the Bar Clamp
To use the clamp I've opened the clamp so that there's a big gap between the clamp face plates. Then I place the non-movable clamp face on the branch and the movable face on the pot or perhaps the table. As you can see in the next image I've placed one end of the clamp on the top of the trunk and the other end is under the lip of the pot.
Making the Initial Bend
This pine was surprisingly bendable. I slowly squeezed the trigger on the clamp, closing the clamp and bending the trunk. Each click closes the clamp about 1/4-inch. During this process I was listening for cracking sounds. Small cracks are OK, but I wanted to avoid any big cracks. Using this clamp I was able to squeeze the trigger a bit, listen, wait, squeeze again and so avoid major cracks that would have taken longer to heal.
When I got the tree bent to the desired position I added guy wires to hold the tree in that position. I also added a guy wire between the top of the trunk and the rebar to pull the top more upright. See the next image.
End of Day 1
I used turnbuckles (the silver hooks) on the guy wires so I could gradually tighten the guy wires and bend the tree further if desired. And I wired the #1, #2 and #3 branches. If you compare the first image with this one you'll see that initially the trunk was about 30 degrees from vertical, but in the image above the trunk is more like 60 degrees.
November
A month later I looked at the tree and decided that the curve was too smooth to look natural. I wanted the bend to be in a couple of segments, or kinks. I tried putting a block of wood up against the tree trunk and using that as a fulcrum for making a second bend in the trunk while preserving the current bend. Unfortunately that idea didn't work - the block kept slipping out of place, even when tied to the trunk.
Mistake - At this point I should have is added another #6 copper wire to the trunk. That would have allowed me to bend the trunk and hold it at the desired position. Instead I decided to continue my previous strategy of using guy wires to hold the trunk in the desired position.
I attached the clamp again and bent the trunk further as shown in the image below.
End of Day 2
As you can see, now the tree is bent much more dramatically - although the first bend is longer and smoother than I want. If I had used additional or heavier copper wire I would have been able to bend the trunk as desired. But after this much bending I want to give the time tree to recover.
Future
In the spring I'll repot the tree into a larger pot - and I'll tilt the trunk to match the new orientation I expect to use in the future. Something like what you see in the next image.
Tree will be planted so the trunk is tilted about 45 degrees.
Next time I'll work on shortening the distance between the first bend and the first branch. I'll do that by adding additional copper wire and adding a new bend halfway between the rebar and the first branch - bringing that portion more upright. I'll probably remove today's top and use the branch that today is shown sticking straight up as the new leader. That will give the tree a better taper. The other branches will also be repositioned when the tree is repotted.
I think this will take at least three years to finalize the new design.
More news next year...
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário