Gore Bonsai Club Workshop with Joy Morton Sept 2015

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_____________________________________Last weekend the Gore Bonsai Club had a workshop with Joy Morton from Dunedin. 

You-tube version: Gore Bonsai Club Weekend Workshop (Joy)

We always look forward to her visits and come away having learnt a lot. Personally, it motivates me to go home and attack some of those trees that I was a little unsure about.

On Saturday there were 7 members able to come along. Three were beginners and the other 4 of us had various levels of experience.

There were a wide variety of trees worked on, from small native kowhai to larch and a larger pine.

How many people does it take to cut a trunk? One to hold the saw, one to hold the tree, and the other to show them what to cut

Always forget to take pics before starting on a tree, but I got reminded half way through and managed to get a slightly after started and finished tree pic.  This cedar was reasonably tall (1.3metres), Joy thought the jin on the top could be shortened down a little, but I decided to leave it as it was for the moment, it's always good to ponder and think about some decisions like that before you decide to go ahead, there's no rush!

This was another reasonably large tree.  It had been semi styled by me a year or two ago.  It had been left to grow and was now ready to be styled by someone who knew what they were doing!  Once again I didnt take a start pic, but here it is half way through.  There's a flowing bend in the trunk that we made use of.  It ended up with about 4 or 5 layers of foliage pads.

This had the look of a Pinus Radiata, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it once had an old label in it that said Pinus "flexus".   It doesn't matter really, as its the tree that matters, not the name. (although it does make you sound quite knowledgeable when you can blurt out its botanical name instead of just saying Pine). I'm sure its written down somewhere, just got to find it

With a bit of time and growth, these pads will fill out and not look so sparse.  I was really pleased with how this one ended up looking, now I just have to make a pot for her to fit in!!

Yes, it is a she, as it has a nice light flowing graceful look about it, quite feminine.

 Joy made her way around everybody in the room, giving them each choices and options for their trees and explaining everything in simple understandable language.  From teaching a beginner how to wire and then moving onto a tree that needed a good styling, it must have been quite an exhausting day for her.

Joy taking out a centre branch on an old larch of Carols. It made a big difference to the whole feel and look of the tree.  Less is definitely more.

They say behind every great man that there's a great woman.....well in this case its the reverse.   Joy is lucky enough to have a husband that supports her on all of her travelling workshops.  Colin quietly looks after all the tool and pot sales, makes cuppa's, assists Joy with sawing, holding, moving, shifting trees, and the list goes on, what a lucky woman Joy is!

Among his many and varied jobs was to sneak out the back and gather up some lovely looking moss for a future project.

On Sunday we were only able to muster 3 members for the workshop, but for those three it was another day full of information and learning.   Thanks Joy and Colin, we cant wait until next year.