April 2013 – shanemartinbonsai

This cutting started out at 100mm or 4 inches in diameter and about 16 inches or 400mm long. Basically the base of a large branch from a tree at the end of our driveway. Curious to see if it would strike roots and whether it might make an interesting bonsai one day. Well, that was a little under a year ago and here is its progress so far.

The cutting has grown like crazy this summer and I had to remove and rewire it twice throughout the season. I cut all the wire off it about 6 weeks ago and thought I’d leave it a while before I wired it for a third time. The new trunkline started to develop a right angle about mid way up which freaked me out a bit so I thought I better sort this out while I could still bend it back into the right shape. I took 2 x 6mm wires to do it but it was successful. I was going to leave it at that, but I got into a bit of a zen wiring mode, and before I knew it, I had rewired the whole tree again for a third time and had the carving tools out to get rid of that big square chop and start blending the trunkline and taper.
Progression so far has been pretty good for literally one season in training I think.
First styling 16-5-12

First styling 16-5-12

September 2012

December 2012

January 2013

April 2013 Carving and rewire complete

We’re into our 2nd month of Autumn here and it’s either stinking hot or pouring rain….. still! So I have been in the shed working on some new stands, and preparing timber for more to come.

The first one is another Cascade Stand made from Western Australian Jarrah….an extremely hard and heavy timber normally used for hardwood flooring. Deep red/brown colour enhanced here with a diluted mahogany stain. 5.75” x 5.75” x 19”H.

This one is a low square design measuring 10” x 10”x 1.5”H. I’ve seen this design done by a number of makers, and always loved the simple but beautiful design of the sides. It is also my first attempt at using my new scroll saw. Made of a light cedar with a Brown Japan stain finished with Bison wax.

Next up is another low square stand made predominately from scrap Kwila I had laying around. It has a mahogany insert in the top to change things up a little….. again finished with Brown Japan stain and Bison wax.

10” x 10” x 2”H