This is a series of bonsai classes written by:

Hud Nordin
Cybernetic Arts                rkn@guest.apple.com
Post Office Box 2066           Telephone: 408.248.0377
Sunnyvale, California 94087    Facsimile: 408.248.0416


Class 2

[This is a continuing series of spontaneous and unrehearsed "classes" on the
subject of bonsai. Many new readers were coming on board asking about how to
get started. I believe you should just start making bonsai. So, I will try to
lead you through creating your first. Besides this gentle counsel, be sure to
read the FAQ (which appears periodically) and search out some good books or
people to introduce you to the subject. I will post sporadically with a
subject containing the word "Class". I am going slow, so be prepared to be
frustrated. If you have questions or comments about building your own first
bonsai, post them "Re:" this thread (and if you have other questions, try to
avoid a subject containing "Class").]

OK. Step two: Now take the material you have collected, and cut away
everything that doesn't look like a bonsai.

Just kidding!

Last time I left you to seek out some material to bonsai, and to then
contemplate that material with regards to turning it into a bonsai. Really,
one of these days we will start hacking at it.

I left you thinking about mature natural trees, for, after all, a bonsai is a
scale-model rendition of such a tree. What are some of the signs of a mature
tree? A larger size, of course. Mature trees have a different branching
structure; while young trees grow vigorously vertical, older trees have
branches that spread out and even down, showing the effects of fighting
gravity year after year. Often, too, a mature tree will have a few dead and
broken branches. A mature tree usually has thick, rough bark. A mature tree
usually has roots with character, often visible on the surface of the ground.
A mature tree usually has a thick trunk in relation to its height.

And what makes a bonsai different from a mature natural tree? Obviously,
scale. Also, a bonsai is in a pot, and that means it is very dependent on a
human for care and maintenance. A bonsai is often chronologically much younger
than a mature tree, and that means it must be given the characteristics of a
mature tree that it would otherwise lack.

And, oddly enough, a bonsai often "out-natures" nature. While a bonsai is
intended to evoke a feeling of nature, it usually possesses an aesthetic
appeal rarely found in nature. Our tree aesthetics are based upon nature, no
doubt the result of our arboreal ancestors' intimate relationship with trees.
But, they go beyond that, seeking an ideal seldom seen in nature.

Unlike a tree, a bonsai has a front side, the one that is most beautiful.
Branches are carefully chosen and developed to compliment this front-ness. The
first branch up from the ground is usually one to the left or right, and
should be approximately one-third of the way up. The "second" (not necessarily
numerically second) branch goes in the opposite (but not exactly opposite)
direction. A bonsai has a back branch, one that goes away (but not directly
away) from the front, yielding a feeling of depth; the back branch should not
be the first branch up from the ground, but should be among the first few. A
bonsai's front branch is further up, usually above normal eye-level. A bonsai
usually has a single apex, or highest point. Usually the apex leans slightly
toward the front.

(No. You will not be shot if you fail to follow these rules. They are just
rules of thumb that can help you produce something beautiful. Above all,
please yourself. Sometimes the rules must be broken because the tree, still a
piece of nature, has its own rules to live by. And, sometimes the rules are
even broken on purpose, for effect.)

If you can picture what I just described, you will notice that the front of
the bonsai provides an open view of the trunk--by design. We want to see the
trunk and the branch structure.

Usually, the outline of a bonsai will yield a triangular shape, with one
corner of the triangle lower than the other, and the top of the triangle being
the apex of the tree. Why? Triangles look good. (However, someone once taught
me that the corners of the triangle symbolize heaven, earth, and mankind
somewhere in between.)

===

I should mention a couple of skills you will need (or need to develop) to
create and maintain your own bonsai. First, you need to be good with plants.
If you don't already have a "green thumb", grow a lot of plain house plants
before you tackle a bonsai. Second, you need an eye for form. You need to be
able to know what looks aesthetically pleasing, and what doesn't. This is not
a critical skill, as long as you are making bonsai only for yourself, and you
think you can please yourself. If you are making bonsai for others, though,
you need to have an idea about what pleases others. I thought I should warn
you.

Hey, if you try making a bonsai, and don't like the results, there is plenty
more material to be had. Try, try again. Just take each mistake out into the
country and put it in the ground to live its own life. It will revert back to
whatever it was going to be before it met up with you.

===

I am sorry to be making you think so much. You probably want to dive right in
and start pruning your tree, but as with creating most things, time spent up
front in design usually results in a better product.

Have you picked out a first branch for your tree? How tall will your tree be?

--


From: rkn@apple.com (Richard K. Nordin)
Subject: Re: Class 2
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 23:37:27 GMT

Via mail, someone asked me about getting started and about where to find
material. I decided to post my reply here. (Really, feel free to post
your questions to this group. There are no dumb questions. I you are
wondering, someone else probably is, too.)

***

Hmm, no green thumb? It will be a challenge for you. But, hey, you
learn by doing. Just don't get discouraged, and if you happen to kill
a plant or five, well, just try to learn from the mistakes. (You might
want to practice growing non-bonsai, just because if you do kill a
houseplant it means you have a little less effort invested in it.)
Also, it might be easier for you to keep a first bonsai alive if you
give it a nice, deep clay pot to grow in rather than the prettier
shallow bonsai pots that are typical. Most of my trees are in regular
flower pots because I don't have proper facilities designed for their
care. In the hot San Jose sun, they have a little better chance of
surviving. If they were in shallow pots, I might have to water them 2
or 3 times a day.

The ready-mades are usually of an inferior quality to what you can
create.  I see them for sale in the $10 to $20 range, but to sell at
that low a price they have to be mass-produced, and not much care goes
into the design. A better bonsai will have many hours of care invested
in it (like you will do if you build your own) and goes for a steeper
price of $50 or $100 and up.

Most of the fun, for me, is creation of a bonsai from raw material. I
think your money is better spent buying several $4.00 plants and
sculpting them yourself. Besides, you'll learn more about the process,
and, having invested energy in the creation, maybe pay it a little
more attention.

A nursery sells plants in pots, usually plastic half-gallon and
up. Finding free material is tricky. My best source is either the
yards of people I know, or picking seeds off trees in the city. Nobody
much minds you removing a few seeds, or digging up a wild sprout from
their yard. Public parks are bad because they often have rules against
disturbing the plants.  Public lands, like national forests might be
OK. Never tried it. I know they sometimes allow firewood gathering, so
it wouldn't hurt to ask. My favorite source for pine trees in
Minnesota was my uncle's Christmas tree farm. I have heard of people
asking permission to search in Christmas tree farms in the
off-season. Bonsai people usually want the leftover trees that would
never sell. (Once you get into bonsai, you have a natural method of
getting permission from people to hunt on their land: present them
first with a tree you collected elsewhere.)

Several of the trees I have now were just "weeds" that grew on their
own in the yard of the house I rent--oak, and a couple species I do
not know. In fact as I scan my collection of some 120 trees (actually
mostly seedlings), I see only 1-1/2 that I bought: a juniper and half
a gingko (I paid for one, but there were two in the pot by
accident). Most are seeds I planted last spring. My best are Scots
pines from the Christmas tree farm. Seedlings take patience, because
it takes a few years before you really have anything to work
with. Quickest is to just buy a many-year- old tree in the making from
a nursery. Again, I like junipers. Almost any pine will do, except
those with very long needles. Most deciduous trees in nurseries have
been grown too lanky to use, but occasionally (like the gingko I
bought) you can find something good.

Well, good luck!