The Art of Bonsai Project

Hello All!
Since this is my first post here and I don't know anyone from the forum, I belive a brief introduction is appropriate. My name is Pedro Almeida and I live in Madeira island, Portugal, where I was born 27 years ago. I have been active in practicing bonsai since 1998 and I take the art very seriously. I have a keen interest particularly in shohin and chuhin.

I have recentely discovered The Art of Bonsai Project and I am amazed by the amount of truly interesting information to be found here. Thank you all for that.
One of the articles that striked me in particular was Walter Pall's Blind in one eye. You all talk about peer review and the like. Well, where I live there are no bonsai associations, I don't know serious bonsaiists and you can't even find a bonsai center in a 1000km radius (and for that you must fly across the atlantic). So, naturaly, most of the trees I've seen in my life were in a two dimensional represention and I struggle to imagine them 3D.
After reading Walter's article, I was thinking how seriously blind I am. It took me a while to decide to post two of what I consider my best trees. I have to admit that it needed some courage - all the trees that I have seen here are top, so I am intimidated...
The little trident (plain Acer buergerianum) is about 12 cm high. It was bought as semi-formed material in Koju-en nursery, Kyoto, in 2005. I've since been refining the branch structure and developing twigs. Japanese glazed pot.
The chinese elm (plain Ulmus parvifolia) is about 35cm high and is with me since 2000. I bought it as a chinese import semi-finished material in a bonsai center in Lisbon. All twigs and most branches were developed since that time. The pot is chinese.
So if any of you feels in the mood to critique these trees, please do so. That will be much valued. Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
Best wishes,
Pedro

Hi Pedro
Welcome to Art of Bonsai.
You have some good looking material there. Keep up the good work, and keep us posted on your progress.
Best Regards
Mike

Dear Mike,
Thank you for the welcome and for your encouraging words. I will be posting the progress of these little guys.
Best regards,
Pedro

Pedro,
I really like your tiny trident maple. I think it could look even better if planted it into a smaller pot. I know that most people in this situation would say that this is not possible, because one cannot reduce the root ball. I can assure you, one can be quite ruthless here.
The elm is very interesting with the unusual nebari. I wonder what pot choices for it are available.
greetings
Walter

Walter,
Thank you for your kind reply.
Indeed it is my plan to repot the trident into a smaller pot, maybe next year if the twigs develop as I expect them to. Thank you for your indication that it will endure drastic root pruning. John Pitt has some very nice candidates. We'll see...
I was never happy with the pot for this elm. I've tried several possibilities but none was really satisfying. My latest thought was that a formal classical japanese square cascade pot would be suitable, but yet again it doesn't feel right... any ideas?
Regards,
Pedro

Hi Pedro
When I saw your elm, I thought "penjing". The link is to a google of penjng.
http://tinyurl.com/244kmk
If you go to the site, the picture at the top of the page is similar to your elm. Click on it for a full size image.
Mike


(Shorter link added)

Mike,
here is your link again:
http://tinyurl.com/244kmk
It is the same link, only much shorter.
How does one do this? You go to http://tinyurl.com/
ane insert the long address and the short one is what you get. Make tiniyurl.com one of your favorites and you can always do this.
Walter

Mike: Thank you for the link. I hope I'll find there inspiration also for a new pot for this elm.
Walter: Thanks for the tip on the short links. That will be quite useful.
Best wishes,
Pedro

Thanks, Walter. That will come in handy.
Mike

Hello All,
This is an update on the little shohin trident maple that I posted about one year ago. It's now in a cream glazed Tokoname pot.
Please let me know your thoughts.
Kind regards,
Pedro

I really like the new pot.
One thing I would recommend, regarding the apex of the tree. When spring comes and the new shoots start growing, don't prune the top for a while. Instead, let the top grow without control.
I would do this to thicken the top part of the trunk, that seems to be drastically thinner than the rest of the trunk. Once it doubles in thickness, it will look much more natural, with a gradual taper, and won't look like a bottleneck anymore. I think you can achieve this in one season, if you don't touch the top and only prune the lower branches.
I know that it is sometimes hard to do this, because your tree won't look like a nice bonsai for a while, but it will gain in the long term.

Hello Attila.
Thanks a lot for your very helpful coments. Now that you mention it, it's quite obvious that the top is too thin as compared to the trunk's girth.
A big advantage of growing shohin (for the impatient like me) is that these corrections can be done in a very short time.
I'm happy that you agree with my pot selection. I find it very difficult to choose the right pot for a shohin: every little detail can make a very large difference.
Kind regards,
Pedro

Couple of pot ideas for the elm- one geared more toward that idea of penjing, the tree arching over a river bed perhaps... not the greatest virt wise, but forgive me, I'm tired :p

Forum won't let me see the Trident at the moment, but I really like that elm....