The May club meeting was all about the beginning of the Formal Upright Project. The purpose of this project was for everyone to start with the same species of tree and work towards a formal upright style bonsai to be shown at the 2018 Hamilton Annual Bonsai Show. The selected material are Golden Totara, nursery [...]
This years club road trip was to Rotorua visiting some of the Rotorua Bonsai Club members' gardens. Thanks to Jocelyn, the Rotorua Club President, provided a clear itinerary of locations to visit throughout the day. A handful of Rotorua members also joined us, and give us directions! Starting with Ivan, we were greeted with a [...]
The club had a fabulous afternoon with Kathy Steyn from South Africa. She gave a Powerpoint presentation on her trees, then did some carving on a couple of trees belonging to club members. Kathy explained how to use the power tools to achieve the different carving techniques, and then how to finish using a [...]
Tony finished a three year stint of working on the same trees - from basic design, through to styling and then refinement as the trees developed. It was very clear that of the trees that returned each year significant progress had been made from start to finish. This proved that working on the same tree [...]
With the forecast for terrible weather on the day of the club meeting, the planned outdoor demo by Tony Bebb had to be changed. So instead of Tony working on George (see the 2016 post) the club meeting was relocated back to our usual venue at the Hamilton Gardens. Members were asked to bring [...]
With the first meeting of the year Club Preident Les ran through some business, and the upcoming topics for the next meetings. The Tony Bebb Workshop was also announced, and membership subs are also due on the 1st of April. The meeting then moved into the 'Show and Tell' table where members talked about [...]
The club held it's regular 'decorate a bonsai Christmas tree' competition. A wide range of trees in various shapes and sizes were on display, some appearing more alive than others! The club members all voted on their favourite with the results showing a close first, second and third place. After some (delicious) Xmas themed goodies [...]
The talk on using New Zealand Natives in bonsai saw a number of the committee discussing the suitability of many of the common native species. The talks were illustrated by a large number of NZ Native bonsai which had been brought in to show the differing styles well as several natives not normally used [...]
Once again we had a very busy Labour Weekend with our annual show. This year the weather was kind and the public were out enjoying the sunshine at Hamilton Gardens. A change in the layout this year saw specific areas set aside for shohin displays, smaller tree displays and the shohin project. A well [...]
I had the opportunity to lead a session on Penjing on Sunday. I started by talking about the meaning and understanding; there being 3 distinct categories, “ Shuma “ or tree penjing,”Shanshui” or landscape penjing and “shuihan”, being water and land. How the early penjing artists gained influence and understanding from their own painters and [...]
