Bear with me, I'm fairly new to outdoor gardening.

I recently bought my first house, and outside has what appears to be a
very overgrown Juniper. It's roughly 10' tall, and even though it
appears to have been trimmed into a Christmas-tree shape at some
point, it's been awhile since it was taken care of.

I've seen topiaries that are nicely shaped (like a spiral), and if I
understand correctly, a juniper can be shaped like this, too. Can any
ordinary juniper be shaped like this?

If so, is it possible to take a 10' tall juniper that has a diameter
(at the ground) of about 5', and trim it into a nice shape like this?
I certainly don't want a 10' spiral topiary (and couldn't trim that
high, anyway), so can I take some height off of it?

If any of this is possible, do I need to do this at a special time of
year (I'm in western NC)? Any special tools, other than pruning shears
and scissors?

Any tips or advice at all would be greatly appreciated. TIA,

Mike


PS, there were 2 other junipers that I had to remove. They have been
devestated by some type of parasite: almost the entire front half of
the tree/bush was leafless, and they smelled bad. Although this third
one is only about 15' from those two, it seems to be healthy.