Subject: [IBC] Mastering Technique (Was [IBC] proposal)


Some of you may have forgotten what it's like to be new in this hobby.
Let
me try to refresh your memory.
Big Snip
-------------------------

It was a good piece of writing, John, and could be the truth of bonsai
beginners, but since there are personalities of more than one kind, I
would give an alternative - a combination that might encourage the
confident types who can't sit and wait.

I have seen yamadori, collected trees, that could be potted ( in a
somewhat larger mica pot -not the final pot, but certainly suggestive of
bonsa- and styled to be convincing bonsai all within a day - bunjin size or
a literati. In fact, we see that in demonstrations. The same can happen
with nursery stock.

The loss may be somewhat more and the ideal of bonsai being a patient
and very slow art form is not upheld by these acts, but if the beginner is
able and satisfied that it gives something to look at - and pleasure to do
as well as hands- on better understanding of the process of caring for
plants. There is something visual to critique daily - and one sees their
visual judgments grow and wain daily while these attempts are compared with
what there is in books and shows. There is a heavier load of learning than
sitting, watching them grow. A young vine maple taken from the mass in a
forest was one of my first shrugs at the idea of sitting/waiting and that
experience settled me into bonsai more than anything - and since it lived
(not hard for them to do) the cost-heavier nursery plant was next. I have
yet to sit and wait. If they are growing I am not waiting - as a boring
conscious thing - because the challenges are so rapid, and a more critical
care may be needed. I hold that there are certain tests to be met and this
is a way.
Sure there are also those sitting trees in cedar tubs doing the slower
"ideal" way, but they will be better in the future following these other
experiences.

Lynn
Lynn Boyd, Oregon, USA

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