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October 2014: Alistair following my marks on the opposite side of the trunk to create another shari. The forward-facing branch had been pruned and turned into a jin in August and again, this allowed creation of more deadwood.

October 2014: Although this live branch (bottom left in the image above) had some fantastic natural deadwood features on it, it did not carry enough foliage to make an effective "dropping branch" or first branch, and was also too weak to be likely to grow much new foliage in the following years. However, as an entirely dead branch, or jin, it would still fulfill the same role in the design of the tree as a bonsai, filling a negative space and reflecting the movement of the tree as a whole.

With the bark on th trunk removed from the newly created deadwood, I also began to gently run a carving bit along the edge of the live vein to create a ditch, or furrow. This gives the new edge of the live vein something to callous over into and, with time, is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

October 2014: Alistair working back over the new shari, removing as much of the softwood or pith as possible.

October 2014: I began to remove some bark from the back of the troublesome base of the trunk.......

October 2014: I realised that with some gentle carving I could give the base a new appearance; one that looked as though the trunk disappeared into the soil (rather along it) along with a small 'root-jin'.

October 2014: This simple carving meant that what had been the back of the tree, might now be considered the front........

October 2014: Alistair using steel wire brushes fitted to a Dremel to clean the newly created deadwood further.

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