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At this point, little work had been carried out on the foliage other than to occasionally pinch it out to increase its density.
Summer 2003: Further work was carried out on the shari. Unfortunately, the strip of live wood left in the middle of the shari died back by the end of the year; almost certainly because that particular area of live wood didn't support sufficient foliage to cause it to heal. It is a pity that it died back but these things happen and can always be worked around.
By the Summer 2004 the shari was well established. Further carving was carried out to add more interest and accentuate the movement in both the live and dead wood. By this time I had fully wired the tree to establish the branch structure and to create some foliage pads.
Oct 2005. The bonsai was repotted into a pot by Erin Pottery in the Spring and work on developing the foliage pads had continued. It is possible to see now that the original foliage had now been developed into several (sub) branches. The tree was really starting to look like a bonsai at last! Though the main part of the trunk was still only around 1" in diameter and still very straight, creation of spiraling deadwood had given an impression of movement and added plenty of interest. The height of the tree at this time was 14"/35cm.
December 2007. Over the previous two years the tree continued grow and I had maintained its basic foliage shape. However, as time went on, it became more and more obvious that the foliage was steadily becoming too heavy for what was such a delicate, feminine trunk.
So, I finally decided to restyle the tree, lightening the foliage mass considerably by turning all of the upper branches into jin and reducing the size of the remaining foliage pads. As is normal, I pruned back hard with the coming year's new growth in mind so that by the end of next year the foliage will still be in proportion to the design.
And while restyling the foliage, I also took the opportunity to further refine the deadwood and the shari running up the trunk.
Current height of the tree; 12"/30cm
Video showing the tree in greater detail>>