So what have I here it's Sunday evening And instead of just relaxing and Watching television I have such a lot of Work to do that Customers keep bringing their trees to Me to refine this is a Chinese juniper That I sold this customer maybe about Five six seven years ago is one of these Itoy gawa junipers and it's grown so Healthy you can see how healthy the Foliage is and it's got a beautiful Twisted trunk in there It needs to be refined a bit And it's literally what we call a blob Absolute blog What can I say So just remember what the image is like As of today And we will Try and change it Just with a pair of scissors so I'm Going to work on this I'm self videoing Because everyone's gone home now so I'm Going to work on this and we will see a Transformation So let's look at this Juniper It's too round in shape for me and the Pads have become so thick and dense This tree is 55 centimeters tall from The bottom of the pot that means from The floor level not above the pot from The bottom of the pot to the tip So as I say it's not a small tree So from here to there
Is 55 centimeter and it's about 50 centimeter almost wide so I'm going to just do the pruning Using scissors to begin with So let me show you what I will do I will Reduce the lower pads just by going Inside the structure and thinning it So I will Let me see if I can get a better View I'm going to start with the bottom left Part So I'm going to start around here so What this is I'm taking bits like this Off okay So let me begin so This is what I'm going to do I'm going To go inside the structure And literally try and reduce the height Of the pad Let me remind you that when you work With junipers you never share of The Foliage like that you got to go inside The tree and prune into the wood Like so So that's what we're doing We're finding the Woody bits and take The Woody bits off So we are taking off Woody bits like That So the object is to reduce the height Of the part Customers label let me take it off
This Task needs to be done right through the Year You can't leave it for five or six years And then Get into you can but it becomes more Difficult to Sort out once it becomes so dense You also get a lot of die back because So dense So I hope you can see what I have done Already if you look closely you see me Depth of the pad has certainly been Reduced compared to this blob here you See how Blobby that is So I've reduced this almost by two Thirds to get it flat So that's what I do so the amount I Removed is that much All that has come off in literally half A minute I'm not used to working from behind Because usually when my cameraman is Here They view it from the back but because I Want to see In the camera what I'm doing I've got the camera set up like this and I'm going to work from the back So that's that part down Let's look at some of these other parts Let me take that downward point in Foliage first And then we go to this part
This is another big Blobby look at it Such a thick blob [Music] So again Go into the structure And reduce it Foreign Whatever this customer has done She's faded well So it's ever so healthy too healthy in Fact So vigorous and Lush and green Quite a few bits of water that needs to Be taken out So we're just reducing the depth of the Pad The first Bit of the tidying up So you can see how I reduce the depth of That one [Music] Still a blob here So I got that part reduced a bit There are so many parts Okay let's look at this part this is Another thick one Foreign [Music] Cutter [Music] Some of them Foreign So you can see how these Low pads
Have been flattened on almost simply by Pulling Simply by pulling Of course if you leave these blobs for Too long The light won't penetrate and you will Get die back eventually Ideally a tree like this needs to be Just pulled but rewired You see what like this it depends how Much time they're prepared To allow me and the cost as well because When you think that tree like this could Take a day or more to Cool and water I think she just wanted me to Simply prune it Which is what I'm doing and I'll assure You simply by pruning it You will get a very pleasing effect So you can see how the pads have become More Flat No longer like a blow I'm just going to water the camera angle A bit So bear with me So let's look at it again I hope you can see that The Bobby effect Has been Remedied to a large extent Anything hanging down of course I just Take off
I have to bear in mind that the overall Dome shape or conical shape Are still to be Observed CDs downward pointing branches do Nothing We want to leave space between branches Space between alternate cards See can you see the space I've created Now it's still very much like a blob So I'm going to tackle this part now This block over here And there's a blob in the front as well What's the self videoing is a bit tricky Difficult Thank you So let me show you I've done this part this part You can use a piece of paper I will show you You see that Thinned out So you can see the space between Branches Which is gradually being restored This is all our off I'll show you Afterwards it's on the table I've already taken about I would say Half the foliage out It's become so dense It's like going to a good hairdresser Style and cut If you go to a good London hairdresser You pay over 200 pounds I was stored
Foreign Or two glamorous friends who spend that To have their hair done You can now see that lovely trunk can You see the lovely trunk oh the sun is Shining So I'm going to spent a few minutes But it's having the Vision if we can call it that To see what we're trying to achieve Now let me just go up a little more Tilt the tree up a little bit And see what we're going to do is So those parts have been flattened So we got to deal with This blob here this blob Thank you Anything hanging down comes off So you can see the pads they're Flattened no longer are they in blobs Foreign [Music] Cut through half the tree Let me take a break So there's a tree you can now see the Trunk And by reducing the pads You can see more of the trunk higher up Very important to see the trunk if you Can't see the trunk then it's just a Bush Fundamental principle upon as I see the Trunk [Music]
Let's proceed further up Further up you go it becomes more tricky Because you want to create a dome shape Without Sacrificing The overall effect I know it has to be Apical rather than one Thin Bond Sticking out I mustn't sculpt it so much So the top part is Slightly different I'm not just making It flat I have to create a dome at the Top There you go I'm going to Home in on the top now Working from the back is not always easy But I will do that [Music] Foreign [Music] So it's going into the structure Selectively thinning it Selectively thin first and then we will Bother about creating the cards So what you will realize is just by Using scissors you can restore the tree To a more pleasing shape Without having to rewire re-style Completely You see I'm opening of the top the top Is still like a blob Foreign And the sun is shining bright look at The shadow
We had hailstorms And it's very very cool the temperature Today is about three or four degrees A lot of dirt in there Yeah Foreign That's why when I have a cameraman the Camera is standing behind my back and Visually but I want to see what I'm Doing in the camera Because I'm literally self videoing I need to see what a cameraman would see Oh Now that the sun is shining bright look At that tree look at this tree can you See the difference Foreign [Music] This is just working with the scissors No wiring no slider front [Applause] So I'm just selectively pruning Alternate branches so that there are no Ugly gaps [Music] Foreign I'm not going to stop the camera and Hand hold the camera so I can show you Much more So I'm not holding the camera I'll show You the amount I've pruned off Sun is shining Look at all that just pulling with the Scissor all that
Was pulled off in the last 10-15 minutes So that is the tree that must get Another angle This is my living room by the way come Office And if you're compared with the earlier Image where It was just a blob You can compare what I have done So you can now see the trunk again I haven't tuned any brightness off They're just tips That have taken off So that is all I would do and now I'm Going to repot this tree so simply by Using the scissors I can restore it to This type of image Don't ask me how I think but I think you Can get the gist of it Flattening the pads And letting the light into the structure Keeping it a nice Dome shape And I'm not going to brush the trunk up After repotting the tree I will show you what the final image Will be like that I will do tomorrow So that is enough for now Foreign So this is the final Shot of the Juniper you can see that the Branches are now clearly visible the Trunk is visible and I did have a repot Of the tree because it was quite pot Bound and since it only comes once every
Was it three or four years I thought I Might as well do it for this the Customer of mine I haven't gone too mad With the top because the top should be Full but it was important to show the Definition and the spaces between the Branches so there you go [Music] Thank you [Music] Foreign [Music]
Creativity in writing is becoming a scarcity.
Between the constant temptation to dance for the algorithm and the staggering advance of artificial intelligence, our world is spiraling into what I believe to be a creative crisis.
For us to remain an emotionally-aware race, while at the same time pushing humanity forward, we must cultivate and champion creativity both in ourselves and in the generations to come and write as we feel.
This is why I’m dedicating the next decade of my life to exploring the subject of creativity as both an artist and teacher.
I hope you enjoy my content
Best
James
My Bonsai Journey
