Francesco Santini » Benvenuti nel mio Blog

Nov 18

by Francesco Santini in Preparation 0 comments

Styling the Taxus Cuspidata

Here are the pics showing the styling of the Taxus Cuspidata. The tree joined a friend’s collection last year. After careful evaluation we decided to change the front to give more depth to the tree. The first branch was lowered and brought forward while on the left side it was necessary to remove a part of dry wood to lower the branch. These two technical steps aside, we simply had to wire and set every single branch. I am pretty pleased with the outcome as it corresponds exactly to what was my original project. LEFT SIDE BACK RIGHT SIDE FRONT

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Nov 18

by Francesco Santini in Exhibitions, PHOTOS 0 comments

TAIKAN TEN 2019 – Kyoto

Some photos of the trees exhibited at the TAIKAN TEN BONSAI EXHIBITION 2019 in Kyoto.

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Nov 18

by Francesco Santini in PHOTOS 0 comments

A red pine bunjin

At last a BUNJIN! My last work on a red pine bonsai (Pinus Densiflora) property of Franchi Bonsai The pine before styling The pine after styling.

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Nov 18

by Francesco Santini in DEMO, Preparation 0 comments

Juniperus chinensis “Sotto il cielo d’inverno” 2012

This juniper owned by “Franchi Bonsai”, was the subject of the demo held by master Minoru Akiyama in February 2012 at the exhibition “Sotto il cielo d’inverno” (“Under the Winter Sky”) in Pescia (Italy) at Franchi’s Bonsai Center. On this occasion I had the honour and the pleasure to assist the Maestro throughout the work. Let’s start with the choice of this tree: it was a quite big juniper chinensis. The vegetation was vigorous, abundant and so dense that you could not even see the trunk. It was impossible to have any idea of the styling development unless we thinned out the vegetation. Unfortunately, there was little time and a lot of work. Better to get started quickly! The master began by cutting the big redundant branches in search of movement and valuable branches. I followed the master in all phases: from pruning to cleaning the trunk, from creating the shari and jin to applying the wire. After a few hours of work here is the final result: In order to help the tree recover soon, and to leave different styling option for the future, the Master preferred to keep more branches than strictly necessary. After the work was completed, […]

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Nov 18

by Francesco Santini in DEMO 0 comments

Juniperus Chinensis “Carmen”

In September 2018 this juniper chinensis enters in my collection. A tree with apparently no particular virtues, but I was actually intrigued by its sinuous trunk. As soon as I saw I felt grace, movement, energy….yes, this is a tiny dancer I thought! She will be a flamenco dancer and I will call it Carmen! It is a common juniper chinensis with a slightly light colour. The needle, although not as interesting as a kishu or itoigawa variety, is appropriately thick and compact. Health is good and vigour well distributed. The front is obvious, given previous workings on the tree. My contribution here won’t denaturalize the previously executed work, but it will certainly add a lighter and more dynamic look. By the way, it’s perfectly understandable: a bonsai is a living sculpture in continuous evolution and even if the previous workings are well done, with time it inevitably loses shape and definition. This is the right time to restore and redefine this juniper. Front / Back Right side / Left side Definitely the trunk sinuous directions are the main focus of this tree…soft and light, with a vein of wood that accompanies the trunk […]

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Nov 18

by Francesco Santini in Preparation 0 comments

Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii)

Styling of a Thunbergii pine; property of my friend Alfio Andreuccetti. Here are some before/after pictures related to the styling. FRONT BACK RIGHT SIDE LEFT SIDE CLOSE UP OF THE LEFT BRANCHES CLOSE UP OF THE RIGHT BRANCHES VARIOUS DETAILS We could have obtained a more defined work cutting of needles. On this occasion we preferred to leave the needles intact in order to leave more energy on the gems.

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