This were my favorites in 2013! My pets, my bonsai, nail art, japanese and my new and old friends.
Wish you all the best for the upcoming 2014
…love, Melanie!!
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Archived goals and new issues
Just do it!
Well well! Another year went by and so much has happened. New families were made, some families fell apart; some new friends have earned the title of “friend”, some not; some bonsai were styled for good and some need time to mature.
I did have 4 goasl for 2013 and I achieved at least 3 of them, well it would be all four if I included doing more bonsai in my goals instead of restyling my garden which was a complete failure.
Starting in January with the first session at the Università del bonsai, then finding Nicola online and immediately booking a workshop for the end of March. In May my first article was published on Bonsai Empire and in June I visited the Swiss bonsai show in Lugano. Summer passed up to the first week of September which was the highlight of my year: Bonsai Summer Festival in Fai della Paganella. Only one week, but boy did we ever have fun! Not only did I learn a lot about complementary tags all around bonsai art, like presentation, accent plants, bonsai pots, and much more, but also, and most importantly I made a whole new group of friends that like me appreciate bonsai as they are and not for their monetary value or winning potential. I am so grateful to Paolo who managed to introduce me to this new world of bonsai without prizes, seems weird but in my opinion it’s more peaceful and in tune with the whole idea of bonsai itself.
After this wonderful event the wheel started to turn. Articles were published, trees were styled, new enthusiasts were known, well… I had to work more on PR rather than concentrating on my goals, but I did find the time to achieve some other goals.
Another goal reached is to lose weight, and although I gained some kilos this holiday season I am still very motivated to do more for my figure. And last but absolutely not least: learning Japanese. This is one of the main goals for next year as well. I am going to Japan in May 2014 and it’s very important to be able to understand the basics of conversation, or, if at all possible, to understand what Fujikawa San will say.
Talking about new goals, since not all goals have been achieved in 2013, I will not be setting my goals too high for this coming year, although they are indeed demanding: 1) Learn more Japanese;2) Lose more weight and 3) Write more on my blogs and for other bonsai magazines. The highlight in 2014 would be the trip to Japan. I am so excited about it, as are all my bonsai friends who are already asking me to bring home this and that!! I am hoping for the best and I am absolutely positive that no matter what Fujikawa San and Björn will teach me, it will be an amazing experience.
For the rest, I will follow my new styled tree and care for some new species, visit the Roku Shun-Ten, participate at the Swiss New Talent, and maybe visit more shows in Europe as I did in 2013. Of course, there will be more workshops with Nicola and I hope to be able to visit Paolo in Turin.
Hope to be able to achieve all of my goals and more importantly learn more about bonsai and related arts!
…love, Melanie!
Related articles
- Learn Japanese with bonsai (gracietheturtle.wordpress.com)
- Casual friday: mini tokonoma (gracietheturtle.wordpress.com)
- Shohin workshop enthusiasm – part one (gracietheturtle.wordpress.com)
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Workshop in december
This last december I had the opportunity to have tree workshop by my teacher. The first one was on a pinus sylvestis (scots pine), the second on a juniperus chinensis (juniper) and the third was on a picea abies (spruce) owned by Nicola himself.
Normaly I have an idea about the first styling on my trees, but in this case it was a little weared because he purchased 2 trees at a local nursery on my request. Off course he send me some pictures to be sure I will be happy with the material, but I had no idea about the real potential and let’s face it, his the teacher, I had to be happy. Would you contradict your teacher?
First: pinus sylvestris.
For me pines are the top of bonsai art and I consider them way to advanced for my knowledge at this moment, but I wanted a pinus sylvestris in order to study the growth of this species and observe the developpment through the seasons and years. It came out that another Nicola’s student trade this pine with better material not so long ago. He collected this pine 2 years ago in the Ticino mountans and it was really easy to collect it since it was on a rock. I was glad to hear his story.
Second: juniperus chinensis
The juniper was a bit trickier. First it had been styled already by somone else, and second it has a really facinating deadwood that had to been worked on. I never worked deadwood before! Well, yes some jin here and there but nothing really big, and although it is not so big surface, for me was ideed a big deal: dealing with a drill, fireing with a burner, protecting the livewood, etc…. learned a lot and become confidend with new tools. And off course wireing, wireing, and wireing. But I am really pleased with the result.
Third: picea abies
The big december finale was wireing a spruce that Nicola had to prepare for an upcoming show. It was challenging, also because my teacher did not accept mistakes on his tree! And because it was really lot to wire, we worked all day and managed to finish at 5 PM. My fingers were acking, my back was killing me and I was tired but I was really really happy to archive (together with Nicola) this huge task. First time ever that I wired for a hole day such a big tree.
This december was intense but really instructive and I feel more confident with each new material I came across. The next workshop will be in the end of january and till then I have to practice on other sort of material such as, 10€ material from the supermarket, or wireing thiker trunk on a larix and other sort of low-quality material, this is the best way to learn: practice, practice, practice.
…love, Melanie
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Merry Christmas
Melanie's dream's 