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Making My Water-and-Land Penjing (Part 1)
Last month, I took a 3-session bonsai class and made my very first water-and-land penjing (penjing is bonsai in Chinese) in the bonsai workshop. Before taking this class, the idea of making my own water-and-land penjing was quite intimidating. I just never thought that I could build a penjing with such complex composition…
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Making My Water-and-Land Penjing (Part 2)
Indeed, the land of a water-and-land penjing is very much similar to a forest bonsai (here is a post about My First Forest Bonsai). It is the extra shorefront and water area that make a water-and-land penjing has a more complex composition. The overall structural unity of a water-and-land penjing is critical. Design elements
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Making My Water-and-Land Penjing (Part 1)
Last month, I took a 3-session bonsai class and made my very first water-and-land penjing (penjing is bonsai in Chinese) in the bonsai workshop. Before taking this class, the idea of making my own water-and-land penjing was quite intimidating. I just never thought that I could build a penjing with such complex composition…
Removing the Bonsai Wire Just Too Late
It’s crazy how fast my Chinese elm (榆樹 in Chinese) is growing. Last month, I wired this branch of my Chinese elm right before two weeks of rainy days. When I went back and checked the wiring two weeks later, I found that the branch had already been embedded deeply into the bark I quickly
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Potting a Semi-Cascade Style Bonsai Tree
Due to the angle of the slanting trunk and sideway extended branches, potting a semi-cascade or a cascade style bonsai tree can be quite tricky sometimes. We must be cautious of the tilted center of mass and be extra careful when we lift the bonsai tree around during potting. The bonsai pot we use for
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Figurines in Penjing As mentioned in an earlier post – Chinese Penjing & Japanese Bonsai, one of the major difference between Chinese penjing and Japanese bonsai is the scope of these two related art forms. With the meaning of the words – “bonsai” (盆栽) and “penjing” (盆景), it is clear that while the Japanese bonsai is focusing on
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Removing the Bonsai Wire Just Too Late It’s crazy how fast my Chinese elm (榆樹 in Chinese) is growing. Last month, I wired this branch of my Chinese elm right before two weeks of rainy days. When I went back and checked the wiring two weeks later, I found that the branch had already been embedded deeply into the bark I quickly
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Bonsai Exhibition in Hong Kong Flower Show 2010 I went to Hong Kong Flower Show earlier last month. While the flowers in the show were beautiful, they were not my main purpose for going to the show. It was the small bonsai exhibition in the Hong Kong Flower Show that had got my very interest. Some of these are bonsai trees of some
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Chinese Penjing and Landscape Paintings It is said that Chinese penjing is a landscape painting in three dimensions. Unlike Japanese bonsai, Chinese penjing portrays and recreate a scene we find in nature. Similar to Chinese poetry and landscape painting which rely on a very limited amount of content to portray a vast scene in the mind of listener/viewer, Chinese penjing
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Bonsai Tree Species for Mini Bonsai Many of us wonder what tree species we should use for our mame bonsai and shohin bonsai. While some species are more difficult to train as mame bonsai or shohin bonsai than others, I would say that most type of tree that are used for regular bonsai is also suitable for mame and shohin bonsai.
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