When to start wiring a bonsai
Bonsai Beginner Series - Structural Wiring
cracking Josh's progress and bonsai has
been pretty monumental to witness he's
learned how to select material he's
learned how to initially clean and do
some of the very fundamental pruning but
now we get into the nuts and bolts of
the structural wiring process and this
is the moment that we get to set the
shape and we're gonna start to talk
about and teach Josh the fundamental
concepts behind structural wire and some
of the nuances that allow him to have
success
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and so when we talk about structural
wire we're talking about wires that you
shape the trunk the structure of the
tree or the branches that emerge from
the trunk these are the primary branches
of the tree and so as we take a look at
this you'll notice that a lot of the big
thick branches that come from the trunk
of the tree have much thicker wire on
them and this is really setting the
angles of the design so that we have
that position in place to be able to
create independent paths these smaller
branches on that wire that's a whole
different world
right that's secondary tertiary wire we
will get there so we're really looking
at defining the trunk line and defining
the shape of those branches that emerge
from the trunk as our structural wire
practice each of these turns has the
same angle ideal angle for structural
wire 55 60 degrees if we just go from
the top of one wire to another and we
gauge that spacing that spacing no
matter what turn exists in that branch
is equivalent across each turn the last
thing that you'll notice is that there's
a really nice contact between the wire
and the branch there's not any spaces
now what you'll also notice is that that
wire isn't really constricting the
growth of the branch so to get that
contact we're not cranking that wire
onto the branch so it's been a couple of
months now since we actually picked up
the trees from the nursery and I've been
excited to get into styling the trees so
finally being able to actually dig into
the design of the trees a little bit
more after finding the front on the
previous episode I'm excited to get my
hands back on my trees and really start
figuring out what the design is gonna
look like it's time to present you with
your wiring tools nice pair of pliers
really good pair of wire cutters and
your first set of perfectly in Neil's
beautiful copper wire this is a gauges
eighteen through six 18 16 14 12 10 six
these gauges are the best set for being
able to approach bonsai
when we first start to learn how to wire
so I've prepared a little bit of an
exercise here I've got a branch that
I've removed all of the the needles off
of and I've got a clamp here and this is
basically how I start everybody off
learning how to
why're we've got to be able to apply a
gauge of wire that allows us to hold any
movement we put into that some trees are
harder than others and a harder would
add more dense vascular fiber will
demand a thicker wire in order to be
able to hold it where we move it and
then the length the longer that that
branches the thicker the wire we need to
utilize because we have a lot of
leverage on that length of the branch
okay so I'm gonna go ahead and give
myself a length of wire that that is a
little bit more than the length of the
branch an extra 15 20 % in structural
wire we want a little bit of a longer
wire because we need the leverage of
that handle to be able to apply it and
use a leverage to make sure that that
application is smooth and really clean
so as I start to make this turn I'm
looking at achieving same angle on every
turn when I'm wiring particularly in the
application of structural wire moving
your hand in definitive planes notice I
move towards you down towards me up
towards you down towards me up and
notice each time that I'm making that
turn I'm stepping my fingers down to
maintain that contact towards you down
towards me towards you down towards me
up okay
this starts to give us that layout that
we're looking for same angle same
spacing and no gaps is really what we're
striving for in the structural wire
application so I'm gonna be holding here
I'm gonna be bending down okay and
notice how when I held there that wire
stretched work-hardened and held that
Bend okay this is the function of
structural wire but after that first
movement down we always have to bring
the branches back up towards the light
having that last turn across the bottom
allows us to bring that piece up trees
always growing towards light the desire
for those to photosynthesize creates
that strength throwing upwards if we
have that across the bottom we can
always mimic that natural behavior of
the tree that's the functional aspect of
why we ended across the bottom of the
branch cool all right
thank you sir let me just shift that out
of the way so that you can conveniently
access those tools I know it's hard to
not help me because I'm so helpless but
I got this right I know I know I got
faith I got a lot of faith Thanks
believe in Josh can I redo that you can
try that didn't do anything didn't work
this is a job Ryan it's almost like some
people have to really focus on this for
a profession yeah well right I yeah
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I think that one of the biggest mistakes
that beginners make is they're afraid to
do right okay I applied the wire right
holy cow that was you know and it's in
and I've been there I was there when I
was 12 years old and that never stopped
until I was wiring trees daily at at
during my apprenticeship but when we do
get to the tree the goal of this
exercise is by the time you get there we
have some of that worked out so that the
tree doesn't become the experimentation
point for all of those errors yeah it
will be regardless because you're not
gonna be an expert at wiring but just
giving you some of those thoughts to be
considering as you're doing this kind of
bending is gonna assist in you doing
this better yeah this has been really
helpful because one of the things that I
was thinking before diving into this was
I've like made a kind of connection with
the trees that I picked out I don't want
to destroy them I like being able to
learn on a dead branch yeah before
diving into you know living tree
material imagine trying to learn
everything that you're learning here on
that tree yeah impossible oh it's just
like I'm gonna push it to it you got to
know yeah you've got to know you've got
to break these branches you have to yeah
it's a dead branch it doesn't matter no
this is not gonna make it unfortunately
this is not gonna survive this operation
so you might as well figure out what
does it feel like to break a branch what
happened right before you broke it the
distribution of forces across so much
tissue here the distribution of forces
across just a very minimal area here and
that's why that broke and that didn't
got it all right I also want to point
out that branches break in the wild all
the time and I think this is very
natural yeah yeah and chances are if you
want to know the truth if there were
needles on that that kind of a break
would absolutely survive oh really
yeah fifty percent not a pro
through actually going through this
process with dead branches it's reducing
a lot of the anxiety I have about
actually touching the trees so I don't
feel as bad about taking my time right
actually feel really good about it
the most defeating thing about bonsai is
having a tree that you found at the
nursery and you love and you're like I
can't wait to make this a good bone side
and then destroying it and it dying
struggling or looking terrible and then
you're like well hearing that this is
empowering you to feel more confident
that means that your success in bonsai
is going to grow as a result of this
this is a very effective way to ya the
wiring process
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you've gone through the paces we've
discussed the fundamentals of structural
wiring mm-hmm
time has come my friend you're gonna
wire the trunk and you're gonna wire all
of the branches that originate from the
trunk this is setting structure focus
same angle same spacing no gaps in every
coil of the wire get to it and then
let's take a look at it when you're done
okay
I'm all ready just like Oh God because I
was practicing upstairs and you weren't
around and I was like I think this is
the right gauge to practice with with
this side here's the beautiful thing
about your first tree you know it's
gonna be riddled with mistakes have fun
enjoy it learn from the process focus on
the fundamentals and this tree is going
to carry with it all of your marks of
growth so this first iteration is gonna
be something that you're gonna remember
forever the tree is gonna improve
regardless of what happens today there's
no pressure just really dig into the
wiring process and start to learn an
explorer
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I'm trying to truly try and look at that
gap though I messed it up real hard and
now I'm gonna do a hard reset here and
cut this wire off and try again
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I think I did it I probably put it on
you tight though
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let's put some movement into this
professional sounds
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there I don't know I want to be able to
make confident decisions that lead me to
a tree that I envision but I honestly
don't know if I'm even putting the wire
on correctly in order to have any kind
of vision becomes a reality
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all right I see structural wire on it
how'd it go it went okay I think there
were some struggles along the way but I
definitely had some issues with getting
the right angle on the this the trunk
wire and then some big issues with
paring the the branches and I moved one
the other ones moving along with it
let's just take a look let's break it
down one at a time in any of these
junctions where we've got more than one
branch emerging from the trunk we need
to take off all the branches except for
the one that we want to keep and it'll
make your structural wiring far easier
it'll also prevent structural flaws from
forming then when we set this initial
wire on the trunk we've got to hit that
55 60 degree angle when we go past that
we start to create a really big distance
between the holding points of the wire
and that's what caused the spacing this
wire on the trunk also sets you up for
all of your structural wire on the
branches that emerge from the trunk and
so when we get the correct angle here
we're also able to pair these branches
here and when we pair these branches
here we want to be having at least one
full revolution of wire around the trunk
following that structural two pair one
branch to another getting that
revolution okay last piece of the puzzle
do we want to lower the branches or do
we want to raise the branches
traditional Japanese bonsai almost
always we have lowered branches when we
lower a branch structurally we have to
approach it from the top of the shoulder
when we raise a branch we have to
approach it from the bottom of the
shoulder and the shoulder being this
connection point of the branch to the
trunk so when we start to think about
that that guides how we put the wire
onto the shoulder of the branch it
starts to help us link branches that
exist beyond the full revolution around
the trunk I think it'd be really helpful
if you just kind of showed me how you
would wire this tree yeah so let's just
sort of take it apart and put it back
together all right sweet
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I almost feel relief for this tree after
I worked on it it's like watching you
strip it away felt like you were
breaking it out of change yeah and I
like putting it into like a good
position but anyway yeah it's very
helpful for me to see how you linked the
branches right off of the trunk together
with the wire and the choices the
choices for the combinations right these
are things that we built
but understanding to lower we enter the
top to raise me into the bottom same
angle same spacing no gaps applies to
every wire we put on the tree and then
when we shape that tree those branches
exist where they occur right this is on
the left side of the tree this branch
exists on the left sided tree this is on
the right side of the tree that branch
will always exist on the right side of
the tree these are the fundamental
aspects of structural setting structural
wiring is this meshing of this
challenging application and this
beautiful ability to manipulate the
shape of the tree you've learned how to
apply it now we just have to practice
with it and continue to build our skills
we're gonna move into the repotting
process of this tree taking advantage of
the seasonal opportunity to work the
roots and then we're gonna come back and
show you the secondary tertiary wiring
that builds on that foundation you've
set and really maximizes the aesthetic
of the tree stay tuned build your skills
and we look forward to continuing the
process with you in the journey of
creating bonsai BAM
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you
