Bonsai Focus (English Edition) – July-August 2019

Carving the deadwood

After removing a big chunk of wood at the

left top, I will start to carve the rest of the

deadwood with a machine. The wood of

Taxus is massively hard and so machine

carving is a logical choice. The wood rots

from the inside therefore creating the

hollows you see. You can even promote

rotting by some adding moss in spots and

keeping it wet. So what I do is remove

some of the chunkiness of the wood at

the top and carve out the rotted parts

creating even more hollows. The aim is

to create a kind of dark and light contrast

through the deadwood. Don't overdo it,

leave the larger surfaces as smooth as

they are.

After the carving apply jin fluid. For good

attachment of the jin fluid the wood

needs to be wet, really wet. So spray with

water and then apply a mix of jin fluid

and paint. The jin fluid is diluted with 4

parts water to 1 part jin fluid. First of all,

start by painting the non-carved areas

with untinted jin fluid. Then paint the

carved parts with some jin fluid tinted

with black paint. Finally blend the edges

of both parts together so they merge.

Splitting the stumps and making them into jin. You
can see that I have already removed quite an amount
of bark from the top

Making space for the apex by removing a part of the

deadwood

Then I use a trunk splitter to remove splints of wood

giving it a more natural look

Using a Makita carving machine to open up the

chunky trunk

I eliminated the long jin at the top then, in the foreground, I started to remove
some wood to create more depth

Following the structure that is already there, I am enhancing its hollows and

crevices

Bonsai Focus MASTERCLASS 31