Category: Featured Articles

Opening Ceremony of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

Post author By Sandy
Post date November 30, 2010
1 Comment on Opening Ceremony of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

The 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition has just ended in the past weekend. This penjing exhibition, as one of the major cultural events during the Asian Games this year, took “Celebrating Guangzhou Asian Games, Promoting World Penjing Culture” as the theme, and invited many famous bonsai artists across the country and all over the world to exhibit their works. With the high attendance in the bonsai exhibition and the interest in penjing generated, the bonsai show was a great success.

Go to post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 1)
Go to post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 2)

On Nov 10, some bonsai friends and I together attended the open ceremony of the exhibition which took place in Guangzhou Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s Memorial Hall – a significant landmark in Guangzhou.

In the opening ceremony, besides an award ceremony, there was also a presentation session demonstrated by several excellent bonsai artists.

With nearly 800 penjing, the 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition was the largest bonsai show in Guangzhou ever. This bonsai show had successfully demonstrated the charm of penjing, particularly Lingnan penjing – an ancient and unique treasure that reflects the essence of Lingnan garden culture.

I will share more photos of these beautiful bonsai very soon. Please wait a little 🙂

Besides bonsai, there was also a suiseki exhibition, showing some amazingly beautiful rocks. I surely will post more photos of this suiseki exhibition in the coming posts.

Bonsai How To Featured Articles

How to Keep a Rock Standing in Landscape Penjing

Post author By Sandy
Post date November 2, 2010
1 Comment on How to Keep a Rock Standing in Landscape Penjing

A reader asked how to keep the rock standing in landscape bonsai after reading my post – How to Choose Rocks for Landscape Bonsai. Here I would like to answer Kamini’s question and show how can we keep a rock standing stably in our landscape penjing.

Once all the shaping and cutting of the rock for our landscape bonsai are done, we are ready to make a base for the rock. We make the base out of cement. First, cover the ground with some newspaper. Then, we hang the rock with a rope and have it stands with the tip barely touching the ground. The rock should be standing exactly like how we want it to be in our landscape bonsai. If we want the rock tilt at an angle, we should make the adjustment now. We need to get a balance on the size of the cement base. While we want the cement base to be as small as possible so to have the rock fits in any pot we want, we must make sure the cement base is big enough to support the rock steadily in our landscape bonsai for the years to come.

Cement dries in a day, at most two. The photo above shows how the cement base looks like when it is dried.

Once we have added soil and moss, the cement will not be seen.

Bonsai Events Featured Articles

2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

Post author By Sandy
Post date September 27, 2010
3 Comments on 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

Besides the 3-in-1 exhibition in Guangzhou, China in October, there is another big bonsai event in Guangzhou that is highly anticipated by many bonsai enthusiasts; it is the 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (2010年广州国际盆景邀请展).

To celebrate the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou in November 2010 and promote bonsai to the world, a bonsai and suiseki exhibition – Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition – will be held from November 10 to November 27 in Guangzhou Zhongshan Memorial Hall (广州中山纪念堂). Among the 500-800 bonsai that will be shown in the exhibition, there will not only be beautiful bonsai of Lingnan and other Chinese penjing styles, but also a large number of bonsai from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and other countries around the world. Moveover, according to the press release, there will be presentations and discussion sessions with well-known bonsai masters and bonsai experts sharing their bonsai tips and techniques, as well as their thoughts on the up-coming development and changes in the world of bonsai.

I am very much looking forward to this bonsai exhibition, especially since my bonsai teacher – Lingnan penjing master Wong Chiu Shing – and a few other senior bonsai members will also showcase their masterpieces in this exhibition. Indeed, many of us in the Institute of Lingnan Penjing, Hong Kong (香港嶺南盆景藝術學會) will together take a trip to Guangzhou on November 9th to attend the open ceremony of this exhibition. And definitely I will share what I have seen and learned in the exhibition when I am back from Guangzhou in November.

Here is the official website of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition. Too bad that it’s only in Chinese…

Bonsai Events Featured Articles

3-in-1 Exhibition in Guangzhou, Oct 2010

Post author By Sandy
Post date September 15, 2010
No Comments on 3-in-1 Exhibition in Guangzhou, Oct 2010

There will be a very interesting art exhibition of bonsai, suiseki, painting, and antique furniture during the golden week national holiday next month in Guangzhou, China. This is so tempting and it keeps luring me to go regardless of my overly packed schedule and the extremely unpleasant traffic and inevitable crowd during the country’s busiest travel season in the year. While I am still debating whether or not I should go, I know I should share what I have learned about this art exhibition with other bonsai, suiseki, and art lovers. One should definitely check out this art exhibition if possible.

Chencun Flower World, Guangzhou — Chencun Flower World

This event is a combination of the 2010 China (Chencun) International Art Fair (2010中國（陳村）國際藝術博覽會)and the Eighth Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Bonsai Art Fair (第八屆粵港澳臺盆景藝術博覽會)and the Retrospective Exhibition of “2006 China (Chencun) International Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibition” (“2006中國(陳村)國際盆景賞石博覽會”回顧展). The art exhibition will be held September 30 to October 4 in Chencun Flower World (陳村花卉世界).

The art festival held in Chencun will have three themes: art fair, international bonsai exhibition, and rock appreciation expo. The bonsai show will feature 250 top class bonsai, brings together bonsai school of Lingnan, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, and others. The bonsai exhibition will also show the “18 Luohan” (十八羅漢) – the Ficus bonsai which costs over a million renminbi.

Art collectors, bonsai and stone professionals of over 30 countries and regions will attend this art fair in which the fourth China (Chencun) International Art Fair will be held in the newly built 1,500 square meters Flower World Art Pavilion A (花卉世界藝術展覽A館). This particular art fair is currently one of the three most influential national art fair in China. Exhibition includes Chinese painting, calligraphy, antique furniture and a variety of stones, jade, crystals and other minerals.

This art exhibition will also show some very valuable national art treasures, including a 5000 year-old Thuja root carving, and the very famous “Along the River during the Qingming Festival” (清明上河圖) which is the work of Song Dynasty artist – Zhang Zeduan. In addition, there will be a large-scale of calligraphy and painting showing in the art exhibition, including art works by famous masters such as Qi baishi (齊白石), Zhang Daqian (張大千), and Yang Shanshen (楊善深).

Difference between Landscape Penjing and Water-and-Land Penjing

Post author By Sandy
Post date August 23, 2010
1 Comment on Difference between Landscape Penjing and Water-and-Land Penjing

Earlier, I had a few friends asking me about the difference between landscape penjing (shanshui Penjing, 山水盆景 in Chinese), and water-and-land penjing (shuihan penjing, 水旱盆景 in Chinese). It seemed that they were quite confused. Same here indeed, when I first learned bonsai, I always got mixed up between landscape penjing and water-and-land penjing too.

Bonsai How To Featured Articles

Making My Water-and-Land Penjing (Part 1)

Post author By Sandy
Post date July 14, 2010
6 Comments on 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, involving design elements such as trees, rocks, mosses, water and figurines, all in harmony with each other and contribute to the whole penjing in a meaningful fashion.

For those who are not familiar with water-and-land penjing (水旱盆景, shuihan penjing), you can check out this post – The Main Categories of Chinese Bonsai (Penjing) – to learn more about the three main categories of Penjing.

And here, let me show you how to make a water-and-land penjing.

First, we build a shore front with stones to separate the land and the water in our penjing. In class, we used the small stones that we bought in Yingde (if you wonder what kind of place is Yingde, check out this post – Rocks for Landscape Penjing (Bonsai)). Try to show the best side of the rocks by having the most attractive parts of the rocks facing front. In addition, a curvy shoreline with different elevations looks more natural and interesting than one that is straight and flat 😉

Then, we add the glue – cement! Don’t move away the whole set of rocks, but do this one piece at a time. Or else you will forget the composition and can’t put the rocks back to how you have first designed them to be.

Put a layer of cement that is thick enough to block all the holes and cracks between the rocks. This is a very important step because we have to ensure that no water or soil can leak out through the cracks between the rocks.

After we have glued all rocks with cement, we let the cement dry out for a while first, maybe 15-20 minutes. Then we use a small paintbrush and water to clean up the excess cement on the rocks.

The less noticeable the cement is the better. We basically want to blend the cement with the rocks so that one cannot really tell where the cement is added when she/he is looking at the water-and-land penjing later.

And here I have the shoreline of my water-and-land penjing done. In the next post, I will show you how I made the “land” part of my water-and-land penjing.

My First Forest Bonsai

I took a forest bonsai class earlier this month and this is the first forest bonsai I have ever made. And yes, I love my work and am proud of it.

We were given seven pine trees, a marble slab, a bonsai figurine, a piece of bonsai pot drainage mesh, and a rubber strap. The rubber strap is used to wrap around the soil to prevent it from falling apart. The strap can be removed once the root systems of the trees have grabbed the soil strong and tight enough.

I spent quite a lot time thinking about tree placement to get the most natural looking arrangement. For example, during the class, Teacher Wong kept reminding us that trees in a forest bonsai should not fall directly behind one another when viewed from the front. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, for there were seven pines we had to arrange on a small little marble slab. Moreover, we also needed to leave a clear area for the cow figurine which we would place after the forest bonsai was made.

After we had designed the tree arrangement for our forest bonsai and got approved by Teacher Wong, we added in soil and moss. Then, we watered our forest bonsai thoroughly once they were made, as soon as possible.

I am currently keeping my forest bonsai under my bonsai rack. Our newly made forest bonsai should be kept under shade with indirect sunlight for at least two weeks, and gradually expose the forest bonsai to more and more sun afterward.

Bonsai Pots Featured Articles

Introduction of Yixing Zisha Bonsai Pot

Post author By Sandy
Post date May 24, 2010
6 Comments on Introduction of Yixing Zisha Bonsai Pot

It is said that if we use a Yixing zisha teapot for many years, we can brew tea just by pouring boiling water into the empty pot. Highly praised for its porous nature, which works wonders in absorbing the flavor of tea, Yixing clay makes awesome teapots, while at the same time, is also an excellent material for making bonsai pot.

Yixing clay potteries are usually left unglazed. With Yixing clay’s porous nature, Yixing bonsai pot is excellent in moisture absorption and ventilation, very suitable for the growth of bonsai trees. Moreover, the unpretentious earthy tones and subtle beauty give more reasons for the bonsai enthusiast to fall in love with these bonsai pots that are made of Yixing clay.

Yixing – The Capital of Chinese Pottery

Yixing (宜興) is located in the Taihu Lake drainage area of Yangtze River Delta, about three-hour drive away from Shanghai, or an hour from Wuxi. Enjoying the reputation as “the capital of Chinese pottery”, Yixing is splendid in the pottery culture and tea culture.

Yixing Clay

Yixing clay has been made into pottery for thousands of years in the Yixing area. While there are Yixing potteries showcased in museums dating back as far as 6,000 years ago, many would agree that Yixing/zisha pottery started in the Northern Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. Yixing clay occurs naturally in three characteristic colors: purplish brown (zisha clay, 紫砂泥), light greenish buff (鍛泥), and cinnabar red (朱泥). Other colors are created by mixing these three colors or by adding mineral pigments.

There is a household story about the discovery of Yixing clay.

Long, long ago, a monk came to Yixing one day and told the locals that he had something valuable to show. People of Yixing were curious and followed the monk into a cave, where the monk suddenly disappeared without any trace. While the local people of Yixing couldn’t find the monk, they found a very unique kind of clay – Yixing zisha clay.

You may also be interested in this article – Bonsai Pots of Different Materials

Saika Bonsai – Do You Count This as Bonsai?

Post author By Sandy
Post date May 11, 2010
1 Comment on Saika Bonsai – Do You Count This as Bonsai?

I unexpectedly found a few videos called “How to make your own bonsai” when I was watching some other videos on YouTube last night. There are quite many videos on YouTube demonstrating bonsai techniques and sharing bonsai tips, but what caught my attention are that these videos I found are demonstrated by a Japanese girl, and what she is showing is not any traditional bonsai style, but a new bonsai style called Saika Bonsai (彩花盆栽).

Saika Bonsai (literally means colorful flower bonsai) is a modern bonsai style features combination of trees and plants with free-spirited pot design. And the Japanese girl – Kaori Yamada (山田香織) – in the videos is actually the fifth generation bonsai master of Seikouen (清香園) bonsai garden – a well-established bonsai garden shop that is founded in the Edo period (1848-1854).

For over a thousand years, the traditional bonsai art has created symbolic representations of the nature in small containers. Small trees are pruned and trained with tremendous patience and skills for years and even decades to achieve the look and ambiance of an aged tree in the nature. As a traditional Japanese bonsai practice, the bonsai, which often is a single tree, is formally exhibited in a tokono-ma (a wooden display space for flowers or art in a traditional Japanese tatami room). Due to the bonsai skills, the rigid rules and enormous patience required, it is found difficult to fit traditional bonsai art into the lifestyle of the younger generation as well as the city people today.Yet, with Saika Bonsai, Kaori Yamada has updated and rejuvenated the traditional bonsai art with a modern twist. Well matched to modern interiors, this new bonsai style has attracted city people nowadays, as well as women and the younger generations.

I like what Kaori Yamada shows in the videos and I definitely would like to give it a try and make a saika bonsai, but I won’t dare to call these potted plants as bonsai in the presence of my bonsai teacher, Wong Tsau Shing – a Lingnan penjing master and Chairman of Institute of Lingnan Penjing, Hong Kong. I might have guessed wrong, but I think Teacher Wong, like many bonsai artists, will criticize Saika Bonsai as not real bonsai.

How about you? Do you count Saika Bonsai style as real bonsai?

Here are the website of Saika Bonsai of Seikouen, as well as a post about Kaori Yamada.

And here is the link to the Saika Bonsai video – Bonsai: The Universe As A Tree Lesson 1 – demonstrated by Kaori Yamada. There are 3 lessons, and this is the first and the only one with English subtitle. You can find the other two Saika Bonsai videos on the left of the page in the Bonsai session.

Photo by Seikouen

Bonsai How To Featured Articles Wiring

Can Bonsai Wire Be Reused?

Post author By Sandy
Post date March 28, 2010
4 Comments on Can Bonsai Wire Be Reused?

As our bonsai trees grow, the branches slowly increase in size. Any wire on the branches of our bonsai trees can become tight, and as it does, mark the bark. In severe cases, the wires may have dug deep into the branches and cause permanent scars. While light markings will grow out in a year or two, heavy markings can be permanent. In order to avoid these ugly wire marks on our bonsai trees, we should check the wires wound on our bonsai trees regularly and remove them before they have a chance to dig into the bark.

While most of the bonsai websites I have visited so far say “no” to reusing bonsai wire and recommend that the wire be removed by cutting each turn with some wire cutters, I don’t hold my ground strongly against the reusing of bonsai wire. I unwind and reuse my bonsai wire, but I only do so when it is safe for my bonsai trees. This means that the wire must not have bitten into the bark, and the branch must be strong and healthy. In addition, it is much easier to unwind wires safely on thick branches than thin ones. Do not try to unwind the wire if the wire has already bitten deep into the branch. In this case, we should use our wire cutters.

Moreover, above suggestions only apply to aluminum bonsai wire. Do not bother to unwind copper wire as it is impossible to remove kinks from it once it is bent and becomes hard. Always remove copper wires with wire cutters.

Either we reuse our bonsai wire or not, checking the bonsai wires wound on our bonsai trees regularly is the best thing we can do for our trees. Like unwinding bonsai wire, using a wire cutter to remove bonsai wire can be dangerous too if the wire has dug very deep into the bark or if we are just not being careful enough.