ACBS Does Small Exhibit at Yoga Central in Canton Ohio

ACBS members presented a small exhibit at Yoga Central in Canton Ohio this past weekend. Along with its many classes in Yoga, this new facility contains some prominent  gallery space where it features local artists.

For this exhibit, we chose a number of bonsai that we believe reflected a yoga spirit. All but four were developed from throw-away material--trees and shrubs that otherwise would have been shredded or thrown into landfills.  Of course, when recovered, they didn't look like they do now. Many were overgrown and diseased plants or even stumps.

Developing a presentable bonsai from such material typically is a five to ten year project.  These once discarded trees, designed and trained by ACBS members have been given a whole new life as a bonsai.  By doing so, most will outlive their caretakers.

The concord grape and two yews were torn out during building renovations. The spruce, scots pine, and large juniper were from construction sites.  The arborvitae was taken out of a road ditch, and small cascade juniper was picked up on trash night.

For this exhibit also, we left out any reference to member names. It was just the trees themselves.

We hope the visitors enjoyed our exhibit.


We have posted a video tour of the exhibit on our youtube chanel at this link, and hope our internet friends enjoy it as well.

Namaste.

June 2016 ACBS Exhibition Photos & Video Posted

Two Satsuki azalea bonsai in bloom, yews, pines, junipers, a concord grape, as well as our club penjing project assembled, sprawling and looking lush--these  are just some of the cool trees in our June show.









We invite all of our internet bonsai friends to take a look at the pictures of our June show on our gallery site at this link.

ALSO, take a look at this video tour of the exhibit, now showing over at our Youtube site.   You will wish you were there.  

Akron Canton Bonsai Society' Annual June Show-- June 10-12

The Akron Canton Bonsai Society

Presents

A Bonsai Exhibition

June 10th to 12th, 2016

at the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center
2131 Front Street, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Admission: Free  Show runs concurrent with the Irish Fest 

The exhibition with feature local bonsai artists, and contain various examples of bonsai styles and species.
http://akroncantonbonsai.blogspot.com/

We would like to invite all of our internet friends to attend our annual show.  Following the exhibition, we will post photos and videos of the show on our gallery and you tube sites.  

Nothing Says Spring Like Bonsai--or Reason No. 50-something: Why I love Bonsai

by Michael Rusnak

Fresh Japanese Maple leaf after a rain

For me bonsai makes spring a more exciting season. It begins with seeing the trees start to leaf out. I know this sounds crazy, but at other points in the year, I forget how amazing the spring break out can be. The bright young leaves and their color just makes me happy to look at it. I believe this euphoric response has something to do with the color, and maybe light in addition to seeing the trees pop out. It is sort of an instinctive reaction. Its kind of like the feelings I get when the weather first turns cold in the fall. I'll get an urge to make all sorts of comfort food-- pot roast, stews and baked macaroni and cheese.

Ginkgo Leaves coming out in a swirl

Anyway, one of the cool things about bonsai is how it brings these ordinary things to eye level. I wanted to preserve the moment, so I played a little bit with my camera, It had rained all night, making the leaves heavy and weeping. Plus their bright greens stood out in contrast against their dark trunks.

My particular favorites are fist the larches with their vibrant pale green foliage. Then there's the colorful small unfolding leaves of the Japanese maples with slight red highlights on the tips. They look better than the flowers of many plants. And there is nothing like the small rosette-like leaves of the grapevines starting to unfold. One other cool shot came from the ginkgo. They come out in a small round package of leaflets that were still holding a few drops of rain from the night before. Again the foliage has such a fresh shades. Something to remember on those winter days. 

Concord grape leaflets look like rosettes--spring colors

Bonsai does it again.

It was a great morning. I even made a little video tour of my backyard bonsai garden and growing area on ACBS's YouTube spot at 

 

https://youtube/MBVPihEzyaI

 

ACBS's Own Ken Huth Leads Pine Project

By Michael Rusnak

Ken does it again!

Like so many other times in the past, ACBS's own Ken Huth put on a fun and

Ken shows one s

successful workshop at the February club meeting. This time it was with small scots pines. Ken demonstrated how he starts these small projects by wiring triple strands around the trunks of some potted seedlings and around some of the smaller side branches, he then giving them some movement.

He included such wiring tips as positioning branch bends within an “elbow” of the wire. That elbow helps to support the branch at stress points and lessens the chance of it breaking or snapping off as you apply pressure.

 

He turned the group loose and it was on. Many did three or four starter trees, and it will be fun to see how they progress this coming season. Ken also gave several of our newer members a neat hands-on lesson in wiring. 

 Ken also talked about some of his experiments with steel wire –only 5 bucks a role a the hardware stores. Plus it's quite strong.

Creating a Bonsai from a Trunk with One Branch

Juniper at 2007 ACBS show

At 2014 ACBS show

 Michael Rusnak

 If you didn't quite understand the idea of creating a tree skeleton and tilting the trunk, here is another example by one of our own.  Bonsai Ace Dan Tullius shows how it is done on this big discarded, and collected juniper.

 Dan shows us the way: Check out what you can do when you only have one branch—Dan has angled the dead trunk and let the single branch become the new trunk. A simple but beautiful design, he has then worked with the branch's shoots to grow the foliage, done some carving on the dead wood, and made a first rate tree.

Dan shows us the way

Another one branch example from Graham Potter's Blog