• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Peter Tea styles Japanese black pine

December 7, 2010 by Jonas Dupuich

Bay Island Bonsai workshops are always a lot of fun. Good atmosphere, good people, and plenty of good trees. Really good trees. At a recent workshop I sat next to Peter Tea who spent the day wiring a Japanese black pine. He finished just in time for some glamor shots with the tree.

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

Peter Tea with freshly wired Japanese black pine

Peter did an excellent job. It’s tricky to wire pines with such dense foliage without breaking needles left and right. And getting each bud to line up and create an attractive silhouette is no easy task. Peter, however, simply started at the bottom and worked his way to the top while making the work look effortless.

Japanese black pine bonsai

The tree has a softer silhouette today than it did when last displayed at Bay Island Bonsai’s 10-year anniversary exhibit in 2009. The apex is rounder and the breaks between pads are less distinct. Over time I expect the pads will continue to shift around a bit as the tree gains maturity. The branches are still young. As they age and gain character, they will contribute a lot to the overall look and feel of the tree and better complement the unusual trunk.

Trunk detail

The subtle changes between wirings are one of the things that makes bonsai so fun for me. The same tree can look very different from year to year. And whenever the artist working on it has the skill of a Peter Tea or our teacher Boon, it will be a pleasure to look at.

✕

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Filed Under: Styling Tagged With: Peter Tea

Previous Post: « Maruyama Bonsai Nursery
Next Post: Fall decandling – an update »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Natural Bonsai says

    December 8, 2010 at 5:15 pm

    Beautiful Tree, WOW!!!!!!!!!!

  2. Juan Andrade says

    December 8, 2010 at 8:56 pm

    NICE!!!!

  3. Jeremiah Lee says

    December 10, 2010 at 10:38 am

    Thanks for this post, Peter is already scary good, I wonder what he’ll be like after Japan. Jonas your photography is great! What type of camera or set up do you use?

    • xwires says

      December 10, 2010 at 11:39 am

      Thanks Jeremiah – I’ll happily plug the Nikon D90 w/kit lens. I typically use natural light, but for these pics, Boon set up some video lighting.

  4. John kirby says

    December 10, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    Ah, Yoshi do good with Kuromatsu.

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2023 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT