Collecting trees to make Bonsai - Bonsai Series

The bonsai, is called living art. It is said that it is an art because it has artistic guidelines, this design and creativity must predominate at the moment of creating our work of art. It is living because unlike other arts, such as sculpture, the bonsai part of a plant or tree that is alive, which can be purchased in a nursery or go to the field in search of a piece with unique characteristics, produced by the inclemency of time and the passing of days to the outdoor. This tree that works as a canvas, is alive, that is, it needs daily care and a series of factors to be able to stay alive for many years. It needs a substrate, clean water, sunlight, fertilizers and can even be attacked by pests and diseases.

A good material to start a bonsai, is one that, as I mentioned above, has marks left by the passing of days in the outdoor, water, sun, breeze, termites and other factors we are ahead of the work and also seeks that the material has movement in its trunk, the more dramatic the better. That is why we prefer to go out of collection in places where we will be deforesting the trees for purposes, livestock or construction, such as farms, future roads, plots where new residences will be built, among others.

A material collected from the field is known in Japanese as "Yamadori" and is the option that many artists prefer to start. This is why we formed a team of bonsai friends, to go out collecting. Pick and hand saw in hand we went in search of that trunk that will serve us to start our future dwarf trees.

It is very pleasant to share with friends who speak the same language, spend a day sharing experiences in search of that holy grail of bonsai hehe.

Once the material is selected, the work begins. Trying to remove that trunk, with the largest amount of rootlets, wrap it in a moist paper and take it home to transplant, is something that is said easy and fast, but it takes intrinsic hard work and long days of study of the technique.

Then to wait! It is up to 30 days to wait to start observing a new sprout of branches of the trunk, which must grow and achieve an adequate thickness to apply the technique of tutors, according to the design we have for the tree. But it is worth waiting for because the trunk already has a shape that gives character to the tree and unlike a nursery tree, with a tree of collection in a year we can begin to see the results of our work of art and that, that It becomes like good wine, which as the years go by becomes more beautiful.

This art teaches you to be patient, to sow and to wait to get the results. But in that wait, they become good friends, who will help you improve the technique and encourage you to learn new ways of doing things. You also become an ecologist, you try to preserve nature and the love for forests, trees and all that creation of God is born or grows. Sometimes when we focus on the daily routine of the city we forget that it exists.

Note: the bonsai of the photo is not dead, its leaves were defoliated for the purposes of the photograph.