Saturday was the Spring Members' Day at New England Bonsai in Mass.
Bonsai Master Hiromi Tsukada gave a demo on an impressive Rocky Mountain Juniper.
What he did with this tree amazed us all. I asked co-owner Hitoshi afterwards if he thought the tree was pushed to far and his reply was- "You and I might not be comfortable doing such work but he (Mr. Tsukada) is"
Time will certainly be the final judge as to this magnificent trees future but for me the demo was inspirational. Not that I'll go home and start working my trees like this but that there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat. What I have learned in the past is not always set in stone.

I'll try to take you through the demo with these pics. Please excuse the poor photo skills. I spent most of the time in awe, chatting about what we were watching with the folks around me. The whole room was on edge wondering if this would be one of those demo trees that doesn't make it.

Here we decide the style to go with.

Styrofoam is placed in a grow pot with the tree on top and plastic wrap holding the whole thing in.

With the tree set up now we are given the opportunity to picture the tree we plan to bring out.
Mr Tsukada set about making a drawing.

Hitoshi gets to play with some of the power tools.
This one was commissioned by Mr. Tsukada of his own design. Belt drive.

Here is the Image Mr. Tsukada came up with.

I think this is where someone actually asks if the tree will live. =-)
Mr tsukada reasurers the doubting Thomas's there are enough healthy roots and it will be a lenthy process of reducing the trees dependence on the roots sticking out of the pot.

Most of the foliage is trimmed. Branches destined to be Jin are completely trimmed.

Here the carving starts.
Look how fast he's moving. It's a blurr.....or was that my bad photography?

Some branches are wired and the apex set up.

The top mass of roots are teased out.