Yorkshire Bonsai Association
The Yorkshire Bonsai Association
Work in Progress
Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
Split Trunk Hornbeam
The raw material. Originally a tree collected from a nurseries hedge, cut down and allowed to grow on in a large pot for a good few years. The top of the pot has been cut down to make the nebari more visible.
Details of the lower trunk. You can see how flutes in the trunk are starting to appear which give us almost "cut here" lines when we begin the carving. Unfortunately branches appear from between these veins, this is a definite fault.
The chop is reduced using an angle grinder with an arbor attachment.
The "split" is enlarged. It is important that you do not just carve a channel in the trunk when creating the split trunk image but create many layers and interesting fissures.
The "fluffy" bits are burnt out with a blowtorch. It will take many more hours of carving before the split is really convincing.
The branches are wired and put into their relevant positions.
The tree back at home. It will be allowed to grow unchecked and will be fed and watered well. The carved area will be allowed to decompose naturally in a controlled manner to remove tooling marks and to give a much more natural appearance.