Brazilian Raintree carving

Does anyone remember the tree I took all of the airlayers off of?
No? Check here And here for part 1 and 2
Here is post 3

I’m stylin’!

There it is; the tall one in the back. Mocking me with its thorns.

I’m going to keep it tall. A Bunjin.
I got it from Mike Cartrett several years ago. He said it was a part of a limb that got broken out of a full size raintree in his yard when the three hurricanes hit Florida a few years ago. He put it and some others into a some soil and they grew.
I bought two from him. I’ll show the other one in a different post.

I have not even dug down into the soil yet. I can’t wait.

Here’s the dead part I’m going to carve.

The dead section goes down to here.

One feature of a larger Raintree is the different color bark in an almost camouflage pattern.
And of course the sinuous and muscular trunk.

A couple of more views

A quick styling. This pic shows the trunk movement nicely.

On to carving-

It’s easier to carve if you’re able to lay the tree down.

Here’s the first pass.
I carve using different size tools, as well as different bits. It is a process with many steps and sometimes days or months in between. If you’re carving fresh, living wood the nature of it sometimes won’t let you carve. It’s usually too wet and details just won’t carve. This differs with the species of course.

Here are the roots. What a pleasant surprise. That makes my day.

Nice base. Dave put it in a mica training pot for me.

I’m not keeping it that tall. The leader is just a “just-in-case” branch.
The Brazilian Raintree is prone to dieback so I’m being cautious a bit.

So I’ll cut this branch back to whatever pops out on it (in the right spot, hopefully)

Two days later…..
Here’s how I left the carving.
I only used my die grinder that night with a bit called a rotosaw.

Which is this tool. It’s bright orange so I can find it when the imbibing has matured to carving capacity. Not really.

Time for my flex shaft carver.
I love this tool.

To give the branch character, first carve some movement into it. Thin it out too. Proportion is important in bonsai. Too often I’ll see a beautifully styled and developed bonsai with a big clunky jin on it. Try to make it light and airy and the keep the details in scale with the tree.

This tree will have both hollow trunk technique and branch jin technique.

The fibers on this one are quite annoying.

Sanding drum bit. Might work.

A little better.

Fire…..hehehehehee!
I use this as a last resort,usually. Or for parties and bar mitvahs. Try the veal. I’ll be here all week.

So basically the fire burns the fibers away and softens some edges. This makes the texture look more weathered.

Now I have to get rid of the charcoal.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz

There we go. Ahhh

Looks good to me. Finally.

This was the before.

And the after.

I won’t use lime sulfur quite yet. I like for the wood to dry a bit and shrink. Just my preference.

For those who noticed the backgrounds, here are two close ups. That’s a fly above.
And The Witness below.

He’s seen everything that’s happened in The Nook.

Thanks to Dave for the help

Here he is with his first buttonwood.

And a parting shot; some bonsai porn