The time finally came around last weekend that I was able to give my Cedar an initial styling so I headed to Bonsai Eejit’s garage for some valuable guidance during the process. Secondary branches were thinned out to aid wiring of the whole tree and every branch (almost!) was wired. This was my first time wiring an entire tree and it was a bit laborious at first but towards the end I was getting the hang of it (although a lot of practice is needed!). Again, I have very limited experience of styling raw material/trees so Eejit talked me through it and I learned quite a few things as he carried out the job. We finished at around 2:30am and I was pleased with the result.
I went with the shorter trunk option and quickly hacked off the taller one before doubts set in. A long thick jin was left but I plan to refine the deadwood next year. There were only four primary branches on the tree and they all came from the same place. Luckily they were pretty flexible as quite a bit of bending was necessary to move them into place.
Its a skeleton image with a lot of foliage development needed over the next number of years but I’ve got a firm direction to go in now that the trunk and primary branches are set. More pics from different angles: