Ken To – Wire Bonsai Trees

I met Ken through Facebook and discovered that he was an artisan creating small bonsai trees out of wires. I had only seen this before at Green Club in Tokyo and was delighted to find they could be purchased from him over at eBay. You can see what he currently has listed by clicking this link.  What follows is my request to Ken to provide me with some background information on his interest in bonsai and ultimately is desire to create them from wire.  I acquired two of these trees for KJ and they now sit on a nice bonsai stand in our display cases. I hope you enjoy the post and photos.

Ken To - Wire Bonsai Tree

 

I got into bonsai in 2007 when my son, who was three years old at the time, saw a mallsai in the Wal-mart garden center and wanted it to buy it. We both liked the mudman sitting next to the juniper whip so I decided to shell out the $12 to buy it. The mudman had a broken arm but I thought maybe I can buy another mudman to replace it. The search for a replacement mudman was where my addiction to bonsai really started.

I started visiting bonsai nurseries and retail outlets that I’ve never even bothered to look at in the past and the trees they carried really inspired me. The people at these nurseries were really knowledgeable and offered me tons of advice that helped me start up my own collection. The most important advice I gained was how to recognize a bonsai.
In less than a year, my collection grew to approximately 80 trees and I used each tree to practice on extensively. Not many of those trees survived but the ones that did taught me a lot about styling and the importance of timing your work. I enjoy working on trees and I needed a way to keep busy during the winter months. I also needed a way to improve my styling techniques without having to spend too much on material. There were some vendors at a swap meet selling wire bonsai trees, they weren’t very impressive as they were shapeless but the sight of these trees gave me an idea.

Ken To - Wire Bonsai Tree

I made my first wire tree during Christmas of 2007 as a gift for my wife. The wire I used wasn’t very good and my shaping techniques weren’t worth talking about either. But my wife, as well as everyone else we showed, was thoroughly impressed that it was possible to make a tree out of wire.

Ken To - Wire Bonsai Tree

In February of 2010, I made my wife a second tree for Valentine’s Day. My technique has improved by now but I still didn’t have the right wire and I was desperately in need of an easier way to shape the foliage. That’s when I saw Kevin Iris’ work. Kevin posted his trees in a forum after seeing my work. I saw how efficient and how beautiful his trees are and I knew I had been shown a better and faster way to make the foliage.

I finally found the perfect wire for my needs and started making the trees in abundance. I always do things in abundance when I’m learning something. It was the same as when I first learned bonsai, I knew the only way to get better was through perpetual practice. I made a lot of trees and needed to get rid of some to make room for more so I started selling them.

I had no idea what to expect from when selling my trees, the first few went for next to nothing but the prices got better as I got more practice, this meant I was doing something right and that I’m getting better at it. I’m nowhere near as good as I would like to be with wire trees but I’m at least comfortable with the material now.

Just as it is in bonsai, it takes a lot of time and practice to understand the material and respect it. While my passion is still with live bonsai trees, these wire trees help me hone my styling skills and I never get bored learning anything related to bonsai.

Ken To - Wire Bonsai Tree

You can see more of his tree by heading over to Facebook.

Kuzuya-ishi – Or Thatched Hut Stone

One of our favorite stones is the kuzyua-ishi, or thatched hut stone.  What a beautiful scenic view of a lonely hut in the distance.  You know the kind that has that thick straw-like material on the roof.  Here is a photo we took in 2010 in Kyoto.

Thatch roof on the grounds of the Golden Pavillion

We love the bright green moss growing on the roof.  Hut stones can be found in great numbers – unfortunately most of them are carved.  Needless to say, when we first got into suiskei we purchased numerous hut stones to determine later on that they were simply carved stones.

Our favorite ones are artistic interpretations of one of these lonely thatched huts.  Take this one for example.

An Introduction to Suiseki By Matsuura Arishige (©2010)

What an incredible stone with very good patina and a well matched diaza.  What we like about this stone is that it is quite natural – more of an artist rendering of an old hut.  A very nice aged stone.

So can we find stones like this in America?  My experience is that it is rare to find a natural stone of this quality.  If you have found one we would love to feature it on our blog!  So for the most part we have had to “purchase” our hut stones realizing that most of them have been likely carved. So let’s take a look at a few in our collection or those of a good friend.

Hut stone - likely carved.

A nice stone but we think it has been carved.  However, whomever did the carving did a decent job.  The stone could use more patina but we enjoy the stone nevertheless.

Hut stone from the same dealer as above.

Well a number of similarities wouldn’t you say.  Again, we can’t say for sure it was carved – but these two stones are very similar.

Another hut stone.

Are we beginning to see a pattern?  I think we might.  Anytime there is a great demand for any item you can be sure that someone is going to attempt to meet that demand.  Perhaps a good stone carver just can’t resist “creating” in such a short time what nature takes eons to do.

A more artistic interpretation?

This stone I have held an examined.  I believe the bottom has been worked but otherwise the stone appears to be natural.  I like this stone because it reminds me of the first stone in this post.  Is the opening carved? Who knows – and perhaps who cares.

Type of stone? I'm not sure.

I’m not really sure what type of stone this might be but we do like it.  It reminds me more of a cave hut that a straw thatched hut.  The texture of the stone is inviting and gets our imagination in gear. Anyone thinking “Clan of the Cave Bear” by Jean Auel?

So what do we think about these stones? It really revolves again around your personal view on carved stones.  If it is carved is it suiseki?  Some would say absolutely not.  Others might let it slip by especially if you own it.

Our view is a bit more simplistic as is our view on most art.  Do we enjoy it? Do we tire of it upon seeing it every day?  Are we pleased to have it in our collection?  If the answers are yes, no and yes – then we think it doesn’t matter.  Would we prefer to own the top stone in this post well of course.  However, how many of us will ever own one?  In some degrees it is like the argument of an original oil  painting or a very good copy.  Is the point to own the original, which most of us simply can not afford, or to have something that is close to the original – affordable and thus within our grasp?  I believe the latter.

That being said, when we collect we constantly are looking for a natural kuzuya-ishi to add to our collection. What a prize that would be.  Believe me the moment we find one we will post it.

Sam and KJ

P.S. If my schedule slows down I will get up the photos of pots for sale.  Between work, teaching, and taking college classes again it seems time for photography is  just hard to come by.  Sam