Natural deadwood impressions

[R3x]

On my holiday in Chalkidiki, Greece I found few very interesting pieces of deadwood worked out by sea. So I couldn't resist and filled all remaining space in the car with them and transported them all 1400km back home. Fortunately my wife has understanding for this. I include some photos of these as they are very inspirational for me as to what naturally looking deadwood can/should look like. Some of them are asking to be made into tanuki.

 

[R3x]

Here's some more.

 

[R3x]

This one wasn't found by the sea but on the side of hill track eroded by weather and ants (I think I have taken some of them home with it).

 

[SU2]

Wow I feel dumb for having posted the thread I just posted yesterday to this sub-forum and not having read through yours (title didn't seem it'd be about color but that's part of what's in these awesome photos!)

Thanks a ton for sharing, I'm actually in the middle of trying to mess-around with darkening-techniques (paint, ash, etc) used with lime sulfur as so much of my collection is deciduous broadleaf and collected / trunk-chopped, so there's so much deadwood and LS is too white....I'll probably get savaged for saying this but, while I like the path he's taking, I've found some of Harrington's coloration in his youtubes to be pretty obviously fake-looking, anyways I was literally checking my thread (no replies yet ) to see about techs for darkening LS for use on deciduous right before going outside to start messing with colorant-ratios in the LS / take photos / work towards 'my formula', so thanks again I really appreciate you sharing I've actually saved all of them into a folder (and realized I didn't even have a 'deadwood folder'...tssk tssk!) but it's great just viewing them now before a session of trying to artificially replicate this!

(am aware burnishing is a solid alternative in general, but I've yet to get an answer as to how well it protects relative to LS, as well as to how you can actually fully cover the deadwood ie you're burnishing and no matter how precise you are you can't burnish the end of the deadwood w/o burning the live-vein abutting it to some degree...I've yet to learn if people just butt-up to it and it's no bigging getting the edge hot for a second, or if they skip the edges, because if it's the latter then I can't rely on that, most of my trees are bougies and in my climate especially their wood just degrades faster than most other species (heck they're not even trees, technically!) so if LS > burnishing I'm basically forced there, at least in the time while they're all in-development which is at least another 1.5-2.5yrs, at which point I'd happily call them 'pre-bonsai' and be hedge-pruning instead of growing out bushes-on-stumps lol!)

 

[GGB]

fun to look at. Those thin grooves running through some of them are unlike anything I've seen here in the Eastern states

 

[Clicio]

Tanuki some!

 

[R3x]

Wow I feel dumb for having posted the thread I just posted yesterday to this sub-forum and not having read through yours (title didn't seem it'd be about color but that's part of what's in these awesome photos!)

The idea wasn't it was supposed to be about color - more about texture and patterns. Maybe my use of English was too creative. I'll check your thread and might have some answer.

 

[R3x]

Tanuki some!

Hajime!

 

[R3x]

This one wasn't found by the sea but on the side of hill track eroded by weather and ants (I think I have taken some of them home with it).
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Actually - after 2 weeks I found out inside was a big nest of large ants crawling in and out. Had to "deal" with them unfortunately. Gonna use some lime sulfur to make it more white and then use something like Paraloid B72 to harden it.

 

[PaulH]

Thanks for sharing. I saved my favorites to my "inspiration" folder.

 

[defra]

Wow I feel dumb for having posted the thread I just posted yesterday to this sub-forum and not having read through yours (title didn't seem it'd be about color but that's part of what's in these awesome photos!)

Thanks a ton for sharing, I'm actually in the middle of trying to mess-around with darkening-techniques (paint, ash, etc) used with lime sulfur as so much of my collection is deciduous broadleaf and collected / trunk-chopped, so there's so much deadwood and LS is too white....I'll probably get savaged for saying this but, while I like the path he's taking, I've found some of Harrington's coloration in his youtubes to be pretty obviously fake-looking, anyways I was literally checking my thread (no replies yet ) to see about techs for darkening LS for use on deciduous right before going outside to start messing with colorant-ratios in the LS / take photos / work towards 'my formula', so thanks again I really appreciate you sharing I've actually saved all of them into a folder (and realized I didn't even have a 'deadwood folder'...tssk tssk!) but it's great just viewing them now before a session of trying to artificially replicate this!

(am aware burnishing is a solid alternative in general, but I've yet to get an answer as to how well it protects relative to LS, as well as to how you can actually fully cover the deadwood ie you're burnishing and no matter how precise you are you can't burnish the end of the deadwood w/o burning the live-vein abutting it to some degree...I've yet to learn if people just butt-up to it and it's no bigging getting the edge hot for a second, or if they skip the edges, because if it's the latter then I can't rely on that, most of my trees are bougies and in my climate especially their wood just degrades faster than most other species (heck they're not even trees, technically!) so if LS > burnishing I'm basically forced there, at least in the time while they're all in-development which is at least another 1.5-2.5yrs, at which point I'd happily call them 'pre-bonsai' and be hedge-pruning instead of growing out bushes-on-stumps lol!)

Ive seen people add black ink trough the lime sulpher to darken it.
Make sure its black tough cus ive seen a blue jin lol

 

[leatherback]

Make sure its black tough cus ive seen a blue jin lol

I have brown and black now. And somehow I managed to create a brown that you do not see on the yins: I tested a bit on a branch and no discoloration took place after drying. Maybe I should make a large batch and start commercializing it!

 

[defra]

I have brown and black now. And somehow I managed to create a brown that you do not see on the yins: I tested a bit on a branch and no discoloration took place after drying. Maybe I should make a large batch and start commercializing it!

Nice, so if understand the test branch did not get the bleached look?

 

[leatherback]

Nice, so if understand the test branch did not get the bleached look?

Nope. Invisible that I added anything! I actually went through the two trees next to it to verify I had not mistakenly looked at the wrong branch!

This is the stuff I added:

 

[leatherback]

Bonsai phylosophy.. Will lime sulphur still protect deadwood if it does not turn white?

 

[Tieball]

@R3x Nice finds on the aged deadwood. I particularly liked examining the deadwood around old branch connections....and those Uro type areas where a hollow was created and then the entire branch broke away. Nice inspiration. Driftwood and naturally aged broken off wood are some of nature’s beautiful preservations. Thanks for posting.

 

[defra]

Bonsai phylosophy.. Will lime sulphur still protect deadwood if it does not turn white?

Yeah that's something to think about lets put to the test?
Two equaly thick Jins or pieces of wood one with ink added the other without and wait a couple years to see if there is a noticeable difference in decay?

 

[leatherback]

Yeah that's something to think about lets put to the test?

After asking myself the question, I did actually check the jar with ink in it. Seems like a lot of cystallization took place. I am fairly certain a large component of the LS has been removed from the liquid. Guess I should not pre-mix batches!