Noob Greenmound Juniper pruning

[mgonz121]

I bought this Greenmound Juniper from Lowes on sale for $7. It was on sale because a lot of the branches were dying. The trunk looked interesting so I decided to buy it and see if I could start a bonsai. I am attaching some pictures of how it looked when I got it in early July.
I decided to prune the dead branches and give it some initial shape. Well it seems that I got too enthusiastic and did relative heavy pruning and then wiring. The poor juniper was in bad shape when I started View attachment 450006 and I might have put a nail on its coffin. Hopefully it will survive and prove me wrong. I plan not to touch it again until next year.
If you have any advice on how to take care of it to give it the best chance of surviving the Michigan winter and hopefully thriving next year please let me know your comments

 

[MSU JBoots]

I would probably give it morning sun and afternoon shade if you can since it has very little foliage for transpiration during august heat. Last winter was my first overwintering bonsai. I heeled all my pots into the ground and covered them with a couple inches of mulch. Then surrounded them by a burlap wind screen. They all survived. This included a pine, trident maple, a spruce, and juniper. I’ll likely do something similar if not the same this year.

 

[MSU JBoots]

On a positive note you did a decent job of wiring. I’ve seen much worse!

 

[mgonz121]

Since I have to leave the first one alone, I went and got another one from Lowes on the sale rack $9 . I only cut the obvios dead foliage, no pruning (yet). It has an interesting trunk. I also bought a Dwarf Alberta Spruce, $5 from the sales rack. Did not do anything to that one yet, except water it.