primary wood carving on a yamadori olea

This tree was collected in January 2010 and potted in 80% terramol and 20% slightly decomposted peat moss.
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I left it without any work (except for the removal of the straight uninteresting branches) until today.Inspired by the works of Kevin WIlson, Graham Potter, and of our own( ) Will Baddeley, i decided to give it a go, trying some vary basics. So, today, some woodcarving was done in order to improve a few areas: 1. a thick chopped root that was visible on the left, 2. areas of dead wood that were uninteresting, 3. stumps from previously removed branches. There was no need to overdo it as the tree itself has a beautiful rough bark.
At a second stage, the crown will be dealt with using some wiring.

If you find this interesting, i can upload some close-up pictures too.

before
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After....
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Looks prety natural to me. I look forward to see the wiring of the olive, because until now I have seen only on conifers and deciduous trees. I am interested cause I want to practice on my own olives. Keep us informed on the development.

Bravo re Stavro,good work,as Damianos said,it looks very naturall,and thats the whole point....

Wiring will be applied once i have some secondary branch formation.
My idea is to create a triangular shaped crown, having the heaviest part on the left.

Very nice Stauros. Now got a very interesting trunk! Not a Savvas style I can say

Savvas was asking me what type of bits i used on my machine in order to work on the tree.
I have found that [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is perfect for detailed work and for creating cavities. As Kevin Wilson says, it can be used a a pencil (have a look at his videos on Basho bonsai). It drills and cuts on the side.
To remove bulk of wood, especially on hard wood, i either use the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] or the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Great work Stavros and a very good tree now. Most people have trouble elliminating tool marks but I can't see any here.

will baddeley wrote:Great work Stavros and a very good tree now. Most people have trouble elliminating tool marks but I can't see any here.

As i said, i have tried to imitate the works of Kevin Wilson (as seen in several videos), Graham Potter( as seen in videos and in real life), and yours (as seen in pictures).
I tried to stay on the conservative side....it is so addictive and it is very easy to overdo it with the carving.

Less is more and/or best, Stavros!

the tree showed signs of secondary branching, and it was wired.
i will be waiting to see the growth it will achieve and then decide what to do next.
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I love it is great. Very promising trunk line.
Did you use any wood preserver for the dead part?

Getting better and better friend...

Quite natural looking!
I like it a lot, Stavros!

Greg wrote:I love it is great. Very promising trunk line.
Did you use any wood preserver for the dead part?

i haven't used any wood preserver yet.
i decided to let it weather a bit and then use a wood preserved that would give it a natural colour....(no lime sulphur for this ape of trees)

Thank you all for the nice words.
the tree just started its long journey to become a proper bonsai....If i am lucky in 2-3 years it might get its first pot too.

Stavro,i am not realy keen on lime sulphur on our olivetrees either...i think it looks unnatural to be quite honest...i dont know

I would imagine with these very old, slow growing trees and the fact that olive wood is very hard anyway, that preservatives are not really that necessary. The only problem area might be at soil level where the trees receive more moisture now than when they were in the wild.

will baddeley wrote:I would imagine with these very old, slow growing trees and the fact that olive wood is very hard anyway, that preservatives are not really that necessary. The only problem area might be at soil level where the trees receive more moisture now than when they were in the wild.

this is very true.

Only in cases where wood is already quite soft you might need it where as if its a healthy tree i think you can do without it....but off course you should always keep an eye for suprises....

In my experiance (related to the construction industry) , any (dead) wood hard or soft, exposed to weather conditions must be treated in order to keep it in good condition. You can leave it with out treatment for a couple of years to get a weather effect but eventually you will need to use some kind of preservative.

in any case, i will probably use this product: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]