Unusual shape olive tree

One of the many good things with olive trees is that you can find them in nature in many shapes and forms. The following is good example of an unusuall shape, there is nothing on this one to remind you of an olive tree.

Collected one year ago and preliminary styled a couple of days ago. Preliminary styled in such a way to give you the flexibility for redesign.
Still needs a lot of work / cleaning on the dead wood.

Any design suggestions and or comments are more than welcome.

As collected
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Today
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Greg you dont use your background and your pictures are not very clear......As you said there is 2 much dead wood around which is confusing the isue....How tall is that tree Greg?I am wondering whether you could have cut away the top straight part....Nice mature base and good prospects for this tree,keep us posted...

Savvas P. wrote:Greg you dont use your background and your pictures are not very clear......As you said there is 2 much dead wood around which is confusing the isue....How tall is that tree Greg?I am wondering whether you could have cut away the top straight part....Nice mature base and good prospects for this tree,keep us posted...

Sorry Savvas, next time I will use my background
Well is not so straight the top as can be seen from the photos but maybe is a good idea to reduce it a little.

a few more photos with a black background Mr Savvas!

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an update... after a few hours of cleaning the dead wood.

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nice base of trunk, way too much deadwood that distracts and tires the eye. (IMHO)

Nice work on the dead wood Greg,but overall it needs tidying up...Maybe its the angle of the picture the object is not very clear...At the moment you dont know where to focus...the live or the dead part....what do you think?you c the tree better than all of us.

Stauros & Savvas you are both right, too much dead wood above the base. with all this dead wood, the branches with the flames makes the tree to look unique. On the other hand it doesnt look right. So Iam in a dilimma if I must keep all this dead wood.
Any suggestions?

I would surely lower the dead wood,to give more emphasis ot the tree,and also to the beautyfull dead wood of the base....To be honest if you dont see the tree '"live" you can realy tell..

Perhaps something like this


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wildfig wrote:Perhaps something like this


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ITs look much better like this!!
Thanks Christo!!
I think I will go with something like this

A surely much better option....now there is a balance Greg.....Good one Christo....

just an update.

Carving / cleaning of dead wood completed and a layer of lime sulphur applied.
Now is ready fo further styling!

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styling completed choosing the front as shown on the photos. No dead wood removed for the time being. It doesnt look bad!

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I still feel that there is way too much and messy deadwood that distracts the eye.

The whole point is to find the best feature and build your design around it, making it the focal point of your tree. In this case, the eye does not know where to look at.

stavros wrote:I still feel that there is way too much and messy deadwood that distracts the eye.

The whole point is to find the best feature and build your design around it, making it the focal point of your tree. In this case, the eye does not know where to look at.

You may right about the messy deadwood. Can be removed any time later.

Just an update....
The tree moved to a 12 inches round pot by Tony Remington.
I hope that Tony will like the tree - pot combination.

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Hi Greg
I think the combo looks great. I was in Mallorca a month ago and went up into the mountains. We passed through some ancient olive groves with some trees hundreds of years old. They were beautifully gnarled and sculpted by the seasons and the passage of time. You did good Greg
Tony

Tony,
many thanks for your reply. I am very pleased that you like it. And many thanks for this lovely pot!

A very unique tree Greg and the pot suits just fine,perfect combination....