Sometimes I work on nursery trees, sometimes I work on client’s trees……and sometimes if I’ve been a really good boy I get to work on my own trees. Hopefully these regular visits will give you an insight into what goes on behind closed doors……….
Studio Stories – Andrew’s Yew gets off to a good start!
This was one of a number of trees we had acquired from an old Yew hedge. Baring in mind that Yews are generally slow growing there must be quite some age to this hedge.
Most people tend to walk straight past this material…..it can be uninspiring with it’s heavy trunk and sparse branches. When we potted these trees up just over two years ago there was no foliage on them whatsoever so all the greenery is recent confirming root growth and recovery.
Andrew was undeterred and when I showed him a picture (see below) of what I had in mind for this tree he was actually quite excited! We discussed the tree at length and I made an initial branch selection removing all unwanted foliage.
I marked on the trunk where I thought the shari would run and the bark was stripped off. Andrew did most of the carving work at home and for a relative newcomer to the hobby he has done a fantastic job.
We are already carrying out refinement work on the deadwood and I hope that this year we can start work on the foliage areas. The good thing is we don’t need massive branches because the foliage clouds will be relatively small and tight to the trunk in sympathy with the image we have created.
One thing is for certain…..nobody will just walk straight past this tree again!!!
