Conducted by Challenger TAFE Centre for Adult Education, our third workshop in this series entitled "Basics of Bonsai Continued" was held at John Curtin College of the Arts in Fremantle on Saturday 20th of March 2004 with 8 Bonsai enthusiasts enrolled.

Presenter Liana and assistant Gay brought along the usual array of pots, tools, soils, gravels and a large assortment of stock trees to prepare as Bonsai.

This workshop is for both novices and more advanced students and is structured into 3 parts:

#1 is to reduce the height of a tall fig tree and we achieve this by grafting.  Students are given a 4 year old Fig tree in a plastic pot and following Liana's demonstration, graft the top of the tree to the bottom of the tree removing the middle 2 or 3 inches.  This may sound difficult but the participants, who were all previous workshop attendees breezed through this section with superb ease.  You must be learning...!

#2 is the creation of a Bonsai where each participant chooses their own tree and pot and crafts a Bonsai in the style of ‘Cascade’, ‘Slanting’, ‘Exposed Root’ or ‘Forest’ (Chinese Elms are potted in groups of 7 little trees).  Liana spent maximum time with each participant during this part to ensure that each personal goal was met.

#3 is wiring and styling. Participants are given free reign to ‘wire a branch’ to a desired shape.  Comments on the day included ‘this is not as easy as I thought’ and the questions that arose from this exercise were very appropriate.  A lot of time was spent in discussing styles and different ways to achieve a final Bonsai presentation.

The wall paintings are almost as colourful as the Bonsai....!

Our assistant Gay helped us all day long and the workshop finished at 4:00pm. Participants departed with a grafted Fig Tree, a completed Bonsai in a ceramic pot, all accessories which are included in the workshop plus bags of soils, cuttings and other Bonsai items that were purchased. 

Congratulations and happy Bonsai training to everyone!