The Bonsai Blog of Will Heath

I had the honor of being invited to the Toledo Aikido Dojo to do a workshop with Ficus Retusa.

Recently it was suggested to the students of this Dojo that they take up other hobbies besides Aikido, in keeping with the ancient warrior tradition in which other subjects were studied to “round out” the warrior. Fortunately, a couple of the students had taken workshops of mine at the Michigan All State Show and they contacted me to ask if I would interested in coming to their Dojo to teach.

The hospitality and kindness of Sensei Jay and his students did not go unnoticed and was greatly appreciated. Their actions and manner spoke more of the essence of Aikido than any other subject matter on the martial art ever could. My only regret was that the time went so quickly, there was so much more to share, I certainly hope I passed along enough to spark the interest in these new students of bonsai so that they will continue with the art.

As the majority of the students were absolute beginners, having no experience what-so-ever with bonsai, I chose to use Ficus Retusa for this workshop. Ficus Retusa is a excellent tropical tree that it well suited to bonsai. It responds very well to bonsai techniques, grows fast, does well inside over the winter with little, if any, leaf loss. The material I acquired was excellent, great trunk girth and movement, as well as plenty of branching to work with.

The 20 participants in this workshop pruned, wired, and re-potted their choice of tree and produced some excellent starter bonsai while learning about the history of bonsai and the reasoning behind the techniques we used. I was pleasantly surprised at the open-mindedness of the students and the remarkable results obtained by them.

Below are some pictures of what turned out to be a very fun workshop with some fantastic people. Clicking on the smaller pictures will allow a full size copy to be seen.

Giving the introduction

During the introduction to the workshop

During the introduction to the workshop

Sensei Jay

Student selecting stock

Student selecting stock

Student selecting stock

Student selecting stock

Student selecting stock

Hands on workshop

Hands on workshop

Teaching by example

Finding the tree within

Hands on workshop

Giving advice while encouraging personal artistic thought

Sensei Jay on the far right studies his selected tree