We had 15 members is attendance.  Glenn Jensen was the guest instructor with assistance from our host Abe Far and member Martha Choy. 

Sage advice- 
Glenn said that creating a plan for your trees is essential to obtaining the goal of being able to show one's tree.  A plan is a timeline with objectives to be obtained along the way to reaching the goal of a show quality.

Abe Far wanted all to understand that we are a study group.  We have guest instructors to push us ahead, but we are here to help each other advance our trees with the goal of one's tree being able to be displayed at our shows.  Not all trees will be able to be shown.  As we create more show quality shohin, we can get more space allotted if need be.  Observing an instructor assisting another member is also very helpful because each tree is different.  One can listen and observe the instructor go through the process of analyzing a tree to determine what needs to be done.

It is important to find a tree with aged trunks of good size which can be properly reduced to shohin size.  Some of the better shohin come from older plants from the ground or larger 5, 7 and yes, 15 gallon nursery containers.  One can find good shohin also in older 1 gallon nursery containers.  Glenn had a very nice 'nana' cascade in training recently created from an old 1-gallon nursery container.
 
 

The Shohin Study Group meets this Sunday the 14th.  We will have a short meeting and then get to it.  We will be keeping an eye toward the fall show shohin displays, and as always bringing trees along for the future.

Photo of Peter Macasieb's shohin display at the Santa Anita Bonsai Society show.  The next photo is of one of Peter's twisted trunk "yamadori" created by wiring and severe twisting and bending of the trunk.  Sometimes the wire is removed but only after severe scarring occurs and sometimes it remains on the tree.  The result is a tree that looks like it grew in the snowy, windy wilds in the high country.  This particular Juniper was grafted with Shimpaku Juniper.  This process took about 7-8 years but he results are amazing.  One does not find small small twisted Junipers in the wild.  So this is a created yamadori, shohin style.