January
Work Schedule
Adapted
from Golden Statements articles by Mitsuo Umehara
(Translated by Hideko Metaxas)
Also See
January
Work Schedule
From A Year of Bonsai Tips by Jim
Ransohoff
Monthly Workshop
Opportunities
For Kusamura
Members Only
Once you've
completed the beginners' series of bonsai
workshops, what's next? Kusamura offers its members
a great opportunity to continue refining their
skills in a series of limited-enrollment, more
advanced workshops. For the most part, each
workshop meets once a month. Because space is
limited, participants must apply in advance for a
place. Information on how to apply will be supplied
at the club meeting.
The following
workshop dates and times have been scheduled for
January:
Kathy
Shaner
- Monday,
January 6th (7:30).
Sandy
Planting
- Saturday,
January 11th (1:00)
- Saturday,
January 18th (1:00)
- Thursday,
January 16th (7:30)
- Thursday,
January 23rd (7:30)
- Friday,
January 24th (1:00)
Workshop
Sign-ups
At the
meeting, Sandy will explain her new workshop policy
and have sign-up sheets available for those
intermediate (and higher) students who wish to take
a regular monthly workshop where they work on their
own trees.
Beginning
Workshops
Sandy is
also taking applications for a series of six
beginning workshops where she supplies the plants
and other materials. Students learn the basics of
bonsai and go home with six bonsai-in-training that
they have designed and potted. Beginning workshops
are essential if one wishes to qualify for more
advanced lessons and workshops. All members who
haven't done so before should take beginning
lessons just to avoid making mistakes that they
will regret later. If you can't attend the meeting
this month, contact Sandy at 650-323-6955 to make
arrangements for a workshop.
Kusamura Annual Bonsai
Show
Our show dates
have been changed to match those of the Cherry
Blossom Festival at the shopping center across from
De Anza College. The new dates are April 26-27,
2003. Mark your calendars now. We will also have
Friday evening, April 25, for pricing sale trees
and setting up screens and tables for the show. The
show is very important for the club and its
members. It is our chance to introduce the art of
bonsai to the general public.
Remember how
thrilled you were when you saw your first bonsai
exhibit? The show is our chance to entice more
people into joining Kusamura. The plant sale helps
people to get started in bonsai or enlarge their
collections. It also makes money to pay for the
show and perhaps a few other things for the club.
Speaking of the latter, Sandy Planting has found
and purchased some low fencing that we can use with
the display posts we set up every year. This
purchase will save us the time and trouble of
making fencing on the scene. Sandy is also sewing
several cloth covers for backdrops to replace those
that disappeared a few years back. Jane Iki has
been busy cleaning, repairing, and ironing table
cloths. What a big job! Thanks, Jane.
Now the rest of
us need to get moving to make this year's show a
success. Here's what you need to do:
1. Select plants for your minimum of
three styled bonsai that you are required to donate
to the plant sale. (A fifteen dollar donation may
be substituted for each missing tree of the three,
but the club would much rather have the trees than
the money.) Start cleaning up your trees, shaping
them, and getting them ready to repot if necessary.
The club will have plastic bonsai pots to
distribute soon. Workshops and potting parties are
coming up in which you can obtain help if you need
it (see below). Participating in a potting party is
like having a private lesson free of charge because
there will be experienced members to help at each
event.
2. Start selecting a minimum of three
beautiful bonsai that you will display at the show.
We have a big room to fill, so we can use lots of
bonsai of all sizes. If you have big trees, be sure
to get them ready. If you need help to move them,
we can assist you. Start perfecting your show trees
now. Try to design tokonoma displays using a tree,
companion plants, viewing stones, and scrolls.
Display is one aspect of the art of bonsai that we
all need to practice.
