Last month, BSA was lucky enough to have Marija Hajdic (Meleda Bonsai Studio, Croatia www.meledabonsai.com) as our guest demonstrator. Marija is well known internationally for her work with deciduous yamadori and broadleaf trees, so her choice of NZ mirror bush (Coprosma repens) from Tree Makers Design to work on, was only a brief surprise!
This material was an old and neglected garden shrub, when collected several years ago but had been nursed back to rude good health by Hugh Grant of Tree Makers Design (http://www.treemakers.com.au). Apart from its lush growth, its defining features were its twin trunks and beautiful old deadwood where the old trunk had rotted away (common for old mirror bush).
For Marija, there was a story to tell there, she saw it as a battle between the two trunks and “with help of (the) audience we decided together who will win the fight between these two trunks. How to express defending or attacking with branches? How to express the force of a movement or a gentle attack…
how to defend yourself but not give up … Yes, it is possible to tell story with by tree!” (Marija Hajdic, Facebook).
After the demonstration, Marija gave a presentation about collecting trees for yamadori which was extremely interesting and informative. It was very generous of her to give both a presentation and demonstration on the final night of her three-week Australian east coast tour and everyone present greatly appreciated it.