Mattbonsai

Hey.

At the Cheshire Bonsai Society meeting this month, we had a talk by Simon Temblett, and he talked about a technique he's been developing over the years using Coal Dust.

You often see in deadwood on bonsai, brightly lime sulphured sculptured wood, which, when photographed, or looked at from a distance has absolutely no detail visable. Simon's technique to deal with this is pretty ingenious (and no, I'm not being paid to say this).

He mixes together, I think it was about 50:50 Coal dust and water, and paints it liberally over deadwood that has been Lime Sulphured several months before hand, ensuring the mix gets right into the cracks and gaps. After applying a coat, he then gets a moist cloth, and wipes it all off. Which leaves a stain on the lime sulphur, that is paler on the more exposed surfaces, and darkens into the gaps and crevices. After its been left to dry, he then uses a stick with a piece of cloth attached to apply limesulphur over the raised areas, not allowing it to drip or flow into the gaps and crevices. After it is done, and has dried, and weathered a bit, the result is actually very impressive, and is so simple that it's worth giving a go, just to see for yourself how it works.

A quick Google gives a few results, and I've dug out a couple of links that you can have a nosey at:

simon temblett
Simon Temblett Bonsai

If anyones interested, we may be able to pursuade him to do an interview for the site, he has over 25 years experiance, and knows what he's doing. If enough people are interested then I will get in contact with him for ya'll.

Cheers

-Matt-

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artyanimal

Mattbonsai,

Thanks for sharing the tip. I have a couple of very old buttonwoods that I have been reluctant to do the old 'stain and wipe' as this procedure does (in this instance) add unwanted color. I think using coal might just do the trick but, will try it on an unsuspecting younger one first.

As for the interview, my two cents would be in the form of a question as follows:

What could possibly be the down side? hehe

Cheers,

Arty

centaura

That's related to a technique that I've seen for creating natural deadwood. Newly carved deadwood is burned, and then lightly rubbed or sanded to highlight the brighter areas, while the black burn is left in the crevices. Sounds like the coal technique is similar.

-Centaura