Ben's Fake Bonsai

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These trees are made with pipe cleaners and model railroad foam foliage, and a lot of paint. I'm working on a page with complete instructions. I used to grow and style real Bonsai, but they died. These won't die! I have a lot of nice pots that my wife collected, so I'll be filling them up with fake ones.

Click on an image for a full-sized version.

Moyogi

This is in the "Moyogi", or "informal upright" style. I think "informal" is a really bad translation, because the rules for designing one of these are quite detailed.

Cascade

This is a style reminiscent of a tree clinging to the side of a cliff. Since it would be hard to water a tree that way, they put them in pots tall enough to hold the tree up.

Formal upright

There are many different forms of "formal upright". What they have in common is a straight, vertical trunk. I like this version, which is reminiscent of a tall redwood.

Updated 2008-03-23