Last weekend Kaizen Bonsai in conjunction with Norfolk Bonsai Association ran the first of what will hopefully be regular bonsai classes.
Having spent nearly 15 years teaching bonsai around the world I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the conventional “workshop”. The kind of event where you bring a tree, get advice, get it wired and styled and go home.
So after much discussion with with the club committee we decided to run a formal full day class. In the morning I was teaching on scots pine development and ended with a practical session looking at participants trees. In the afternoon club chairman Graham taught a class on English oak coupled with practical demonstrations using participants trees.
We had a much larger participation than was expected and there was a very positive vibe in the room. The event was extremely well received by all. Many folk said the teaching cleared up a lot of mystery and long standing confusion they had on the subject and everyone left with a new level of enthusiasm and optimism regarding their bonsai.
Hopefully we can run more events in the near future, watch this space.
Graham.