Into the Sierra's Our First Yamadori Adventure with our 4th, 5th and 6th year Students Episode #75

The Beginning “In 2024, we decided to take our Students somewhere most had never been before—the Sierra Nevada Mountains to collect Sierra Junipers. I took our fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year Foundation students into the Sierras with one goal: to experience Sierra juniper Yamadori firsthand. But we weren’t just going into the mountains to collect trees. We were beginning a journey that would continue long after we came home.” “For these students, this was a chance to see where these trees come from, understand their environment, and learn to recognize the character that makes a Sierra juniper special.” “And then we waited. Because bonsai doesn't happen overnight. A year and a half—almost two years—passed. The collected trees grew stronger, the students gained experience, and eventually those same trees came back into the hands of our fifth-year students.” “This time, they weren't looking at these trees as freshly collected material. They were looking at them as bonsai students. They began exposing the live veins and revealing the ancient deadwood hidden beneath years of growth and weather. They studied the trunks, searched for movement, and began uncovering the story that was already there waiting to be exposed ... “And that's really what our long-term Foundation program is about. We don't simply teach students how to work on a tree. We give them the opportunity to follow a tree through time—to experience collection, recovery, development, refinement, and eventually the creation of something worthy of display.” In 2024, these trees came home from the Sierras with us. Almost two years later, our students and I were still writing their story. The trees had changed. The students had changed. And the journey was just beginning. Because in bonsai, we don't just collect trees. We collect stories—and then we spend years learning how to tell them.” #yamadori #collectingtreefromthewild #Sierrajuniper #bonsai #bonsaitree #carving #deadwood #jin #shari #dirtylocust #ronandersonbonsai #movavi #juniper #students #teaching #foundation Classes https://ronandersonbonsai.myshopify.com/   / ronandersonbonsaianderson   #kishushimpaku