December 2022 Bonsai Newsletter
>> DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER HERE <<
Happy holidays, everyone. And may you all have the best in 2023—in the bonsai world and everywhere.
This month, the Conejo Valley Bonsai Society holds our annual Holiday Potluck, Raffle & Auction. It all happens on our normal meeting night of December 15. Festivities begin at 7:30 PM in our regular space, Westlake Village’s Community Room.
Everyone is asked to bring a dish for the buffet: a salad, main course, dessert, or other. Please let me know your choice and how many people will be in your party. Members are encouraged to bring their partner or a friend. This is a social event intended to get to know each other better.
Reminder: The evening’s Raffle & Auction is the main fund raiser event for our club. So please come prepared to pick up some bonsai treasures bring cash or your checkbook.
Included in the auction: the foemina juniper forest created by Jim Barrett. Jim designed and constructed the forest in November 2020, during the Covid period. Because we have not had our annual potluck since then, I have been looking after the forest in my yard. It will now be included in our auction.
Our November 2022 meeting’s short talk was presented by Ken Fuentes. His topic was wiring. Ken noted that wiring is one of the bonsai tasks we have to do and do not always think about how we do it.
The question of crossing wires came up. Ken said he tries not to do it but sometimes has to, especially if the tree is in the development stage and is only shown in his garden. Member Shig Hayashi agreed that it’s not always possible or necessary to slavishly observe the no-crossed-wires protocol.
Also, the conventional practice of wiring is to start from the bottom of the tree. Sometimes, Ken said, he starts from the top.
He also explained that we should remember that when bending bigger branches, we should not use the heavy wire to the end of the branch. Rather, he does the detailed wiring to the end of the branch with finer wire. That means a branch will have two or more sizes of wiring on it, each size partially overlapping the other for stability.
Whatever your wiring practices, when showing a tree there should be no or very little wire on it. And what’s there should be unobtrusive, Ken said.
New Year News
At our November meeting, we also created the new CVBS board for 2023. The four officers and all the committee chairs constitute the board. The first step was to elect the officers. They are:
- President: Marj Branson
- Vice President: Damon DuBois
- Treasurer: Ken Fuentes
- Secretary: Ken Martin
These officers were installed automatically at the end of the business meeting. Their first order of business was to appoint standing committee chairs. For the next year, they are:
- Membership: Nancy Smeets
- Editor: David Whiteside
- Program: Nancy Smeets
- Publicity: Marj Branson/Damon DuBois (interim until someone steps forward)
- Refreshments: Damon DuBois
- Librarian: Mike Blumenberg
- Field Trips and Activities: Damon DuBois
Also, Tom McGuire remains webmaster and Ken Fuentes continues in his role as CVBS advisor.
Note that there are some changes in the officer/committee chair lineup. Also note that some board members are serving double or triple duty. Damon DuBois and Nancy Smeets in particular are wearing many hats. Please consider volunteering to fill one of those chairs.
With the new year, your thoughts on club activities would be very much appreciated. Please email me or any board member (see page 2 for contact info).
Enjoy your holidays and see you at the potluck. If you have not yet signed up, please let me know how many are coming and what dish you plan to bring.
See you Thursday evening, December 15th!
