Bonsai Workshop Design

[chicago1980]

I can only share that when I participate in a workshop, my expectations have changed as the years have passed.
The first 5 years and several dozen workshops I was looking for understanding and confidence building in understanding bonsai. This was not a static target but evolved with the time of year, tree, year 1, year 3, or year 5.

There was also a lot of desire to understand the instructors and their approach to bonsai, each instructor had a particular set of skills that I wanted to understand.

Repetition of good technique.

Now I desire to have thoughtful conversations and discussions with the instructor, further refine my skills, and develop a greater skill set.

 

[Cajunrider]

From a workshop I would like the following from the instructor.
1. Help me practice the bonsai vision process so that I can see the completed bonsai from the material in front of me. I know each tree is different, but I believe the process is the same and would like the instructor to guide me through.
2. Demonstrate to me what should be done to get the tree to come to my vision but let me do the work. I know I will make mistake but that's the way to learn for me.
3. I know my hands will be all tied up and taking notes may be difficult. Give me a short handout containing what you think I should know after attending the workshop.

 

[brentwood]

My local club meetings are always followed by a workshop. These usually have 6-8 participants. In my experience, the facilitator has been mostly hands off, asking lots of probing questions to understand what the participant is trying to accomplish and providing feedback. As a participant, I have gotten very little out of these because my trees are mostly in early development, so I don't sign up anymore, but sometimes stay and listen.

I have also attended some all day sessions with a smaller group where the instructor was much more hands on. As a newer learner, these were much more useful, but it also meant long stretches of watching her work on other trees. Again, this is because my trees are not very advanced, so I didn't have much to do on my own between my turns. Those with more refined trees could be given a detailed example of what to work on and then spend the next hour working independently while the instructor moved on.

So it seems to me the biggest challenge with leading workshops might be inexperienced participants with material that mostly just needs to grow. In that situation, there's very little work to be done and the trees might not look much different at the end.

I will add that I get a lot from your YouTube channel. I particularly like that you record multiple segments over an extended period of time and post as a single video to show the results of your work over time, rather than just posting each video right away.

We are planning on doing a series of workshops this year, starting with garden center juniper - initial pruning, repotting, wiring over a year or more. It's a new thing for us, but we are hoping that gives each step more attention, let's the material recover between steps.

B

 

[sevan]

We are planning on doing a series of workshops this year, starting with garden center juniper - initial pruning, repotting, wiring over a year or more. It's a new thing for us, but we are hoping that gives each step more attention, let's the material recover between steps.

B

Those have actually been my two favorite workshops: going to the local bonsai nursery and working on beginner projects with stock provided by the nursery. Those obviously are geared towards new people, but it's nice to have material that's ready to be worked on and everyone is working on something similar and probably with a narrow range of experience.

I love the idea of a long-term workshop series where you learn to move something from pre-bonsai to refined.

 

[LuZiKui]

So it seems to me the biggest challenge with leading workshops might be inexperienced participants with material that mostly just needs to grow. In that situation, there's very little work to be done and the trees might not look much different at the end.

Being relatively new to bonsai I have found this to be the case at a lot of workshops I've been to. Most of my trees are still in the "just let it grow for a while" phase so there isn't a lot for me to do at these workshops.

I tend to like the style where you bring up a tree in front of the group, then you and the professional can discuss what immediate work needs to be done, as well as what your long term vision is and what you should be doing over the next 3-5 years to reach it.

If you're going to do this method I like the idea of strict time limits for each participant. It kinda sucks when someone gets 30-40 minutes of discussion/work on their tree and when it's your turn you get like 5 minutes. Again, I know there is a lot more to discuss on a 45 year old JBP that is at the advanced refinement stage vs. a 3-4 year old project tree, but it still kinda sucks.

Also, I'm not sure if others have had this experience, but I've found some bonsai groups to be somewhat... eccentric... At one workshop there seemed to be a lot of drama around who got to bring up a tree first and who got to spend the most time with the pro, etc. I would have preferred the pro to just randomly pick and give everyone the same amount of time.

 

[brentwood]

Those have actually been my two favorite workshops: going to the local bonsai nursery and working on beginner projects with stock provided by the nursery. Those obviously are geared towards new people, but it's nice to have material that's ready to be worked on and everyone is working on something similar and probably with a narrow range of experience.

I love the idea of a long-term workshop series where you learn to move something from pre-bonsai to refined.

This last part has me excited, also - the idea of working a tree over time, watching that progression, is something I've never done. Trading the rush out of the process. I plan on doing it, hope I learn something, even as I help beginners.
B

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I guess I would always start with "who is the attendee - and what is the goal of the workshop?" Then, you can tailor your education materials to the audience.

I have only given one presentation on bonsai - to a garden club in Southern California - and so I brought a few trees, set up a couple of displays, and worked on a tree while I had an outline next to me of the content that I wanted to cover. Because it was a garden club, I gave a general overview tailored towards gardeners... which would have been different had I been, for example, presenting to a high school class, or working with experienced bonsai hobbyists.

I also had copies of reference material that I left behind for the club (local nurseries, online communities, etc).

 

[Paradox]

I don't like having someone else work on my tree. I want to do it myself but if I need help learning a technique, it is sometimes good to see it. I want to hear what the teacher thinks. I may or may not agree but I am open to the options and will discuss mine if it differs.

For a bring your own tree, with different species involved, l like to hear about the other species and trees as I work on mine. I'm there to learn and there may be a species I am not familiar with or can learn more on. You never know what useful information you can pick up.

For species specific workshops, I want to learn about the basics of the species even of its a species I think I know about, sometimes there are details you don't know so a review of that species is good.

As someone else said, I'll there to learn and practice working on my trees, with guidance there if I need it. If I want someone to do the work for me, I'll pay for that on a one on one basis. I think it's unreasonable to expect a teacher to be able work on every tree with a group of 6 to 8 people anyway.