Bonsai for Beginners

417 Southeast 11th Avenue,Portland OR 97214

22 June, 2021

Description

Learn the art of bonsai by pruning, potting, and wiring your own tiny tree. Begin the most rewarding 900-year commitment of your life! Learn basic bonsai techniques and tree-care tips by potting, pruning, and wiring your own tree with instructor, Adam Universe. The workshop will provide step-by-step instruction on repotting and shaping your mini tree. Guests can choose the tree and pot at the start of the workshop; all materials included. Bonsai simply translates to "plant in a tray" and is an ancient art practice where young trees are planted in small pots to stunt their upward growth and instead encourage short, gnarled trunk growth, which can be trained into a variety of styles including cascading, leaning, windswept, root-over-rock, and forest bonsai. What to Expect Capacity: up to 10 guests Ages 16+ *Per Past Lives LLC policy, youth ages 16-17 may attend after a legal guardian has met with staff and signed a liability waiver. Seated or standing workshop, masks required indoors. Past Lives LLC and ADX share this workspace where artists will be actively creating around you during the workshop. It may get noisy! About the Instructor Adam Universe a Portland-based artist working for Past Lives LLC as a graphic and web designer. Adam has always loved bonsai, but after failing miserably as a teenager at keeping his alive, his quarantine hobby was dedicated to studying the ancient art of bonsai. Now, he's cultivated a personal forest of bonsai including a variety of juniper, hemlock, elm, maple, rhododendron, cotton easter, azalea, and more! "It's more than just making sure they have enough sunlight and water; bonsai are very season-sensitive plants and there's a lot of variability between tree species, which makes it a more involved- yet low-commitment- kind of pet that you can watch grow for the rest of your life." Meshing his practice of bonsai with his woodworking craft, Adam also creates bonsai oasis boxes, which he sells by commission through Past Lives LLC. Instagram @bonsaiuniver.se Past Lives LLC is a community of artists, hobbyists, and beginning business owners dedicated to creating employment and mentorship opportunities for ex-convicts and anyone else overcoming trauma or from marginalized backgrounds. Our makerspace is shared by dozens of Portland-based artists from a variety of creative disciplines including woodworking, metalsmithing, glassworking, painting, drawing, sewing, and just about any other creative endeavor you can imagine. Some of our members are offering workshops where guests will have the opportunity to learn new creative skills and equipment as instructed by experts, tour the makerspace, and leave with handmade artwork of their own!