The Bonsai Tree

A big donation of copper wire, that is what started this all.
I began by stripping a large amount, up until point it was meant to be for my other flowers, but as I got more and more copper stripped the idea to form a little tree sprung into my mind

And if you’re going to make a tree… why not a bonsai?

Now I got a little prototype, I can calculate how much I’d need. and these calculations lead to the following data:

I’d want 3 branches

The smallest on the bottom would have 4 modules, 28 coins

The Middle would have 14 modules. 98 Coins

The top and Canopy would have 26 modules, 182 coins.

Totaling up to about 308 coins, 154 of each mint.

in vallue? about 8470 JPY, just about 56$ or €52
….but how would I go about obtaining it

The coins came from all sorts of sources, from friends who still had some, from friends traveling to Japan themselves and even from a local coin store who asked around other stores in the country. the 5 yen in particular gave us a lot of trouble as that coin is hardly in use, comparable to our own 1 or 2 eurocents

but roughly a year later I’d have all the coins that I would need and then some

Now that I had all the coins it was time for the work to actually begin. I began by making the coin modules. each module had 3 5 Yen coins and 3 50 yen coins, then alternating a 5 or 50 for the 7th coin in the module
Now that I had a few modules I could weigh them and see how much weight will be given to the branches, this made me see I needed to reinforce the trunk. which I did several times.

After weeks of working and assembling I’d have the 44 modules done and a trunk that could handle the weight of the coins. The coins are all assembled without soldering, they all hang free in their little modules.

All the reinforcing of the trunk meant that by now the trunk alone weight 5 kilograms. I could now begin to clean the coins up for assembly, though… I had to think about where I would put the Bonsai in.

A bonsai sits in a planter, and those planter for the size that I needed weren’t cheap. for that same money I could maybe go to a modeler and make my own!

So thats exactly what I did, I partnered up with JacqCupp to make my Bonsai Planter myself under her tutoring.

This gave my Bonsai even more personality, Everything has been done by hand.

The work was done, The planter made and complete, All modules now twisted in the trunk, It was time for final assembly!

But how was I going to do that? Epoxy? Clay? I eventually settled to set into concrete. I mixed up the concrete and began to scoop it in the planter while the bonsai rested on a little cradle to keep it suspended higher.

To me, this was the most nerve wrecking step. if this somehow failed, I might loose the planter. but luckily, everything went perfect!

A few hours later it hardened and.. I couldn’t believe it. The project that had been in my head for months, had finally been complete. it was a strange feeling.

The bonsai weighed a whopping 21 Kilograms now and was ready to be presented to the world

only a few days after finishing the bonsai on a very sunny fall day me and one of my best friends Davey Loaded up the bonsai in his car and set out to the Botanical Japanese Gardens in The Hague. We were so lucky as a week later it would close and the rest of that week the weather would be terrible. it made for an amazing day of shooting photos and really doing the bonsai justice