Marco Bonsai School @ Willowbog:
First Session

The first session of the Marco Invernizzi Bonsai School @ Willowbog Bonsai was a great success in June 2006 - below is a report and images from the 2 day session.

This first session was attended by eleven students and as they have together got this introduction under their belts it is proposed to keep them as a unit and they will be known as Study Group One, it is hoped that there will be sufficient interest to form a second group of a similar number who will begin with the session that the first group have just completed. If this can be achieved then both groups can be taught in two, two day sessions back to back thus making each visit to the nursery by Marco more economically viable.

Certainly each of the participants that I have been able to talk to about the first session have said "how enormously valuable they found it and how much they are looking forward to it continuing", for how long we do not know at this early stage! I have tried to stress to the participants how much more difficult the school is for Marco than a conventional workshop with the thought and preparation needed to make each session fit the needs of the students.

There is a degree of variation in the abilities and experience of the eleven in Study Group One, this did not seem to be a problem, partly because Marco was determined to start with the basics so that the students might unlearn any bad habits and also because part of the learning experience is for the students to help each other with their own experience and to bring in a variety of species to build the teaching around thus aiding those with a less comprehensive bonsai collection.

Images from the first Marco Invernizzi Bonsai School @ Willowbog session (please click on any image for a larger view)
Views from the Willowbog studio...



Marco providing detailed theory on Bonsai aesthetics ...




Off-site visit to a bonsai garden of one of the school participants