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AND NOW THE PAGES ON CRAIG COUSSINS BONSAI SITE
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Bonsai for Sale Suiseki for sale
Please
note that this is a personal website and not a free
resource for general information Please email me if you would like a reciprocal link, Over 5000 visitors a week visit this website which has over 198 pages. Craig.Coussins@btinternet.com  My garden June 2008-Deciduous tree section -there is now five sections. Deciduous, Conifers and evergreens, Shohin, and two for trees in work. You will find a link to my Garden Pages further down the page.
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Craig Coussins Photography |
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 Yellow Mountain Huangshan Anhui China
Edinburgh
Ketchikan Alaska Stornaway, Lewis and
Harris-images to come soon |
New Page on
Japanese Gardens
Cafe des Federations Bouchon-Lyon-
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Craig in his national costume
My other hobby is playing wind instruments and I particularly like Native American Flutes Craig in his Music Room, Flute, Sax, Clarinet, Didge and Singing Bowls
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Kunio Kobayashi and Craig Coussins, Tokyo
The chairman of Japan Bonsai
Association, at his Mansei-en Bonsai garden in Bonsai Village Omiya,
Saitama Prefecture with a
copy of Craig's new Book Bonsai Masterclass exchanged for a copy of
the Mansei-en Book -
Always happy memories of the Kato family and their great friendship
and kindness.
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During Early 2008, my friend, Yumiko Hirohama from Nara came to visit me with her mum. Yumiko is a teacher in Kyoto and a student of Buddhist architecture and Japanese Roofing Tiles. Yumiko has been my guide in Nara in 2006 and 2007. Yumiko is standing front of some of my Yamadori. Big John is on her left |
 Isle of Harris, February 2009
The Best of British Bonsai 2009 The
UK held the first major exhibition of the best
trees in the UK. Called the Best Bonsai in
Britain 2009 a selection committee scoured the
UK for Bonsai that were considered good enough
to be exhibited in this event. Only the best
trees were allowed to be shown and a book is to
be made of the Bonsai that were on show. Click for big pic
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Big John: John Yoshio Naka first came to the
UK for a Tour in 1984.  Craig filmed the entire tour with a Video company
and then Craig spent 10 weeks editing each of the four hours into one
hour films. Originally sold back in the 1980's the Videos sales soon
collapsed because of wholesale copying by clubs, societies and other
people. Theft in other words. the money that FoBBS was supposed to
get was quickly diluted by these individuals. These films are now being
presented as DVDs and will be sold to aid Federation of British Bonsai
Society Funds. With some hi Tec marking we will hopefully be able to
reduce this kind of Piracy theft. One venue, Edinburgh was never shown
before and this will form part of the DVD set..
During 1984 Naka san
visited Edinburgh where Craig hosted him for workshops as well s the
demo. Naka san worked on this Scots pine and this was named after him
and called , 'Big John'. From there on in Peter Adams and Craig (shown
here) worked on the tree until 1999. A story page will soon be on
this website of its development. Big John is one of the most famous trees
in the UK because of its connection with the late John Yoshio Naka. The
hanging branch is getting too heavy now so Steve Tolley
suggested a design correction and based on that I restyled
the lower section and Peter Fole helped me to redefine the
present shape early in 2009. The suggestion from Steve was
that the hanging section
would look better by removing excess foliage and defining the angle of the
cascade.
October 2008 March 2009 The new scroll is of two Cranes in the sunset-this last pictrue was taken at the BBB09 show in March 09 Pic 1 is with Peter Adams after we styled the lower branch in 1990. Pic 2 is with John Naka in 1984 during the first styling. In the last 20 years over 80% of the foliage has been removed and re-grown to the present shape. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Foele now lives in Scotland and maintains some collections including helping me with my own.
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Craig has been a dance shoe maker for over 45 years
The picture below was
taken in the Yellow Mountains, Huang Shan in Anhui
Province, China. This mountain has 76 peaks
and much is accessed by the many pathways of the
incredible stone steps built into the sides of the
mountain. Yes you need to be fit to get around but with images such as this it is well worth it. I visited Huang Shan in March but I need to try and get back there in December to see the peaks covered in snow.
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Rob and Craigs Celtis group
Knowing that Rob was so highly respected as a teacher I asked him to be in my recent book where I included some of Rob’s superb work. It was through Rob’s contacts that this book also showed some of the amazing and international quality of the Bonsai of South African artists. As a fan of South African Bonsai and these artists I was happy to know that Rob himself is also now known to the rest of the worldwide community of Bonsai artists and enthusiasts. The recent article in Bonsai Clubs International was a welcome read at so important a time. In memoriam:Rob Clausen, South Africa A Bonsai legacy Rob may have passed on but the memories that he has left us all will be treasured. He has left a legacy of knowledge, kindness and these will be appreciated by everyone who knew him and loved him.
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Styling some bonsai in July 2009 to come in August
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All content on this website is protected by Copyright ©1994-2009 Craig
Coussins.
No portion of this site may be reproduced, copied, stored or modified
without permission from Craig Coussins.
My logo is of a Trident I worked on for a number of years after
getting
it from Peter Adams in 1980 and
which we called the Slug because when
without leaves the bonsai
looked like a rearing slug. At the time we
were
poking fun at growers who labelled , sometimes mediocre, bonsai
with
grandiose names such as 'Crane Flying through Bamboo' etc.
The
Slug was featured in my first book, Bonsai for Beginners. I
sold this
tree in 1989. I had the opportunity to get it back from a friend during 2005
and so it finally comes home. I will be restoring this wonderful trees
ramification
over the next three years and will feature that on this website.
This is a 198 page plus website.
Links are also internal from specific pages of interest.
Please email me if you
would like a reciprocal link, Over 5000 visitors a
week visit this
website which has over 198 pages.
Craig.Coussins@btinternet.com
Website search technology courtesy FreeFind.com
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Craig Coussins 
Life
is like unto a long journey with a heavy burden. Let
thy step be slow and steady, that thou stumble not.
All books
available from the better Bonsai retailers and from
Online Book companies such as Amazon
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On
my first Bonsai visit to South Africa I needed to find
material for my demo at the convention. Rob was kind enough
to let me use some raw material from his large Yamadori
collection . I chose Celtis Africana or White Stinkwood
which allowed me to prune and do some basic styling
quickly. Rob and some of the East Rand guys helped me
prepare the trees fro transplanting and we spent a day
getting the Material ready. On the big day I was on the
stage and explained that I was going to make a group. Some
of the audience started whispering while others looked on in
disbelief. The stage was empty except for a table on which
there was a tiny pot with three tiny trees no more that 8
inches tall. I looked at the audience and then the material
, made the three tree group while all the time keeping
a very straight face. When completed five minutes later I
exploded with anger saying 'was this all South Africa could
offer a visiting teacher?' Then I threw the tiny group into
the side of the stage. The audience was either amused or
horrified as after all, they did not know how I was going to
react with this demo material. Then Rob and his team came on
stage with a six foot long pot and these enormous trees. The
audience were delighted with the joke and we had what was a
four hour demo. Here are the results. It was really all down
to Rob who made that demo possible.
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Unique
Japanese Katana for sale
