Bonsai Trees


July 8, 2008

Using Bonsai Wire To Keep Shape

Category: Bonsai Styles, Bonsai Tools, Bonsai Trees, Wiring – mybonsai – 6:00 pm

Bonsai wire is used to hold the branches of a Bonsai tree in place in order to shape them. The bonsai wire remains wrapped around the trunks and branches until the tree is able to maintain the desired shape, during which the bonsai wire is removed.

Our aluminum wire has copper color anodized coating, and is designed for shaping and holding branches and small trunks inconspicuously. Re-usable and easy to apply, it is softer than copper wire and less likely to damage the tree. 2.0 mm dia wire in a 150 gm size coil.

You can get bonsai wire from any supplier of bonsai tools and accessories. The types that they will have are plain silver aluminum and a copper-colored anodized aluminum wire.

You can choose either bonsai wire. The advantage of a plain silver bonsai wire is it will be easier to see under developed branches than the anodized one when you need to check your wiring later. On the other hand, the copper or brown color of the anodized wire will blend well with the tree branches so they would be more pleasing to the eye.

If you cannot obtain bonsai wire, you can substitute a wire any type of wire that is easily bendable and removable. Bonsai wire comes in different sizes from 1 mm to 7mm, usually weighing 100 to 150 grams and can be over 100 feet long.

Choosing the right size of bonsai wire can be tricky. Some find it easier to buy coils in different sizes but still, you do not want to waste money buying wires that you will not be able to use. One way to determine the size of bonsai wire that you need is to find a wire that you can bend with the same effort as you would bending your tree’s trunk or branch.

If it is easier for you to bend the wire than the wood, then you would need a thicker bonsai wire. Alternatively, if you find that the wire you bought will not be strong enough to do job properly, then you can try double wrapping the wire by applying two wire pieces.

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. | TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

XHTML ( You can use these tags): <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> .