I shared pictures of this nursery stock cryptomeria 3 years ago but life happened and I never had a chance to work on it but recently decided it was finally time to start this long slow project. It looks terrible, I know, and I chose not to wire any branches or thin the apex yet while it recovers.
The first thing I did was accidentally break off a couple branches I would have loved to keep while trying to make sense of the thick dense mass of green but that's just the way it goes sometimes. The goal here was to simply open it up to promote back budding and to clean out all the dead foliage in the center. This was also my first chance to truly see what I was working with and to start thinking about a plan. Depending on how it responds I expect it to be another couple years before the next pruning when I can start branch selection.
I wanted to share this tree as a reminder that bonsai aren't created in a day, and it's a long and sometimes ugly process.
by Junkhead_88