While we generally suggest saving your resources and buying material with a clear future as a bonsai, sometimes a piece of seemingly average or below average material just begs to be bought.

This little shimpaku has some age; the taller trunk had two episodes of deadwood creation resulting in good movement and texture in the shari. I saw it on a vendor's table at a bonsai event. It had lots of aluminum wire on it and it appeared the person working it had gotten stumped along the way. When I took a look I realized that by separating the taller live vein from the deadwood, the two trunks could be brought into a more harmonious relationship and begin creating the foliage pads to highlight the deadwood.

Potting it into a shallow round container, this is a good early pot for this tree. It's now on the heat bed getting the aftercare it needs after this much work all at once. I look forward to continuing the work on the tree if it doesn't sell this season.