The art of Bonsai is an elusive one, taking years to learn, requiring careful decision-making and patience above all. In that sense, it feels a lot like creating LEGO models—which is definitely an art Marius Herrmann has mastered.

Marius, widely known as steponabrick both on Flickr and Instagram has shared an entry for Brickset’s ongoing Build a Bonsai competition—an expressive and lifelike sculpture, making masterful use of a variety of elements and beautiful techniques.

A masterclass in texture work, the trunk deserves a closer look: A hodgepodge of brown elements of varying sizes and textures, it effectively captures the haphazard feel of gnarled bark, something Marius was keen on capturing:

I think that there are many ways how one can approach building a tree out of LEGO. I built multiple trees for my Titanfall Dioramas, but they were all quite vertically and mostly built with system bricks and plates. With the bonsai, I wanted to take a completely different approach. So I took my Bahamut model as inspiration and first simply replicated the shape of the Bonsai with technic connectors. Then I layered the outside surfaces on top of that. This was a lot of fun, because I tried to use as many different and odd pieces as possible, to get a really messy and natural look.

There’s a playfulness about his model, and I appreciate how it is inherently LEGO and doesn’t try to be anything but that – you can clearly discern traffic signs and snowshoes and somehow all of it makes perfect sense.

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Then your eyes travel upwards, taking in that gorgeous tree crown where lime green Joker wigs, white crowns and pink ice cream swirls all find their home. The use of the white crowns especially creates a distinct flower-like shape that feels obvious once you set your eyes on it yet is still novel in this context. This is not news to Marius though, it seems:

I actually had the idea for the eggshells, or crowns how they are officially called I think, for quite some time. But I couldn’t use it in any of the trees I’ve built so far, because as cherry blossoms, they would just be too big. They are bigger than a minifigure head, so you can’t really use them in a diorama. But when the LEGO Bonsai set was released, it all connected in my head, and it made complete sense to use them for a Bonsai. Thats also the reason I decided to built a cherry blossom tree, even though I had built a few pink trees before. I knew from the beginning that it would look quite different with this technique.
The lime pieces is something I added during the building process, as I realized the tree-top needed more texture. And the Joker wigs worked perfectly!

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Don’t make the mistake to stop just there though: Something easily overlooked is the dark brown pedestal the model sits on. What could have been an afterthought for other builders becomes a lesson in subtlety here. The pedestal makes great use of the recently released 1x3 wand boxes from Diagon Alley and it sure looks like Marius robbed Ollivander’s clean, using them to create understated lines and just enough detail to not make it boring. Add to that the dresses which create that perfect curve so many pedestals tend to have, and you realize that there is still so much to learn:

Well, the pot and the pedestal both were quite challenging. I actually worked longer on them than I did on the tree. Both should not distract from the tree, as that is clearly the highlight, but they shouldn’t be too simple. For a time I actually considered using the same technique as the LEGO set for the pot, but I realized it would look too small for the much larger tree. Still, I wanted the pot to be angled and similar in design to the LEGO set.
For the pedestal, I considered a lot of different versions. One with multiple bars in tan was among my favorite, but it would have been too bright. I decided something similarly dark as the pot would be most suitable, so the entire model kind of becomes brighter from bottom to top.
Since the tree itself is so organic and messy, I wanted the pedestal to be very geometric. So I came up with this cutting board-inspired design of two layers with the same height. I wanted both the top and bottom half to have an interesting part in them. So I used the wand cases from Diagon Alley in the top for some additional texture, and dark brown dresses for the pillars in the bottom half.

A MOC by Marius is always a treat and this one is no different. One always learns a thing or two and appreciates the LEGO brick in new ways, be it crowns or snowshoes. If you’re interested in more in-depth write-ups, I recommend checking out his website where he breaks down the process behind his MOCs – incredibly insightful and interesting!

What LEGO parts did you notice that were used the Sakura Bonsai? Leave your observations and thoughts in the comments below.