I bought this Acer Palmatum for £1.00 at my local supermarket in the autumn of 2012. I thought it would make a good learning project on building a deciduous bonsai from scratch. In the spring of 2013, when the first picture was taken, I had just bare-rooted it and transferred it into a small training pot containing a mixture of akadama and kiryu. I planed to let the long lower branch grow to thicken the base of the trunk
The next 3 pictures were taken earlier this week (winter 2014). At the start of this year I re-planted it into a larger pot to speed up its development. It certainly made a difference. The sacrifice branch is over 5 foot long and has doubled the thickness of the trunk base
It will be interesting to see how the trunk is looking below soil level but I will have to wait until spring for that
I have cut off the sacrifice branch so that I can store it in the greenhouse over winter. I suppose I could have left it on a bit longer to thicken the base even more but I like the taper it has provided at the moment. The branch stub will be profiled to the trunk in the spring, when I will also take a close look at how the roots are developing beneath the soil
2 years into this project and progress is difficult to assess without close scrutiny of the photographs. There are no instant transformations with deciduous trees
Robert Nocher Shohin Bonsai 
Thank you for showing this progress Robert.Those supermarket Acers seem to be pretty good no ugly grafts but they were a little dearer here.I bought a number to do a group,made the raft looking forward to getting on with it in the spring.
Hi Michael
They are normally a little more expensive here too. I got this one in an end of season sale. Good luck with yours
It’s realistic to see the work it takes to transform a start into a bonsai, And how important and necessary all the steps are for the creation to occur. It truly is not an art form for those without patiencs.
Very true John. It requires lots of patience
I have bought 25 of them as bare rooted saplings with some similar idea in my mind. After I have had P. Adams “Bonsai with Japanese Maples” lecture. Great post . Looking forward.
Thanks Piotr