The olive tree stump is just too ugly, even a bonsai master couldn't make anything of it.

As for this guy Graham, I think he's a bit obsessive. Every time he sees a tree stump he wants to bring it back and mess with it, so he picks up stumps everywhere. You can't even call it digging up stumps, it's going around picking them up. Construction sites, other people's firewood piles, as long as it's a stump he'll pick it up and bring it home. This olive stump was probably picked out of someone else's firewood pile too. There's a big knobby lump at the bottom, and only half a branch left on top. He brought it home and grew it for a few years, and during that time he made some adjustments to its form. To be fair, this stump isn't entirely without merit. We noticed there's another branch near the big lump, and you could absolutely air-layer the half branch on top off and make it into a small showpiece on its own, because that half branch has been there so long that the deadwood on it is already very mature. Then you could grow out the lower part properly, let it push more branches, and shape it into a triangular mushroom head, and that way you'd get two fine bonsai. But he just wants to keep it in its current state. Fine then, let's see what you can make of this ugly monster.

On this big lump there's also a dead branch, which used to be a large branch and was left behind after it got broken off, so there's no transition between the half branch above and the lump.

There's also a wound here left from being sawn off by someone a long time ago.

Alright then. Still following his old routine. Wherever it doesn't look right, he carves it; whatever can be ground away gets ground away.

The part left behind by that broken-off branch has to be thinned down, that way there's a transition and it looks more harmonious.

Grinding is too slow, better to use a chisel.

And for this kind of old lump, a bare bald ball doesn't look good either, so it's best to do some partial hollowing out, which makes it look more weathered and less monotonous.

Carve out the transition between the branch and the lump, then go over the surface with an electric metal brush to make it look more natural.

As for that half branch, it's been there a very long time, and after years of sun and rain the surface has oxidized into a layer, so you just need to carefully brush it clean with a metal brush.

The final result, honestly, isn't very good-looking either; you can only say it's a bit better than the original state. But if you bent that half branch inward a little more, the effect would be much better. The trouble is it's a bit difficult to do, because half a piece of deadwood isn't like living wood that you can bend however you like; deadwood can't bend much. This tree will probably just sit in his yard to make up the numbers, or be given away as a gift. As for selling it, probably nobody would pay money for it.