The following article by past president, Bob Grealish, recaps the major elements of a fascinating and little used bonsai form. A Phoenix graft is the creation of a bonsai from driftwood. Like the mythical bird rising out of the flames, a bonsai is reborn from a piece of dead wood. Perhaps you burn your mistakes for heat, but I tend to have several lying around at any given time, just so I can relive the pain. The first step is to choose a young tree with a flexible trunk.
Junipers work well because they tend to have dead wood anyway, they are flexible and forgiving.
Then figure our where you want to run the trunk against the driftwood. It is probably best to put most of the live trunk in the back because the graft will be visible. Select branches that will project out from the stump in reasonable places, such as the outside of curves. Be sure to leave back branches. Then carve the stump so it looks like the remains of a old tree that shed most of its wood but decided to make one more attempt at survival.