post pics soon! sounds awesome!

Black Willow cutting ~2mo. old

That is quite a big cutting, im impressed. Is the top half still alive? You can scratch the bark to see if its green underneath

I don't think it is - what recommendations would you or anyone else have regarding styling and training?

hmm, if the top half is dead, it makes the tree quite hard to work with. Maybe phoenix graph a long thin cutting up the middle of the trunk to make it look as if part of the tree has died, but the tree continued to grow. Haha it's a bit extreme, but it might actually work. You could carve a groove for the thin cutting up the side of the main trunk and wire it tightly in place. This could actually be a really fun project.

If Black willow cuttings grow as fast as other varieties if willow, a phoenix graft would be pretty difficult to do. maybe a raft style would work here...

just a fun idea

let it grow it needs to get a good root system before you consider styling.once it is established you can start cutting back on the new growth . i can almost garentee that you will get buds on the trunk then you will be able to loose the large branch and start with a fresh trunk.
best of luck

Yeah, back budding is never a problem with willow trees. They are just wild things. So fun.