Bonsai Pottery

[vgarth]

Amazing work mate, I loved your blog and will now keep an eye on it. I pot too, and am also learning to make bonsai pots - yours put mine to shame!
Cheers, Val Garth

[bonsaipotter]

Thanks again.

Yes as you have seen in the blog I use a plaster press mold. I learnt how by watching a Lindsay Farr video of a Tokonome pottery visit. In the blog, http://www.bonsaipotterycoy.blogspot.com you will find a post where I show the making of the mould for the oval pot. There are things you can do after casting to add some variety to the basic shape, including height, rim and ribbing shape and different feet etc, but ultimately for different sizes you do need a number of molds. I have 5 now, the last of which I've not yet used. It will produce a more minimalist contempory boxy shape.

P1130286 Shrinkage 1 small.jpg

This is a picture of a glaze fired oval sitting in its original mold, shows the shrinkage through drying and firing. Herein lies a big challenge - to maintain dimensional stability while it is moving, vitrifying and quite plastic at high temperature.

Happy Potter

[Bretts]

Very Nice work HP, It is good to see you jump in the deep end. I just keep dipping my toes in and get spoilt by a local club.
It was suggested that you are slip casting but then I get the understanding from your explination that what you are actually doing is a press mold which is quite different?

[bonsaipotter]

This is less about pots than "Juniper Dreaming".
What indeed is that.

Like most people I’ve got a couple of Junipers. One of them is a good 20+ years old and the trunk is not something you’d blog about, despite the fact it is a very attractive little tree.
In short it doesn’t look like this one.

Juniper dreaming.jpg

The approach available to most of us then is the sometimes controversial technique of attaching young live plants to a weathered piece of wood.
It might be frowned on by the Japanese purists but in other places it’s a recognised way for the average enthusiast to approach an impression of age in a Juniper. Unfortunately in some places the collection of such timber specimens may not be regarded as sustainable. Here in Australia we have two problems with this. One is that the deadwood needs to be dense and ‘grainy’, and such specimens are not readily available. Survivability in our environment is the second challenge with hundreds of species of fungus just waiting to destroy any piece of unprotected dead timber before your eyes.
Can we take the artificiality of a Phoenix Graft one step further and ‘create’ the required deadwood out of another medium entirely, or would that be going too far? How about a nice white piece of ceramic, that will never absorb water or grime and never rot.

Ok so I’ve been thinking about it for a while and time comes to have a go.
These shots are with the clay still wet, so it looks greyish. It will fire white. It’s about 220mm high. Note the groove for the tree location.
It’s a few months away but I will follow up after firing when it is joined with a small Juniper I have ready.

P1130463 wood 1 front small.jpg

This is the front.

P1130464 wood 1 left small.jpg

And the LHS

P1130465 wood 1 back small.jpg

And the back

P1130466 wood 1 right small.jpg

And the RHS

P1130467 wood 1 detail small.jpg

And finally a detail shot.

I have made another trunk too, a little larger and more complex than this one and it needs more work yet.

P1130460 wood 2 front small.jpg

What do you think - is it one small step too far?
Cheers,
Happy Potter

[Scott Roxburgh]

I dont love phoenix grafts for my own collection but I've got no problem with them, even in shows.

Paul Finch made this 'Yew' that was exhibited at Noelanders' and I think it is pretty cool. I don't think it was an 'entry', but it definitely art...just like bonsai!

I'm keen to see the trees when you're done so keep us updated.

noelan10.jpg

[bonsaipotter]

Today I have some new pots that have been drying for a couple of weeks and are just about ready to bisque.

The first is another of the oval I’ve made before but with a boat like clinker finish. It’s 440 x 320 x 90.

P1130572 Oval lapstrake small.jpg

The second is a cut down rimless version of an earlier model with more compact feet. The result is a pretty attractive tub with nice proportions. Dimensions at this point are 390 x 290 x 75.

P1130578 tub small.jpg

And the last one is from a new mould, with a minimalist contemporary look and integrated foot. It’s 370 x 260 x 83.

P1130582 Rect int small.jpg

Speaking about boats I’m thinking about Japanese boat names to label my pots. There are a number of traditional inshore fishing vessels that would be good candidates. Here’s a picture of a taraibune which would be a good name for a rimless oval!

taraibune.jpg

I've never come across any Japanese convention for giving pots names which I would have thought they would have done. Is anyone aware of traditional names for pots other than just the simple shapes?

These pots and one other are in the kiln and ready to go but just need a little longer to be thoroughly ‘warm’ dry. I’ve also got a number of test bars in there which have an assortment of additives to eventually test for deformation at maturity temperature. I made a couple of new ones up this week with additions of different types of sand.

P1130585 kiln Sept 2012 small.jpg

From quite early on I cut the size of the shelves down. This was after doing a cone test on each shelf during a firing. With the shelves extending closer to the walls there was a quite large temperature differential from top to bottom which does not exist with them the size they now are. The pots can happily overhang the shelves as needed.

I've got to get on woth some glazing and will have quite a backlog of pots. Just a fwe more tests to do and then I'm into it.

Cheers,
Happy Potter

[mudlarkpottery]

Looking good so far. I hope they come through intact.
penny.

[bonsaipotter]

Thanks Penny. I hope you sell plenty in Goulburn.
Happy Potter

[vgarth]

The idea of making your own "deadwood" in ceramic is really interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing the result, not just after firing, but also after planting.
Your new pots look fantastic.
All the best,
Val Garth

[Lynette]

I have a question. If you are using RGH a stoneware clay ( unless it has changed recently) and you are using cone 6 glazing then the clay will not be vitrified.How do you proposed getting around this.
Lynette

[bonsaipotter]

Lynette you could be quite right. Unfortunately when suppliers nominate a maturity temperature they do not declare a firing schedule and from what I read it is the heat work that is more influential than temperature. That certainly fits with my observations. When I first started using this clay I fired it in a fast fire up to 1250 and then turned the kiln off. Looking at those pots there is not much deformation. I'm now using a Hassselberth and Roy firing schedule, in the interest of glaze performance, which slows the final rise, holds and then slows the decline, to a top of 1230, and am seeing more deformation than the fast fire. I've also done a water absorption (porosity) test and and getting around 1.7%. This says, I think, that the clay is well fused - vitrified.
How does this fit with your experience? Have you used any other stoneware clays to compare with the RGH?
Cheers,

Happy Potter

http://www.bonsaipotterycoy.blogspot.com

[bonsaipotter]

I fired the kiln over the weekend and finally finished the glaze on some of those bisqued pots. As is usual some surprises and more lessons to learn!
Here are a couple and a shot of one of my deadwoods.

More on the blog http://www.bonsaipotterycoy.blogspot.com

P1130636 Pot 21 small.jpg

P1130645 Pot 21 glaze detail.jpg

P1130646 Pot 25 small.jpg

P1130649 Pot 25 glaze detail small.jpg

P1130650 deadwood 1 front small.jpg

Happy Potter

[Scott Roxburgh]

Beautiful glazes mate!

Keep that oven going, we want more!

[Lynette]

I have used rgh, but it was a couple of years ago. There is no call for claywoks clay in this area, so I don't stock it anymore. I have recently been using feeneys stoneware, fine white, red, dark and buff. I am getting a bit more deformation tham I am use to but I am trying several new methods and I think its this rather than the clay.
Feeneys BRT is recommended to 1220 with a glaze and I have lots of glazes that go very well with it.
Heatwork is the important factor and this is why I fire to 1240 degrees on the harco, but I am achieving a temperature of 1280. I don't know the firing schedule you mentioned, but mine is very slow as a single fire when using BRT.
Many people around here use a very fast firing schedule, but even at earthenware it has given them many problems, but they are more interested in saving money on firing than achieving a good consistant result.
Lynette

[bonsaipotter]

Hi Lynette,

The glaze firing schedule I'm using is 100/hr to 100, 200/hr to 1050, 85/hr to 1240, hold 15, -250/hr to 1000, -75 to 800 and then off. This schedule is driven by my goal for matte/ satin finishes more than anything else. I'm mostly using a John Post derived high calcium matte recipe.
I'd like to have a try with Clayworks CTS #30. It apparently has a lower level of shrinkage and I think shrinkage correlates with slumping.
Thanks for the tip on the Feenys, though from your experience I'm not sure I will try.
Today I fired a series of test bars of RGH with various additives added. They are set to demonstrate slumping and if any hold up ok I will test for shrinkage and porosity. Will post the results on the blog over the weekend / early next week probably.

Regards,
Happy Potter