I have collected an amount of timber over the years and Covid-19 has given me plenty of opportunities to practice my woodworking skills. They are not that good as yet but using pre-loved timber is a great way of honing the necessary skills.

I am bound by the type and size of the pre-loved timber that I have in what designs and types of stands I can make, but it has been a fun journey.

This is the latest off the production line, a tall elegant stand that I see being used in a three point display.

This tree has been through a few iterations and now I think it is on the right course. It was dug locally and I presume the result of a bird dropping but there are other possibilities. It looks great when in flower and maybe even better when it has fruit but the winter silhouette is my favorite. It currently stands about 17cm tall and is in a pot by Penny Davis

If you were wondering what it looked like a few years ago, well here it is.

More than 40cm tall then

This English Elm was dug from the wild a few years ago. It was in a paddock where sheep often grazed and this is the general result, Mother Nature instigating the initial shape.

This tree won a minor award at a recent show in Goulburn (and I do mean minor) but was in leaf at that stage. Being in leaf does hide the flaws but now it has dropped its leaves it is time to do the late Autumn work on this tree and improve its branch placement.

It is currently in a pot by Australian potter Penny Davis.

Not all Yamadori are large trees and from time to time I try to dug a few smaller ones in the hope of turning them into shohin bonsai. This is the case of this plum. It currently stands about 15cm tall and is in a pot by Pat Kennedy.

It shows wild branching that I really like and in spring the colour of the pot matches the colour of the leaves. It has now lost all its leaves and is ready for its winter dormancy.

I know this is supposed to be a bonsai blog and lately I have posted a number of bonsai display stands but I think that is OK because it is all related.

This is the latest stand I have built, again it is a reasonably traditional stand and is made from some type of ash I believe. It has not be stained, just a few coats of polyurethane and the finished look is OK by my reckoning.

The reddish brown colouring of the timber is quite nice in my opinion.

Quite some years ago I grew a few pomegranates from seeds I got locally. I then tried to twist three seedlings together in a form of knitted trunk. It is at least five years ago and from what I can see the knitting process has been relatively unsuccessful but I wont be deterred. This is how it looks now and the original idea was to grow a shohin size bonsai but it’s a fair bit bigger than that now.

The way it is going the next update will be in another five years.

Getting to play with some wood has been really enjoyable. Although I will probably never be a great timber craftsman (more like a wood butcher) it keeps my hands busy and I get a lot of satisfaction from having a bonsai on display that is on a stand that I made.

The latest one is a very traditional stand but I think it will be able to be used for a number of trees.

This one is made from some recycled ash and a small piece of hardwood I found some time ago and the finish is rosewood.

I am enjoying the opportunity of self isolation to make a few bonsai display stands. I have previously published a couple and here is the latest off the production line.

This one is more traditional looking and is made of Ash (I believe) and it has come out quite good in my opinion.

Remember

I thought I might run out of things to do while in self isolation but that looks very unlikely now. I have settled into the new way of life and although I miss popping down the street for a cappuccino and a chat with friends or a ducking down the pub for a feed I am coping just fine thank you very much.

One of the tasks I am doing at the moment is making myself a few new bonsai display stands. Over the years I have acquired a reasonable amount of “second hand” timber and I am finally putting it to good use.

Firstly I decided to make a couple of tall small stands (for shohin) as I believe that shohin bonsai, when shown individually need to be on high stands so they don’t “get lost”. The local bonsai society currently has black coloured backing for their annual display, and so with this in mind I decided to paint the new stands black. The idea was that the stand should meld into the background thus giving the appearance of the tree floating. Please forgive my whimsical thoughts.

Please don’t take any notice of the trees, its the stands that are important.

I know you aren’t supposed to be taking any notice of the trees, but that trident maple needs a trim!