My crescent moon shaped pot
Posted: June 14th, 2009, 12:25 am
Here are some photos of my second crescent moon bonsai pot. The first I made in Tokoname, while on a holiday there, which incidentally inspired me to take up pottery. It was intended for the tree below, but was way to small and the crescent slumped backwards. This was my next attempt to make a better pot.
Over Christmas 2008, I hired a wheel from my pottery studio and first threw the circular base and then added coils to build the crescent moon shape. Being rather a novice potter, I did not trim the base before adding the coils, which made trimming the base extremely difficult. I trimmed it later, upside down on a rather large hump of clay, at slow speed on the wheel.
A number of different glazes were used on the pot, which I only know by the names given in our studio; glaze recipes appear to be a guarded secret. A heavy application of one was sprayed on the base to give the brown darker ring, then the volcanic glaze was sprayed and then over it a light spray of another brown colour. The "snow" at the peak is Chun. The pot was fired to stoneware, given stoneware glazes were used. This was a risk given the pot was already showing signs of cracking and crack filler was used.
Left profile, which is the front of this pot.
Front of the pot, which isn't really, given the intended planting and viewing angle.
The rear of the pot.
You can see here that the glaze has run into the pot, despite using a resist inside to try to keep the glaze off that surface. Also shown is the crack running along the bottom of the pot from all the handling and stresses applied during it's construction. I am still learning to minimise these.
My "signature" on my bonsai pots--at least those I am making for my own trees--is an image of the intended tree that will occupy the pot. So each is unique.
I was so very happy when this pot came out, because the owner of the studio put it in his window for all the world to see. I was also disappointed with it, because I had over applied glaze in two places with my fingers to hide some cracks and they show up rather obviously.
This is the tree for the pot. I styled this Californian juniper with Michael Persiano at the Bonsai With Style convention in Melbourne some years earlier. It was certainly healthier when we worked on the tree. And since then, having not had the appropriate pot to transplant it, it has suffered from neglect.
Here is the tree after I repotted it, the same day the pot was finished. It should never have gone from such a large box to such a small pot in a single transplant. Note the empty bonsai bench in the background. Most of my other trees were indoors to get out of the heat.
And yes, I realise the planting angle isn't as good as it could be, with the rear branch being so high. I did not secure the tree properly, choosing to use rafia instead of wire and it sank down to the left.
And then time passed. Only a short time however.
Unfortunately, this Californian juniper did not survive me transplanting it at the wrong time of year, in Feb 2009 during our hot summer. Having made the pot it was just too tempting to repot immediately, so I could show them both off, and the tree simply was not ready. I'm sorry Michael. Live and learn. Another finished bonsai, which I still have on my benches.
Over Christmas 2008, I hired a wheel from my pottery studio and first threw the circular base and then added coils to build the crescent moon shape. Being rather a novice potter, I did not trim the base before adding the coils, which made trimming the base extremely difficult. I trimmed it later, upside down on a rather large hump of clay, at slow speed on the wheel.
A number of different glazes were used on the pot, which I only know by the names given in our studio; glaze recipes appear to be a guarded secret. A heavy application of one was sprayed on the base to give the brown darker ring, then the volcanic glaze was sprayed and then over it a light spray of another brown colour. The "snow" at the peak is Chun. The pot was fired to stoneware, given stoneware glazes were used. This was a risk given the pot was already showing signs of cracking and crack filler was used.
Left profile, which is the front of this pot.
Front of the pot, which isn't really, given the intended planting and viewing angle.
The rear of the pot.
You can see here that the glaze has run into the pot, despite using a resist inside to try to keep the glaze off that surface. Also shown is the crack running along the bottom of the pot from all the handling and stresses applied during it's construction. I am still learning to minimise these.
My "signature" on my bonsai pots--at least those I am making for my own trees--is an image of the intended tree that will occupy the pot. So each is unique.
I was so very happy when this pot came out, because the owner of the studio put it in his window for all the world to see. I was also disappointed with it, because I had over applied glaze in two places with my fingers to hide some cracks and they show up rather obviously.
This is the tree for the pot. I styled this Californian juniper with Michael Persiano at the Bonsai With Style convention in Melbourne some years earlier. It was certainly healthier when we worked on the tree. And since then, having not had the appropriate pot to transplant it, it has suffered from neglect.
Here is the tree after I repotted it, the same day the pot was finished. It should never have gone from such a large box to such a small pot in a single transplant. Note the empty bonsai bench in the background. Most of my other trees were indoors to get out of the heat.
And yes, I realise the planting angle isn't as good as it could be, with the rear branch being so high. I did not secure the tree properly, choosing to use rafia instead of wire and it sank down to the left.
And then time passed. Only a short time however.
Unfortunately, this Californian juniper did not survive me transplanting it at the wrong time of year, in Feb 2009 during our hot summer. Having made the pot it was just too tempting to repot immediately, so I could show them both off, and the tree simply was not ready. I'm sorry Michael. Live and learn. Another finished bonsai, which I still have on my benches.
