AusBonsai

STANDS: Another rant.

Show soon, no stand to fit the tree, not a lot of money about.

I do have a stash of plywood, but I can't make joints and fine carving.

So, off to B@!!*%^#$, on a hunting expedition.

These are the materials I ended up with.

Tops: three kinds of plywood, some glued in a double layer. Rough-sawn builders pine. Old pine plank (not shown).


Feet/supporty things: galvanised angle supports. "three way" galvanised truss supports, gal. fence post caps, iron pipe, aluminium tube, aluminium flat, gang nail, thick bolts, steel nuts (also brass, not shown), and off-cuts of ply and pine.

Finish on the ply: fine sanded, linseed oil, golden shellac, fine sanded, wax polish.

Results to follow.

Here are some of the variations possible, some more successful than others. For me, the brass works best on the dark ply. The plywood feet are easy, but a bit clunky. These are mock-ups, the final feet will be glued on with Araldite.

These are some of the small stands.

Larger stands.

Pale ply suits the steel better. I like the "ply floater". The fish tins are just a little comment on Japanese fishing practices.

The fence palings are rubbish at the moment, but they will be screwed together with brass screws and left out in the weather for five years or so. The rough pine sits better on steel nuts than on pine feet, I think.

Gday Gavin!

I'm loving your experimental stand making - very MacGyveresque! I'm not keen on all of them, but there are a few that are really getting to the heart of the matter, IMHO.

I hope to look at them in more detail tomorrow.

Thanks!

FlyBri.

PS: Is there a chance that you could supply us with larger photos, please?

To me most of the metal counters the peaceful tranquility one is supposed to get from a bonsai. If work on a tree is not supposed to look manmade then I don't think a stand should carry overtures of a mechanic's workshop. A couple of them, where the metal influence is small [end of round pipe and metal strip on edge forming feet] don't look bad but there are a couple that look like an erector set gone wrong. Experimentation and trying new ways is fine but the creator must look at the trilogy - tree, pot and stand - and ensure that the tree is always the major item and the other two form part of its personsa rather than standing out and waving their own flags... look at moi, look at moi.

Gavin,
Come to the Goulburn Bonsai Society Exhibition this weekend as I understand there will be a number of bonsai and accent plant stands on sale at very reasonable prices.