Question from my mum... yes I am a "mummy's boy!"
Posted: March 31st, 2011, 10:44 am
Hi all
There have,as always, been some extremely interesting topics on the various forums but this might, possibly, be a first.
My wife and I travelled to Koh Samui, in Thailand, about 4 years ago. When we left to go home, we decided to take a number of souveniers for friends and relatives back home. My wife saw these exquisite flowers in hardwood bowls, that had been hand-carved from soap - the flowers not the bowl! The soap was very fragrant and also looked very beautiful (I am just now aknowledging this - my wife doesn't know about this site - because I actually wanted to try and bring back torches - about the size of a big mag-lite) that had tasers built into them). Not surprisingly, my wife's decision prevailed. Our female relatives and friends were thrilled with the gifts and most of them placed the bowls into their bathrooms, where the fragrance would fill the room.
Pictures of the bowl and flowers (bear in mind, the flowers are now over 4 years old and have lost their fragrance and have lost about 1/3 of their size). My mum is interested in my various bonsai, although she doesn't have a green thumb and doesn't want to risk killing things. However, my dad's thumb and, indeed, his whole hands, are so green that I think he is the world's largest leprechaun (at 6'4"), and, actually, when he was the railway Station Master at Tambellup in the inner southwest of WA in the very early 1960s and near Katanning - where I was born many years ago - he decided that the railway house provided to him needed fencing placed around it. He went to the local woodyard and bought some jarrah picket fencing. About six months after putting up the fencing, about 1/2 of the pickets started sprouting foliage!
As the soap-flowers, which were kept in their en-suite, have lost their fragrance, Mum asked me whether I might be able to use the bowl as a bonsai pot and pot up a small bonsai for her to display, again, in their bathroom.
Without the flowers, the bowl has some tissue paper stuck to the bottom, pictured, which I can clean. The diameter of the bowl is 14.5cm and the height of the bowl is 5.0cm. I have photographed the bowl together with a "Double A" battery for comparison. The bowl is made out of some sort of hardwood, but unlike other Asian wood that is brought into WA, it has not warped, split or dried out. That may be due, in part, to the location in which the bowl has been kept but I think it is some sort of a better class of wood.
I am comfortable cleaning the bowl, cutting out some drainage holes and placing some small feet on the bottom of the bowl. However, if the bowl is to hold potting mix and be watered on a regular basis, I think the bowl needs to be treated to make the bowl waterproof. I have some "Earl's Wood Hardener", do you think this would be appropriate? Or should I use some form of actual "waterproofing" agent?
My concern with treating the bowl with any sort of waterproofing agent, or even the wood hardener, is the potential for some residue being left which may prove poisonous to any tree I may place into the bowl.
Therefore, my question - in an extremely roundabout way - is has anyone used a wooden bowl for potting bonsai? If so, what did you do to treat the bowl?
Any answers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. There really isn't any great rush to get this done, because I can just keep "forgetting" about mum's request and eventually give it to her as a Christmas or wedding anniversary gift!
Thanks in advance.
Take care and I hope you and your families are all healthy and happy and that your lives are filled with love and joy everyday.
There have,as always, been some extremely interesting topics on the various forums but this might, possibly, be a first.
My wife and I travelled to Koh Samui, in Thailand, about 4 years ago. When we left to go home, we decided to take a number of souveniers for friends and relatives back home. My wife saw these exquisite flowers in hardwood bowls, that had been hand-carved from soap - the flowers not the bowl! The soap was very fragrant and also looked very beautiful (I am just now aknowledging this - my wife doesn't know about this site - because I actually wanted to try and bring back torches - about the size of a big mag-lite) that had tasers built into them). Not surprisingly, my wife's decision prevailed. Our female relatives and friends were thrilled with the gifts and most of them placed the bowls into their bathrooms, where the fragrance would fill the room.
Pictures of the bowl and flowers (bear in mind, the flowers are now over 4 years old and have lost their fragrance and have lost about 1/3 of their size). My mum is interested in my various bonsai, although she doesn't have a green thumb and doesn't want to risk killing things. However, my dad's thumb and, indeed, his whole hands, are so green that I think he is the world's largest leprechaun (at 6'4"), and, actually, when he was the railway Station Master at Tambellup in the inner southwest of WA in the very early 1960s and near Katanning - where I was born many years ago - he decided that the railway house provided to him needed fencing placed around it. He went to the local woodyard and bought some jarrah picket fencing. About six months after putting up the fencing, about 1/2 of the pickets started sprouting foliage!
As the soap-flowers, which were kept in their en-suite, have lost their fragrance, Mum asked me whether I might be able to use the bowl as a bonsai pot and pot up a small bonsai for her to display, again, in their bathroom.
Without the flowers, the bowl has some tissue paper stuck to the bottom, pictured, which I can clean. The diameter of the bowl is 14.5cm and the height of the bowl is 5.0cm. I have photographed the bowl together with a "Double A" battery for comparison. The bowl is made out of some sort of hardwood, but unlike other Asian wood that is brought into WA, it has not warped, split or dried out. That may be due, in part, to the location in which the bowl has been kept but I think it is some sort of a better class of wood.
I am comfortable cleaning the bowl, cutting out some drainage holes and placing some small feet on the bottom of the bowl. However, if the bowl is to hold potting mix and be watered on a regular basis, I think the bowl needs to be treated to make the bowl waterproof. I have some "Earl's Wood Hardener", do you think this would be appropriate? Or should I use some form of actual "waterproofing" agent?
My concern with treating the bowl with any sort of waterproofing agent, or even the wood hardener, is the potential for some residue being left which may prove poisonous to any tree I may place into the bowl.
Therefore, my question - in an extremely roundabout way - is has anyone used a wooden bowl for potting bonsai? If so, what did you do to treat the bowl?
Any answers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. There really isn't any great rush to get this done, because I can just keep "forgetting" about mum's request and eventually give it to her as a Christmas or wedding anniversary gift!
Thanks in advance.
Take care and I hope you and your families are all healthy and happy and that your lives are filled with love and joy everyday.
I study law. There is even a compulsory course these days that warns of the high rates of depression among both law students and graduates. Glad you found bonsai and were able to share your story with us. 