• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Bonsai Tonight

An educational website about bonsai development

  • Blog
    • How-to Guides
  • Podcast
  • Shop
    • Bonsai
    • Books
    • Soil
    • Soil (wholesale)
    • Supplies
    • Tools
    • Video Consulting
    • Northern California Bonsai Resources
  • About
    • Workshops

Identifying slipcast bonsai pots

November 8, 2016 by Jonas Dupuich

Whether you’ve realized it or not, you’ve likely seen slipcast bonsai pots.

Slipcasting is a technique for creating ceramics that involves pouring liquid clay into plaster molds. Once the clay body has been formed, it can be glazed or left unglazed. Here’s a glazed example.

slipcast bonsai pot

Blue glazed pot

 What’s the giveaway? Although it is sometimes hard to tell, the most obvious signs of slipcast bonsai pots are ripples in the clay that reveal the liquid clay’s movement through the mold and the bump or indentation where the liquid clay was injected into the mold. Here’s an example of a bump at the clay injection point.

injection-point

Injection point – note the dot and circle above the drainage hole

Ryan Bell, the pot expert behind japanesebonsaipots.net, refers to these signs as “ripple and nipple.” If you see ripples in the clay and a nipple where the clay was injected, you have a slipcast pot.

Although some slipcast pots are well made, in general they are less expensive than pots made by more manually intensive methods. Here are two more examples.

slipcast-pot

Cream glazed pot

slipcast-pot-from-below

Bottom of the pot – note the dot to the right of the right drainage hole

injection point - slipcast bonsai pot

Close-up – injection point and ripples

Other signs of slipcast pots can be harder to describe. Some slipcast bonsai pots have soft edges or corners that would be difficult to produce by hand. Uneven clay thickness can also be a giveaway. Here’s an unglazed example of a slipcast pot.

brown-oval-pot

Slipcast brown oval pot

brown-pot

Oval from above – the ripples are more apparent when you click to zoom in

soft-edge-details

Soft edges

Should you be concerned if you have slipcast bonsai pots? Not really. They can make good growing pots and they are inexpensive to obtain. One thing to watch out for, however, is how well the pots can withstand cold temperatures. This goes for all non-vitreous pots – if a bonsai pot can absorb water, the water can freeze and damage or destroy the pot.

Now that we’ve covered how to identify mass-produced, slipcast bonsai pots, we can better appreciate the handmade work of some contemporary American potters. More on that later this week!

✕

Subscribe to Bonsai Tonight

New Posts Delivered Every Tuesday and Friday

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time. Powered by ConvertKit

Filed Under: Display Tagged With: Pots

Previous Post: « General exhibit at GSBF’s 39th convention
Next Post: Kawauso Pottery – the bonsai pots of Roy Minarai »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mac McAtee says

    November 8, 2016 at 6:22 am

    Thanks for the info Jonas and to Ryan Bell as well.

  2. Bruce Harris says

    November 8, 2016 at 10:56 am

    What do these pots cost, where can they be purchased and what sizes do they come in? My bonsai budget is limited but I need to buy pots when I convert a colander pine into true bonsai that is a “plant in a pot”.

    • Jonas Dupuich says

      November 8, 2016 at 11:08 am

      Good question. Slipcast pots can be found online and in garden centers or bonsai nurseries. They typically won’t be advertised as “slipcast pots,” however, price and build can give them away. When moving to a bonsai pot from colanders any inexpensive pot will do.

      I see more small and medium sized slipcast pots than I do large ones. Bigger training pots are often made from slabs pressed into large molds.

      Prices vary depending on size and quality. I’d love to hear recommendations for where one can find good training pots. I have a limited selection – feel free to check in when the time comes to find pots for your pines.

Footer

Follow Bonsai Tonight

Subscribe

Instagram ● Facebook ● Twitter
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Shop
  • About

P.O. Box 6560, Alameda, CA 94501 · 510-915-2025 · jonas (at) bonsaitonight (dot) com

© Copyright 2009-2023 Bonsai Tonight · All rights reserved · Privacy · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Decline Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT