I met Vicki Chamberlain at last year’s Artisans Cup in Portland. We talked about all things bonsai for some time and then, just before heading off, Vicki mentioned that she made bonsai containers. I was curious. Green oval Over the following year, I started seeing Vicki’s work – Earthwares – online and at a few Northern California bonsai […]
Pots
Kawauso Pottery – the bonsai pots of Roy Minarai
One of the highlights of attending regional bonsai events is the opportunity to meet and get to know artists from around the world. Back in September, I was looking forward to meeting Roy Minarai of Kawauso Pottery at the US National Bonsai Exhibition. I’d seen photos of his work online and was curious to see his […]
Identifying slipcast bonsai pots
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. Blue glazed pot What’s the giveaway? Although it is sometimes hard to […]
Pot selection for a dwarf wisteria
What’s all the fuss about selecting the right pot for bonsai? A pot that’s too big can make a powerful tree look small. A pot that’s too bright can be distracting. Pots can accentuate foliage or flowers, and they can clash with or complement other pots with which they are displayed. Maybe we’ve searched for […]
An old pot
The pots holding the bonsai at Shinji Suzuki’s garden were often as interesting as the trees. We learned the story of a few of these containers – others we appreciated on our own. One glazed pot looked like it had been around awhile. There were chips, cracks, mineral deposits and other signs of wear. There […]