It's day seven of the November challenge and my back is crying out for mercy. I was on the verge of giving up today but I gathered some courage to type this post. I hope to post it this before dinner.
Today was a warm day so I did a bit of cleaning and dusting around the home and in the garden. I noticed that one of my Bonsai trays had only some rotten trunks and dead leaves. I decided to give it a new look. As usual I got a little over excited with the idea I had in mind and went berserk. It never really occurred to me that I didn't have the right materials or the tools required for the project. When an idea hits me its got to be done, that is who I am.
Looking around the house for what could be used I found a few broken, shattered pumice stones lying around. I decided to make a rock bonsai tray. I used a knife and a pair of scissors to shape the rocks, since I don't have any tools for such work.
I went searching for twigs and found a couple of twigs that could be worked with. I realized that I had no material for a trunk. I found one that looked all wrinkled and nice. It didn't occur to me that it was a part of the jade plant. I also found a part of the stump of a lovely purple rose that had died sometime ago near the compost bin. It had some good roots. Happily I started to work on my project without second thoughts.
With some gorilla gum, and a knife I started to work. I assembled about twenty tiny pieces of the pumice stones into a rock formation. I wish I had a taller rock, but the material I had was limited.
The root portion of the stump was a mess and could not be used like that so I detached the roots and placed them one by one on the rocks.
Sticking the branches to the trunk wasn't very easy. After some struggle I put them together. You can see how they are not aligned well.
Then I found some soap-nuts which I stuck to the branches like fruits.
However the trunk I used was not strong enough it started to break (not the joint the trunk itself) while I tried to add the soapnuts. Soapnuts are very light even though they look big, its just an empty shell. The trunk was also collapsing when I tried to trim some branches as I went along.
I had to trim the root of the rose bush and use it upside down for the trunk. This looked much better and stronger I think.
With the major piece assembled I collected a crassula alba (varigiated Jade) plant which could do as a lovely living tree. I had tiny ones or huge ones that didn't fit into this set up. I chose this smaller jade so it has space to grow. Sadly I have no moss here. So I used a sedum to fill the rest of the area. I added some blue stones as water and some reddish stones around the edges as banks and also in some areas of the tray itself to differentiate space.
I gave the tree a couple of rounds of trimming to give it some shape and to reduce the height. I tried cutting the stump but since this was an old rotted root, the bark was coming off. Hence, I just let it be and did the best I could with what I had.
This is the first time I tried this kind of work, so it was an afternoon of comedy of trials and errors. The results aren't stunning but at least I know what I need to do the next time I want to set up a bonsai tray in this style and what I should avoid.
It was after I finished the whole process of setting it up I realized that the tree on the rock was too big and it overshadowed the rock itself. The living tree is also way too small for the setup, but the other trees I had are way to big for this project.
Nonetheless, it was fun way to spend the day. It was after spending a coupe of hours putting the broken pieces of pumice stones and tiny branches together that I realized how much I had hurt my back sitting without taking breaks.
The final set up was done hurriedly and I didn't take too many pictures. I have decided to do another kind of rock tray but I hope to collect the right material for it before I plunge into the job.
My family hates it when I collect dead branches, pebbles or strange looking rocks. They think I am crazy. Maybe I am, but creative kind of work always brings me so much joy. I learn more by doing such projects.
This is my project for the day and I hope you like it.
Thank you for all your support.