Recent content by lieuz

  1. lieuz

    Zelkova Broom in the Making

    I bought it as a small whip that had a fairly even branch on either side fairly low on the trunkline. I chopped it down to that branch split and just let it grow in that container for a few years (2020).
  2. lieuz

    Zelkova Broom in the Making

    I have an update. You're definitely right about girdling and burying. I felt I wasted time looking back now; however, the results are interesting. Girdling first then air layering proved the bulge will flatten out on my case. I wonder if it girdled and ground layer, would it have done the same...
  3. lieuz

    American Hornbeam Forest

    I've had this american horbeam forest for about 9 years and it was put together with some fairly young trees at the time. This is probably my third forest but this one is deciduous, my other two are conifers. It's definitely come a long way and had 2 restyling by moving some trunks around. I...
  4. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    I was able to fill in the very obvious voids and also had the time to apply the finishing as well. The pot is now ready for refinement polishing to make the surface very smooth to receive the gold powder. Will likely have to go through 2-3 cycles to get this to look flush. But so far so good...
  5. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    Not bonsai related but this is one of my more labor intensive repairs. Lots of missing bits and pieces on this yixing zisha tea pot. It get's renewed life. Quite proud of this one. It's for my sister's boyfriend. This teapot used to belong to his dad and he's no longer with us. This is a nice...
  6. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    One nice thing about broken pots are, that at raffles, they don't get picked. But I pick them. This chipped pot was repaired with silver. A much larger chip which requires a natural composite of flour, clay, wood dust, and lacquer creates a material that is very dense, very hard and very strong...
  7. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    While I wait for the pot to cure, I figured I'd post some pictures of some other repaired work I've completed. Here is a repaired Sara Rayner piece that had a small chip in it. The gold is very matches the clay very nicely. Chips are my all time preferred repairs because they're fully...
  8. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    Having cured a bit more, I applied some sabi urushi to fill in large substantial areas around the foot. The results are good, but still need another round of filler material, although less next go round. Note the more polished and refined missing leg. Very pleased with this work. Will require...
  9. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    After a few days in the humidity chamber (muro) with the feet more firm, I was able to whittle away material. Here's the after of the whittling away. I was also able to do a light sanding and it exposed the copper reinforcement below. I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'll let...
  10. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    After a few more days, the pot had some more time to cure. It's time to make the missing foot. Using that recipe stated before, that'll be the composite used to shape the rough structure. Also needed ins some reinforcement, so I added two pieces of copper wire into the core to support the...
  11. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    The best way I can explain that would be relative is if you sifted your bonsai soil and the ultra-fine stuff is similar in consistency. I grabbed this picture from BONSAI TONIGHT, the dust that you see would be a similar consistency and even that I'd but that through a silk stocking and sift if...
  12. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    In preparation for sculpting a foot for this pot, I wanted to share the recipe for the composite called kokuso (刻苧) or sometimes as (木屎). Between the two kanji, one being "chopped fibrous plant fiber" and the other literally meaning "wood poop" this stuff is meant to be a filling material that...
  13. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    This hardened up pretty well after a few days. I scraped and sanded down so it matched the surrounding profile. Came out nice, I'll do another sanding after another few days. There is a slight, very very slight, discrepancy that will be fixed with filler material and more sanding. Slight...
  14. lieuz

    Kate M's American Hornbeam

    Damn, I wish I found cool stuff in my backwoods. This is a great start! I really love American hornbeams and their very sensual-looking trunks.
  15. lieuz

    Kintsugi Pot Repair

    The last pot where a substantial amount of loss is addressed in this go-round. This Roy Minerai pot has a lot of the rim missing, so I added back material so I can sand it down later. Here's the after when the composite of flour, clay, wood fines and lacquer was added to patch these areas...
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