Making a Rock Slab for my Serissa

[Dorian Fourie]

Hi All

This Saturday I have been requested to do a demo at my club and I decided to show everyone the benefit of adding rocks into your bonsai to assist in improving the overall look and the best rocks to use for ROR.

I am also going to be showing them the rock slab that I made for my Serissa Bonsai and I will finish it off with planting the tree and adding in the final rocks, moss etc.

I went and found myself a nice piece of slate rock and I tried to match it as closely to the colour I was looking for to match the rocks I was using. I spent a few days cutting pieces of rock with my angle grinder and over the last weekend, I started to put the puzzle together of trying to get it to look the most natural way possible.

I tried to make some overhangs and areas that I can fill up with moss and hoping that it will look natural in the end. Once I had cut all the pieces and positioned them into the general area, I marked each one and put them carefully together. I was planning to use window pane putty to keep them in place on the slab but was advised that it is filled with turpentine and would never dry in time. A mate of mine gave me some epoxy that he had found out about and said that it is the best for gluing items together and guaranteed not to come loose.

I set to work getting the rocks glued onto the slab. The epoxy glue comes in 2 containers that need to be mixed and once put into place, we tied it down with some wire to hold it until the glue set.




From then it was like building a puzzle and getting the numbers back into position. Some changes were made and eventually half of the slab was glued and held in place. I left it overnight to ensure that the epoxy would dry completely before I would finish off the rest of the slab around the back area. When I looked at it the next morning, one of the pieces just didn't look right so I decided to remove it and re-glue it into a new position. The glue had set so hard that I actually removed a thin layer of the slab whilst taking it off.


I mixed some more glue up, replaced the rock into a better position and got working on the back of the slab. Once all the rocks were glued and I was happy that the glue had set sufficiently, it was time to move onto the next step.

One of my friends has the most amazing spot where moss grows in abundance and I go moss collecting whenever I need too. I got more then enough for this project and some.


Now to get stuck in and get the moss into the slab.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

This is the left side of my slab. It has a very nice overhang and once filled with moss, should come out nicely.


I started by filling in the area with my soil mix and giving it a good spray down with a fine mist to ensure the soil settles nicely before I place the moss.


After that I got to work by adding in the moss and making sure it is pushed into the soil so that it does not fall out. I also made sure to use different types of moss to add contrasts on the colour and texture.


Onto the next section making sure that every area is filled with soil and sprayed down to ensure that the soil settles.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

It is a very slow and meticulous process making sure that the moss is put into the correct areas and that it will not fall off. Eventually I got all the way round the front area.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

I was very happy with the way it turned out.



This is the Serissa that I am going to be planting into the slab. In my mind I always thought this tree would work but I could not plant it in the slab now as it has to be done at the demo.


So thanks to being able to do some photoshop on the pc, I did a mock up of what it might just look like at the end.



I definitely believe that it will work. So let me know your thoughts.

 

[discusmike]

Is the tree positioned with muck or bonsai soil??

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Is the tree positioned with muck or bonsai soil??

Currently the tree is still in its pot. I will be using bonsai soil when I transplant it this weekend.

 

[Gustavo Martins]

Seriously nice work with the rock slab!

 

[penumbra]

Very nice job. Particularly nice stone you are using. What kind of stone is it?

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Seriously nice work with the rock slab!

Thanks so much

Very nice job. Particularly nice stone you are using. What kind of stone is it?

Thanks so much. Honestly I am not sure what type of stone it is. I find it very close to a place where I used to take my son to do horse riding.

 

[Michael P]

Beautiful!

 

[Carol 83]

Really nice. Sometimes those scenes look contrived, this looks very natural.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Really nice. Sometimes those scenes look contrived, this looks very natural.

Beautiful!

Thanks so much . Appreciate it

Cannot wait for the weekend to get the tree in to finish it off.

Watch this space

 

[August44]

Great job...I love it, and you have given me some ideas. Do you have "SHOE GOO" where you are? That's great stuff for projects like this also. Thanks for the details and pictures. Peter

 

[Boerboel313]

Nice eye with the placement of the rocks and moss.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Great job...I love it, and you have given me some ideas. Do you have "SHOE GOO" where you are? That's great stuff for projects like this also. Thanks for the details and pictures. Peter

Hi Peter.

Thanks so much I appreciate it and glad I could assist. We don't have shoe goo but this epoxy (STEENVAS) sticks so well its perfect for the jobs.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

Nice eye with the placement of the rocks and moss.

Thanks so much. Appreciate it

 

[Dorian Fourie]

So over the weekend, I did my demo at my club and it went off quite well.

I firstly showed everyone how I made the slab and added in the moss.


After that I took the Serissa out of the pot and it was filled with roots.


I needed to give it quite a trim to fit into the slab so I got stuck in with my heavy duty scissors and took off quite a few roots.


It took me a few efforts to get the tree to fit properly so it was in and out and cut and in and out and cut.






After I was happy with the height and position, I filled it with soil, watered it down to settle some what and then started to add in the moss.

 

[Dorian Fourie]

After I was finished, I was actually quite happy with the way it turned out.


Then......

One of the club members pointed out that it reminds them of a boat or a boot. She said that the slab is great and the shape of the tree is great but by positioning it so far to the side, just gives her the feeling of looking at boot. As soon as she said that, I immediately agreed and could not see anything else.

So after some deliberation, it was decided to move the tree more to the middle to create some more space on the left hand side. After a quick shifting of the tree, I filled up the space on the left with soil and moss and had a new look.



Definitely an improvement. I decided to leave it now to recover. Over the next few weeks, I hope to have it settle down more before I finish it off. I definitely need to add in more rocks around the base of the tree and in the area towards the right. Also as the moss grows into place, it will improve the overall vision.

I do think that the canopy on the left need to be brought downwards and it is too high. By bringing it down, it will improve the overall look of the tree. Also by bringing the left side canopy down, I can also reduce the right hand side slightly to balance it out.

I did some photo-shop to get an idea of what I believe to look better



So let me know your thoughts.

Thanks
D

 

[August44]

I think it is absolutely great! Good Job!

 

[Dorian Fourie]

I think it is absolutely great! Good Job!

Thanks so much