Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
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@thomas22 - that is a very nice pot. At least in the photo the texture is not obviously wood.
If you could make a wooden pot look like stone, or ceramic, you might really have something. Judging bonsai at shows is all about how the display appears at the time of the show. If the pot looks good at the time shown, it technically should not matter how it will look years later in the future.
Ceramic, or stone does symbolically represent the earth. Not a big deal in bonsai, more important is the shape, & color providing a frame, or base, both separating the tree from the table, shelf or stand, and providing the stage, the "ground" for the image of the tree. The pot is an integral part of the set and setting for the bonsai. The pot helps set sense of place and sense of perspective.
A wooden pot could do this just as well as ceramic, except, the minute the observer realizes it is wood, there is the possibility that @rockm 's point that wood is temporary will come to mind, disrupting the image one is trying to create. Then the wood pot would detract from the display if it drew attention from the trees(s). Ceramic, being fired clay - hence earth, is usually viewed as more permanent, and as representing the earth or ground. Or at least the idea of ceramic won't interfere with conceptualizing the image one is trying to make with the bonsai. So I agree with Rock M's point. the fact that wood always decays detracts from its use as a material for making exhibition pots.
If you could make a wooden pot look like stone, or ceramic, you might really have something. Judging bonsai at shows is all about how the display appears at the time of the show. If the pot looks good at the time shown, it technically should not matter how it will look years later in the future.
Ceramic, or stone does symbolically represent the earth. Not a big deal in bonsai, more important is the shape, & color providing a frame, or base, both separating the tree from the table, shelf or stand, and providing the stage, the "ground" for the image of the tree. The pot is an integral part of the set and setting for the bonsai. The pot helps set sense of place and sense of perspective.
A wooden pot could do this just as well as ceramic, except, the minute the observer realizes it is wood, there is the possibility that @rockm 's point that wood is temporary will come to mind, disrupting the image one is trying to create. Then the wood pot would detract from the display if it drew attention from the trees(s). Ceramic, being fired clay - hence earth, is usually viewed as more permanent, and as representing the earth or ground. Or at least the idea of ceramic won't interfere with conceptualizing the image one is trying to make with the bonsai. So I agree with Rock M's point. the fact that wood always decays detracts from its use as a material for making exhibition pots.