Non Traditional Planters for Pauline's Grand Opening

[ronlang]

Hi, Potter Ron Lang here-
For my first attempt to post images! So here goes,I hope.
Pauline Muth, PFM Bonsai Studio http://www.pfmbonsai.com/ is hosting the Grand Opening for her beautiful new bonsai studio Saturday and Sunday July 9 & 10. Along with the several other workshops with Frank Mihalic and Marty Schmalenberg
I was asked to design unique, combination slab and accent planters for a workshop that Pauline will conduct on Saturday afternoon with Shohin larch clumps and accent material. Time permitted only six and here they are and drying before the firing.

Six Inset Slabs 17" L x 12" W x 1" H Unfired drying on workbench

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Slab before final detailing

InsetSlabs2.jpg (161.86 KiB) Viewed 2524 times

[ronlang]

Just the last two shots of the unfired, finished surface details. Firing in about three days!
Any thoughts, comments or questions are welcome.

Best, Ron Lang

[plantmanky]

Just the last two shots of the unfired, finished surface details. Firing in about three days!
Any thoughts, comments or questions are welcome.

Best, Ron Lang

Ron,

Very nice to see something more contemporary and different! Are the containers going to be glazed or unglazed? I'm thinking about taking a pottery class in the fall just to try my hand at it. I'm working on a project that will need some unique pots to pull it off so I thought, why not give it a try. Would love to see these pots when your done with them.

Randy
p.s. we now have a pots and containers section on the forum for all the potters out there and people that would like to kibitz with potters on special needs or to see new designs and pots comming out of the kiln.

[ronlang]

Thanks Randy
I'm looking forward to the Grand Opening at Pauline's and promise to photograph the workshop and post the results. These inset slabs are made from a dark, chocolate brown clay that I've developed to look similar to unglazed Tokoname ware. So they will be left unglazed. This claybody is the only one I fire completely in electric kilns and not my wood kiln.
My wife Sharon and I have been trying to make more contemporary containers. Trying to find a balance of design and style and finish that will complement bonsai and accent plants and kusamono. It is difficult when departing from folks expectations of a bonsai container to deliver an acceptable alternative. I've found that when we are excited with a new ideas and actually plant up the containers to show folks the potential, most enjoy the new way of appreciating bonsai display. Here are a couple of examples of recent work in this vein.

Thanks for your comments, good luck if you take a clay course, you should enjoy it! And thanks for the "heads up" on the "Pots Section" on the forum. These posts should probably go over there, huh?
Ron

[ronlang]

I should have credited my wife Sharon Edwards-Russell who is the maker of all of these last three examples. I would have been in Hot Water!
Ron

[centaura]

The concept of having an area in the main bonsai pot for an accent planting is really, really intriguing. I think I really like it. The elm grouping with the slot in the front for an accent is really cool, and I would be really interested to see your other design potted up. Thanks for posting,

-Cat

[plantmanky]

Just the last two shots of the unfired, finished surface details. Firing in about three days!
Any thoughts, comments or questions are welcome.

Best, Ron Lang

I was thinking about your new pot design and it occured to me that having no planting area for the accent and putting the larger planting area in the center of the container, it would make a lovely living ikibana arrangement. That's the nice thing about being inventive! It conjures up all kinds of new and potentially fruitful ideas.

R

[ronlang]

Thanks Cat for your comments. We will see how they look planted up next weekend at Pauline's. I'll post some shots. The first image is one of my standard inset planters without any accent area.

Randy, it's interesting that you mention Ikibana. My first ever inset style container had an even more unconventional planting area in that it was offset on an oblique angle. The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum have this one in their collection and pull it out ever so often for exhibit. Here it was used in 2009 as a container for a kusamono by Young Choi in an exhibition that featured several of my wife's and my containers.
Best,
Ron

[ronlang]

I'm finally getting around to posting shots from Pauline Muth's Studio almost a month ago. Pauline invited me to put out a couple of tables of pots for sale and I brought along the "experimental" slabs with inset planting areas for both tree and accent planting

View of the back of the studio

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shown at the start of this thread.

View of the upper loft style studio

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Workshop guest artist Frank Mihalic in center of photo

Frank during his workshop

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[ronlang]

Marty Schmalenberg works with participants during a "bring you own tree" session.

Marty Schmalenberg

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One of the clump style larch material that Pauline provided for workshop using my slab planters.

Larch clump material before styling

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Larch workshoper Larry Mossey begins searching for the forest for the trees. Very healthy root development made it tough to place the group onto the slab in it's eventual finished position.