My 2nd carved-out scoria pot, this time I put a specific tree in as it was a gift for someone (actually I'd love price/value guesstimates anyways!)

[SU2]

This is my 2nd piece of carved lava rock/scoria, this piece was like $7 and took <30min to carve w/ my 4.5" cup wheel in a 4A angle-grinder, ample/wide drainage w/ screens, I put this purple porterweed in it because a friend had seen my garden some months back and really gravitated towards that tree & wanted to buy it, though at that time I was busy and the prospect of re-potting / styling / pricing put me off til the point I'd forgotten about it....fast-forward to this week, someone close to me was having her birthday and needed a computer, well my friend works in IT so she has plenty of extra "old" hardware sitting around and was happy to help me but we had a problem as her gear was just more than I was looking to spend (even at 'friend prices')....but, wanting it to happen, it recurred to me she'd wanted this specimen and that she'd thought my first scoria pot came out cool/well, so I got the idea to just re-pot this specimen she liked into the scoria pot and then wired w/ (mostly) purple wiring to match the purple flowers (though where I had to use copper, the copper-against-purple wiring at dual-wrapped sites is just beautiful!) I sprayed the thing w/ pyrethinones(sp?) and used a very high% peat-moss substrate w/ organic fert, figure the growth-rate will be pretty slow in such a small pot but will be maintaining it for her as it does grow!

Any feedback on the scoria pot would be great, though any comments on the tree / its prep/styling / especially a rough value that it'd be worth in-trade would be hugely appreciated! Unsure if it's relevant to that last item but this specimen has been in training almost 2yrs and has a photographed chronological/progress journal (like most of my specimen!)

(had to take lots of angles, there's no true "front" it's a 360deg specimen really, there's a massive shari running up one of the trunks and there's that massive jin to the side as well as a surface-root-jin, all deadwood has at least 3 treatments of lime-sulfur having been applied ~5-10min after misting with water )


more angles:

 

[River's Edge]

This is my 2nd piece of carved lava rock/scoria, this piece was like $7 and took <30min to carve w/ my 4.5" cup wheel in a 4A angle-grinder, ample/wide drainage w/ screens, I put this purple porterweed in it because a friend had seen my garden some months back and really gravitated towards that tree & wanted to buy it, though at that time I was busy and the prospect of re-potting / styling / pricing put me off til the point I'd forgotten about it....fast-forward to this week, someone close to me was having her birthday and needed a computer, well my friend works in IT so she has plenty of extra "old" hardware sitting around and was happy to help me but we had a problem as her gear was just more than I was looking to spend (even at 'friend prices')....but, wanting it to happen, it recurred to me she'd wanted this specimen and that she'd thought my first scoria pot came out cool/well, so I got the idea to just re-pot this specimen she liked into the scoria pot and then wired w/ (mostly) purple wiring to match the purple flowers (though where I had to use copper, the copper-against-purple wiring at dual-wrapped sites is just beautiful!) I sprayed the thing w/ pyrethinones(sp?) and used a very high% peat-moss substrate w/ organic fert, figure the growth-rate will be pretty slow in such a small pot but will be maintaining it for her as it does grow!

Any feedback on the scoria pot would be great, though any comments on the tree / its prep/styling / especially a rough value that it'd be worth in-trade would be hugely appreciated! Unsure if it's relevant to that last item but this specimen has been in training almost 2yrs and has a photographed chronological/progress journal (like most of my specimen!)

Picture?

 

[JoshuaRN]

Nice man, I did a bunch this summer when I got my hands on a giant lava boulder . Just remember to wash it before using it. Best method I came up with also was to use ceramicist masonry drill bits ,using convention stone carving tools eventually breaks the stone . Looks great !

 

[SU2]

Nice man, I did a bunch this summer when I got my hands on a giant lava boulder . Just remember to wash it before using it. Best method I came up with also was to use ceramicist masonry drill bits ,using convention stone carving tools eventually breaks the stone . Looks great !

Nice!!!! Want to go back for a reallllly large one, make a huge slab/pot type thing, will have to go see what they have! Re not using conventional stuff, I was just using my 4" concrete-grinding disc on the angle-grinder, then 1/4" shanked grinding-bits (not rasps!) on my die-grinder, it seems rotation speed is important I wouldn't want to be trying the same bits in a drill for instance!

 

[JoshuaRN]

You could always stop by a local hardscape store (stone walls etc) and see what kind of pavers they have. If it’s a main brand they will list the chemical composition . Carving a pot out of a 4in thick rectangle might save some work. If you go the block carving route look up some pictures of how single block bonsai pots are made. It’s all stenciling and prep, then drill some guide holes and start with a med grinder . With the blocks though I’d avoid chiseling