Earth and Fire

Mottled beauty with just right mix of tradition (form) and innovation (glaze). One of many great pots by Peter Krebs. All the photos in this post are from Peter’s Earth and Fire website. We are well into our sixth year here on Bark and we’ve never devoted a post to Peter Krebs’ exquisite hand made bonsai pots. Fortunately, the time is right to repair this oversight. Potting season is here for some of us and soon to be here for most of us. This is not to say that everyone should hurry over to Peter’s website (Earth and Fire) and … Continue reading Earth and Fire

Great Trees, Great Pots

Much of the bonsai in Taiwan seems to pair truly remarkable trees with truly remarkable pots. Not that the best bonsai elsewhere aren’t usually in suitably excellent pots, but still, there’s something both bold and refined about these uniquely beautiful hand-painted Taiwanese pots that create extra excitement and pleasure (something like that anyway). I found these photos on facebook a while back, but now, after spending 30 minutes looking for the source, I’ve given up. This is a little embarrassing because I’m usually a bit of a fanatic about attribution. I guess we’ll just have to wait for Jose Luis … Continue reading Great Trees, Great Pots

Pot Contest – We Have a Winner!

Pot #2 finished first. Just over three weeks ago we started a contest called Choosing the Right Pot. Here’s the link if you’d like to recharge your memory. A total of 139 people entered the contest. It turned out to be a neck and neck race between two pots. Pot #2 started very strong and looked like it would win going away. Then in the last week or so, pot number 5 gave a valiant chase, finishing a mere one vote short. The breakdown on the favorite pot-tree combination is as follows: 32 chose Pot #2 31 chose Pot #5 … Continue reading Pot Contest – We Have a Winner!

$100 Contest: Choosing the Right Pot

The idea for choosing the best pot for this tree belongs to Boon Manakitivipart, as do all the photos in this post. The idea for turning this into a contest belongs to me. This is our second post on Choosing the Right Pot in the last few weeks (December 14. 2013). The tree is a Chinese cork bark elm. All the photos were borrowed from Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon). The Contest: To to eligible to win the $100 Stone Lantern gift certificate you must do the following three things. 1. Choose your favorite pot & tree combination from the … Continue reading $100 Contest: Choosing the Right Pot

Pot Master

I don’t know who styled this wonderfully crazy azalea (I don’t read Japanese) but I do know that Master Potter Gyozan Nakano made the pot. Still out of town so we’ll continue borrowing from our illustrious past. We’re on a pot roll, so let’s just keep rolling. And as long as we’re delving into the archives, why not go all the way back to our first pot post. It’s from July, 2007. A remarkable book about a remarkable potter Four years ago (ten years ago now) I was given a most remarkable book by the World Bonsai Friendship Federation, who … Continue reading Pot Master

From Another Time and Place…

Subtle beauty, fine art with bright flowers. What could you ever plant in this pot? 4 inches (10cm) across the top. From our Japanese mystery book. Staying on our pot theme while taking the easy way out. It’s the Holidays and I’m traveling again, so we’re going to indulge ourselves by resurrecting another post from archives (with the photos enlarged and rearranged). This one is from way back in 2010. It was titled Ornate Elegance: Bonsai Pots As Fine Art. These pots are clearly from an another time and place when compared to the pots in the last post. So … Continue reading From Another Time and Place…

Off the Deep End with Horst (Is This Pot Legal?)

Would you plant a Crabapple in this pot? Or a Cherry tree? Winterberry? Persimmon? Pyracantha? Anything? Or maybe Horst was picturing Christmas tree ornaments. All the pots shown here are by Horst Heinzlreiter. As is often the case lately, they are lifted from facebook. The ‘Deep End’ in the title is just silliness on my part, as is the bit about being legal. I don’t know Horst, but I suspect he’s not all that crazy. Except maybe in the positive sense which might translate as daring, imaginative, unconventional, even outrageous (again in the positive sense). If you’ve been following Bark … Continue reading Off the Deep End with Horst (Is This Pot Legal?)

Choosing the Right Pot

As long as we’re on the topic of choosing, I chose this one as the lead photo because it’s the only one with clean pot. A distinct advantage. All the photos in this post are from Boon Manakitivipart’s facebook postings. I took the liberty of cropping all the photos in this post and combining some separate photos into single images. Which pot would you chose? The photos and the concept are courtesy of Boon Manakitivipart (aka Bonsai Boon) on facebook (here and here). Just in case you’re not in the loop, Boon is a highly respected American bonsai artist and … Continue reading Choosing the Right Pot

Great Pots Deserve Great Trees

Malpigia glabra (Barbados cherry) by Hsieh, Cheng-Hua. Still traveling so we’ll borrow one more from our archives (April 2011). In keeping with the last post, we’ll stick with Taiwanese bonsai. More Taiwanese Bonsai Here are three more bonsai from the 2008 Taiwan Bonsai Creators Exhibition booklet which appears on Bonsai Shari Si-Diao, Cheng, Cheng-Kung’s website. It’s the pots, as well the trees, that really grabbed me. Ficus microcarpa by Huang,Ching-Chi. Variety unlisted. By Tung, Wen Chi. Yixing Bonsai pots are available at Stone Lantern

Ceramic Art Disguised as Bonsai Pots

Deciding which one of Horst Heinzlreiter’s pots to show as the lead photo seems almost random, considering Horst is so prolific and all of his pots are worthy. The same goes for the six pots below. Numerous others as just as good, but you have to stop somewhere (for a whole slew of Horst’s pots, check out this facebook post). Sometimes it seems my function here is art curator (and sometimes art critic). I show you pictures of beautiful or unusual things (usually bonsai), make a few questionable comments and leave the rest to you. So here we go again, … Continue reading Ceramic Art Disguised as Bonsai Pots