Bricking Up

I had almost decided to stain the driftwood a bit before sealing it, but I'm glad I didn't.  The polyurethane spray actually darkened the wood while it was sealing, which was perfect.

Next step is bricking up some of the gaps around where the driftwood ring sits on the bowl base.  Since we're using natural materials here, nothing completely fits together perfectly, just gotta get as close as possible and then fill in the holes as needed.  My gap filling material of choice?

BBQ wood chips.  These are alder wood chips, I believe.  They're what you're supposed to sprinkle on your BBQ to smoke your meat with, but they're the perfect size for filling holes.

Works like a charm.  I'm making sure to only put the wood glue on the tops of the chips though, because I'm not ready to permanently attach the ring to the top of the bowl yet.  I still want to go back on the inside and use wood putty to cement up holes on the inside, and thats a lot easier when you can take the concave ring off.

Definitely gonna have to stain those front chips...

And as you can see, our shallow bowl now has some depth to it, turning it into an acceptable container for a good sized pepper bonsai.  To help with the forest floor theme, I picked up some moss while I was out.

Unlike the moss I'm growing for ground cover on the soil, this is some pre-packaged dried out stuff thats probably been painted green on the tops, but thats okay.  I'll be using this stuff to decorate the sides of the container with, both to give it a more lively appearance, and to hide the spots where the glue is showing or the wood chips didn't come out entirely convincingly.

Thats a dirty little secret with us creative types.  Most of the time you see odd frilly bits on something, we're using them to cover our screw-ups.  But hey, long as it comes out looking good in the end, those are "unplanned design modifications", not screw ups. ;)

A Bowl Is Fine Too

One of the most important skills to learn when you're a maker is to look for what things could be, instead of what they currently are.  Thats not always easy to get into, because you have to learn to ignore whatever it is someone else is telling you an item is, and look at shapes, textures, etc to see what you could turn it into.

Today I was doing some post Black Friday shopping, seeing if I could find any good containers pre-made and ready to go that I could us for this project (among other things), but even at the biggest place in town I couldn't really find anything that suited my, ahem, "unique" requirements.  And this place has thousands of different containers.

So, I decided to stop by one of my favorite haunts, the local salvage yard.  You never know what they're going to have, and today I got lucky.  Big stained teak wood bowls, and a string of driftwood/wood knots/etc.  They're the perfect things I need to make the base container for a forest theme!

Plus, it kinda looks like the Millennium Falcon!

Now, like anything this has it's ups and it's downs.  On the up side, this is a very nice looking piece of raw-ish looking wood that just looks very nice.  The downside however is that it isn't really that deep.  Its less of a bowl and more of an overly deep serving platter.  Another downside is that it being sold as a bowl means it has zero drainage.

The drainage problem is the easy part, a few minutes with a power drill will solve that, and some polyurethane sealant over the drill holes to seal them back up will keep the holes from rotting out once we start putting moist soil in it.  The other problem is that its not really deep enough to hold enough soil for me.  So, thats where those driftwood chunks come in.

Picking out several well shaped pieces of wood and tacking them together with some wood glue, I can form a ring around the top of the bowl.

And once the wood glue spots completely harden, it should be firm enough that I can lift the ring up, glue it together from underneath, and seal it all with polyurethane, doubling the depth of this new planter to be.

Another thing I picked up for this was some bathroom tile.  Yes, bathroom tile.

This stuff was all of 87 cents a tile, which might be murder if I was doing a bathroom, but for this one pack is more than enough.  All I have to do is break it and I'll have very nice looking stone shards I can use to brick up gaps in the wood ring, create some slate like stone features, or whatever else I need a to break up the all wood texture I currently have going on.

Then once I've got everything the way I want it, I can do a final coating on the inside with something like cement to plug up any remaining holes, and my base container will be complete.  Then, it'll be time to decorate it.  They sell very nice looking dried mosses as flocking for model trains and the like, I'll grab some of that to cover some of the boring flat areas of the bowl, and into some of the crevices of the driftwood to help hide my joins.

With any luck, I'll end up with a container that looks like it came right off the forest floor.

Practice Wrapping

While watering my overwintering peppers, I had a thought.  I have a peter pepper (yes, the ones that look like little red dicks) that I grew last summer for someone that just wanted to see them that is of decent size to turn into a bonchi.  I can use it to practice basic root over rocks techniques in preparation for the real project!

   No seriously, they look like little dicks.

No particular attachment to this plant, just didn't feel like letting a unique looking pepper die out in the cold.  Figured eventually I'd figure out something to do with it.  Then I remembered something, I have an old weathered laughing Buddha resin statue from one of my neighbors that gave it to me with the express intent that I use it to make something cool out of.

Buddha thinks its hilarious that I'm going to grow red hot chili peckers on his head.

Don't really have time to go through all the steps of making the whole mold thing like I described in my last post, so I figured I'd try a much simpler version of a traditional wrap method.  Simply position the plant where you want it, spread the roots out nicely, and cover with some soil.

Then, just grab a plastic bag, cut it into a sheet (take off the handles, cut down one side and across the bottom), and some packing tape.

And apparently completely forget to take pictures of the stupid thing after I was done wrapping it.  Oh well, use your imagine here.  Just wrap the plastic around it nice and tight, then mummify it with packing tape to hold it all snug up against the statue.  The plastic forms a barrier that the roots can't penetrate, so they will be forced to grow straight down, and the snug fit on the plastic means any lateral growth will have to be around the statue itself.

Make sure you have at least some roots coming out the bottom of the plastic reaching the rest of the soil so the plant has some idea of where it needs to go.

Now, place your wrapped piece back into about a 2/3rds filled container, and then fill up around the plastic.  This will keep the whole thing steady so that its much harder for the top half with your stone/statue to fall over and damage the small amount of roots coming out the bottom.  The plastic bag and tape going below the soil line will prevent any roots from growing in that area.  Make sure to leave enough of an opening around the top for the next step.

Next, water generously inside the bag!  This serves two purposes.  One, it lets you know if your bag was more or less water tight if it takes a few seconds for the water level to go down.  Second, it helps wash the soil you packed around the statue down, forcing it to settle into all the cracks and gaps it couldn't get into before when you were just hand packing.

Now for the real trick.  From here out, try not to water inside the bag.  Remember, the goal is to get the pepper to grow deep roots trying to find water, and the bag is preventing it from doing that except for the few long roots that we left sticking out the bottom.  If I water only outside of the bag, the only water the plant will have access to should be down deep, so it'll grow roots down to get it, which is exactly what we want.

This does not mean we water that way exclusively.  I will be watching the plant to know how it's doing.  If it starts drooping, I water, and its still drooping the next day, I'll pour some water into the bag because I'll know it hasn't grown enough roots down far enough to get the water otherwise.  The idea is to think of that kind of in the bag watering as life support though.  We don't want it to get enough water that way that its perfectly happy, we want it to have to work at getting the deep water.

Last step is patience.  Lots and lots of patience.  Ideally I will not take this bag off until spring, giving the roots lots of time to grow as much as they possibly can.  Come springtime when its warm enough to transfer this back outside to my raised beds again, I'll take the bag off and pull the soil away.  Hopefully what I'll see will be lots and lots of big strong roots around the statue, and lots of roots down below it as well.  If so, then I can set it all out in the garden with the top roots exposed to the sun and the wind, and they'll lignify (become woody) and thicken up even more as the small feeder roots die off, leaving me with a nice looking piece.

Hopefully.

Thats the nice thing about peppers, the only way to really kill one short of freezing it solid is to keep it constantly overwatered.  They're very forgiving plants when it comes to physical abuse, which is one reason they're so easy to turn into bonsai.

Root Over Skull Plans

Getting everything straight in my head as to exactly how I'm going to do this is, IMO, key to succeeding at it.  My previous attempt at root over rock ended up having some very good looking results, but it did not grip the surface as well as I had wanted.

The method I used at that time was a pull down.  Basically it involved burying the object I wanted it to grow over and putting the plant directly on top of it.  Then every 2-3 weeks I pulled the soil level down about an inch.  This meant the pepper had to constantly grow it's roots deeper and deeper to stay in contact with the soil, while the exposed root lignified and thickened.  The result was pretty nice, as far as the roots themselves went.

You can see by the third picture however that I had it tied down to the base because while the roots looked very nice, the plant at that point was basically sitting on the ornament, it wasn't actually gripping it.  I had planned on going back and doing some scrapings to get back down to the cambien and re-burying it to encourage more roots to grow and grip the piece, but an unexpected late frost ended up killing this one out in my raised bed before I had the chance.

I've been doing some research on ways people have done root over rock for odd shapes, and hit on this blog that has what I think is a fantastic idea.  It essentially combines two of my interests into one project, making this bonchi, and making molds for things like masks and special effects makeup.  For those that didn't read the link yet, he basically covered what he wanted the bonsai to grow on in paper mache, then used spray foam insulation to make a mold over it.  Cleaned out his mold, arranged the roots how he liked, put some medium over them, then sealed the mold back up.  That made sure to keep a nice even pressure over the whole odd shape while creating an insulating layer that protected the tree from temperature changes.

I've seen other people do similar with plastic wrap, but had concerns about how well cling wrap would work with all of the odd shapes of a skull.  If I do it this way, I can ensure that the roots have nowhere to go but exactly where I want them.

I'll keep researching ways to do this, but I really like how this one appears to work, especially with how it will let me force the roots to curl up under things like the cheekbones and around the curve of the back of the skull.  If I can get all of that, the plant should be locked firmly in place.

Always Have a Backup Plan

And wouldn't you know it, I was digging through some old pots and containers and found something that will make for a very nice backup should I not be able to build a custom one to my liking.

Bought this thing years ago and didn't have any immediate use for it.  The skull will actually fit down inside of this pot, so once filled with soil there will be a nice ring all the way around the skull that the roots can sink into, while still having that nice little bit on the side for something interesting.

I've also hotglued the mandible to the skull (it is two separate pieces) because I think I like it more as a nice dynamic open mouthed piece than as a static closed mouth.  But its just hotglue, if I change my mind it will be simple to pop it back out.  Going to wait until I'm 100% sure thats how I want it before I break out the super glue.

In the mean time, lets put this planter to good use!

Moss!

One of the best ways to give a bonchi (or any bonsai for that matter) a good look of age is moss.  There are many different types of moss, but this stuff grows wild on my driveway and forms a nice thick green carpet.  Like all mosses, it does not have true roots and aside from moisture derives most of what it needs from the air.  Which is great as a decoration because you never have to worry about feeding it, but it means the stuff is very slow growing.

So, I grabbed a chunk of it from outside, broke it up into small pieces, and seeded the planter with them.  The soil I used is what I tend to grow my bonchi in.  Its a mix of peat, diatomaceous earth, succulent soil, water crystals, and plant food granules.  While this would be a little too water retentive for normal bonsai, I like it for bonchi because my preferred watering method with peppers is to simply not water them at all until they start to droop, then give them a quick drink and go back to ignoring them.  Peppers don't like prolonged wet soil, but something that stays fairly dry without being completely devoid of water.  This mix does that.

Now, in a few months I should have a nice carpet of moss for when I eventually make my bonchi.

How to Make Unique Decorative Bonsai Planters

I'm sure anyone interested in bonsai or bonchi have looked for suitable pots and found out two things:

1) Bonsai pots are traditionally glazed ceramic.
2) Bonsai pots are bloody expensive.

While you can find plastic pots at walmart for $5, or even some basic square glazed bonsai pots at most garden centers for $15-$20, you quickly find that if you want anything even remotely interesting looking, you're going to start paying $50 or more just for the pot.  Now normally, if you're investing a decade in making your perfect bonsai, a good expensive pot can be a worthwhile investment.

For me though, I prefer to be a bit more hands on and make my own when I'm not just doing something temporary.  And oddly enough, of the easiest ways I've found to make a unique, interesting container comes from the Queen of Evil, Martha Stewart herself.

Martha Stewart Instructional Video

Martha uses pieces of slate here, which I may end up replicating myself for this one (these would look great for the forest theme), the basic idea can be used on a multitude of different materials.

For those who don't have a chance to watch the video link above, here's the basics:

1) Fill a large bin with damp sand, and hollow out a hole the size of the planter you want to make.
2) Arrange your stones/sealed wood/what have you around the edges to create the planter walls.  The damp sand will hold them in place.
3) Pour some cement into the center to create the planter's bottom.
4) Use dowels in the wet cement going down into the sand to create the drainage holes.
5) Profit.

You can use vertical stones like Martha did, or you can have horizontal layers like brickwork (just use your cement as mortar between the layers).  You can use sealed driftwood, or just about anything else you can think of.  If you use wood though, make sure you seal it with a wood sealer, you don't want moist soil against the wood to rot it out in only a couple of years.  Even just a good layer or two of spraypaint on the inside is better than nothing!

Secondary Theme Ideas

Since it is currently November and I won't be able to plant the peppers for this project for at least 3-5 more months, I am mulling over all the different looks I want to accomplish with this project, and seeing which ones will work out best.  The primary theme is obviously the skull, but its going to be lazy to just leave it at that.

So far, my current ideas for secondary themes are:

1) Forest/Jungle

Get some interesting looking driftwood that will compliment the shapes nicely, paint/stain as necessary to get rid of the gray driftwood color and bring it back to more of a fallen log look.  Possibly brush on some white glue and model train flocking for moss/lichen to give the wood a nice old appearance.  Use actual organic soil and let it grow actual moss, toss in some small frond ferns.  Possibly a fake snake curling around the side.  Make it look like this skull is laying on the forest floor out in the wild.

2) Desert

Go with a more traditional inorganic bonsai soil covered in a layer of sand, put a few succulents around to give it a cactus look, make it look like this is a bleached skull laying out in the desert.  I'm thinking big shiny black (replica) scorpion and some desert stones for the main accents.

3) Library

Ever seen the classic gothic horror library where there's a pile of books with a skull on top, with a half melted candle dripping wax down everything?  I could replicate that with the bonchi being the candle, the roots being the melted wax, and then do several stacked "books" that are hollowed out to be the container.

Tertiary Ideas:

1) I can solder and wire up LEDs to place strategically around things.  If I went for the Library secondary theme, I could get tea lamp sconces and those small fake flame LED tea lights to go in them.  Possibly a full sized flicker LED candle depending on how it goes.  Or the Forest theme might go well with some twinkling LEDs placed up in the branches like fairies/fireflies.

2) I also have a cold mist unit.  Get a large enough container that I can incorporate a bowl of water in which to place the mister, and when turned on a ground hugging white fog like mist could roll out over everything.  That would go well in the Forest theme, or for the Library theme perhaps I can seal up the inside of the skull so that the fog would roll out of the eyes or mouth.

Or I could combine cold mist and LEDs.  Who knows, I may have eyes bigger than my mouth at the moment, but the way I see it better to aim high and still have something cool if I fall short than aim too low and waste potential.

Project Kickoff: Skull Bonsai

Hello,

I've started this blog to document a major project of mine.  For several years now I have been growing various bonsai'ed pepper plants, known as bonchi (the word is a portmanteau of bonsai and chile pepper).  Fatalii.net has a wonderful guide on how to get started on making your own bonchi, but essentially you can use all of the methods of making slow growing Japanese bonsai using fast growing pepper plants.  Not only can you get impressive looking plants within a single year using this method, but peppers will continue to produce fruit while bonsai'ed and can live for well over a decade as long as you bring them inside during the winter.  In fact, the preferred method for overwintering a pepper plant is to chop it back into something already closely resembling a bonsai, so why not make it into an attractive display while you're at it?

 

I've recently gotten my hands on seeds for the infamous Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world with average scoville rating of 1.5 million, and peak ratings of well over 2 million shu.  These aren't peppers, they're weaponized fruit.  Plus, just look at them, they even look like something that would send Jason Vorhees running for his life.

It wants your soul...

So, I've decided to grow some Reapers for harvesting, and to make a bonchi out of some as well.  Seeing as this pepper is known as the Reaper, there's really only one theme I can imagine being suitable for it.

This is a life sized replica human skull cast from resin I got off of Amazon that I have done some work to in order to get it properly dirtied up and aged (it came in almost dayglo white).  My intention is to do a full on roots over rocks bonsai with the world's hottest pepper and this skull.

Not quite sure yet what positioning I'm going to go for yet, or even really how many plants will be on it, but its going to be a long and fun journey, so I thought I'd share it with you!