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 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!
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