Soap stone carving-pots and penjing stones

I had nothing better to do today so decided to carve some soap stone a make a penjing sort of arrangement. It was first time to carve this stone, but it turned out to be easy. First tried a small pot and then decided to carve a stone. Had some very little cuttings of junipers and stuck them in. I shall carve the stone better later with the dremel for now it was preliminaries with the De walt die grinder.

Decided to try and make a little pot first

Started with this stone

Then made a hole on the bottom and 3 holes on the sides joined to it.You might ask how is this going to work, ones the trees grow big, and how will I do the repotting.

Junipers are slow to grow…the holes are around 6cm in diameter, and the trunks are outside the stone. If I see they are getting too big, I can always enlarge the hole. And inside the stone???? what if the roots grow so big and there is no more space???? I have not figured that one out yet. They will be impossible to remove from the stone. I shall then maybe have to break the stone and remove the plants….hope that will not be needed too soon. Remember that is just a fun project and experimenting. The roots will grow downwards, and reach the bottom of the stone, where there is media over the slab, So that part of the roots can be combed and trimmed as need be.

And here it is almost done 15 min later.

I then told my gardener to make it dirty with some mud…Soap stone stains very easily.

Here it is washed after the mud treatment:

The finishing touches will be done later…with a dremel.

I wired the conifers, but dont want to stress them now bending. The wire is embedded in the media inside.Ones they are established I shall bend them. Hope they will all root.

Top view

On the two side junipers I left some roots outside, and covered them with a mix of moss and soil. Later if all is OK and they grow too big, I can slowly start cutting the roots to the inside of the pot and leave it as a ROR. I shall try to make a mix of manure and soil for the center one…and see if I can get some roots into it which I can channel down from the outside.

I shall cover the stone with kitchen foil and foam and bandage it later, ones I see they are growing, so the roots can safely reach the media bellow.

front view

I shall keep you updated on how things turn out.