The scouring of the Shire, Bagshot Row Remade.

Two doors down from Bag End is Number 3 Bagshot Row, where Gaffer Gamgee and Sam Gamgee live.

By the time I have finished I'll have the whole of Hobbiton in my back garden

For the bricks, thin slices are cut from a terracotta roof tile using a diamond blade tile cutter. After having the sharp edges taken off them with a home-made tumbler they are ready for use. Unfortunately I have no photos of this process.

For the door frame the bricks are built around a plastic disc. They are stuck onto the mesh with brown silicone sealant. Remember the paper underneath, otherwise it will all be stuck to your bench.


The window is made the same way as the door.


When the door and window have dried the wall front can be built. The in between bit is done first and allowed to dry.


I really wanted to have a curved brick wall in this trayscape. To do this I needed lots of short, angled bricks. Long bricks don't make smooth curves. The existing brickwork was lashed vertical and a small bottle taped behind to act as a former for the curve.

The tree for this trayscape is a Chinese elm that was bought at the Best of British Show in Birmingham, March 2009. Here you can see the prominent root that is a bit problematic at first look. I should be able to work it into the design, though.


A big ball of 'muck', made from clay, John Innes & fine akadama/cat litter and water. People always ask what consistency this kind of muck should be, it should hold itself together and yet be very moist and pliable. you should be able to get a good idea from the photo.


The tree is positioned in the new pot, and the brickwork is put in place. Both are tied in with wire. I use the muck to keep the brickwork firmly located, and to build up the small hill at the back.


Here you can see the positioning. Not much room in this small pot


A quick mock-up with a temporary path, to get a feel for how it will look. It is obvious that I completely misjudged the size of the thing, the pot is way too small.

Not to worry, necessity is the mother of invention. I will use a high-end porcelain tile for the new base.


The tile is roughly cut to shape on a circular diamond-bladed tile cutter, and marked out for holes.


This is all the holes I could get into it. I used two masonry drills and one specialist tile drill. These tiles are HARD. Each drill would only do 1/5 or less of a hole before it needed sharpening. I was a bit ambitious in thinking I could get those three big holes across the middle The edges of the tile were smoothed on the edge of the diamond blade in the tile cutter, and then polished on a rotating emery/scotchbrite wheel. 6 Hours to do all this work. Tile dust all over the place. Splinters in my fingers. Grit in my eye. Sludge all over the patio. You get the picture


Luckily for me, it all came out of the too-small pot without much trouble, and I was able carry on where I had left off, building up 'muck' retaining walls and covering in moss.


The larger slab gave me enough room for a decent sized from garden.

I find that gently stippling the edges of the sections of moss helps to blend them together.


The fence is made from coffee stirrers. They have been buried in the ground for a few months and then cleaned and stained with wood dye. The fence has that 'new' look right now, but it will soon age.


The fence is pushed into the 'muck' underneath the moss. I built up some steps using some longer strips of the same material used for the bricks. I filled in the steps behind with aquarium gravel.


The aquarium gravel looked totally out of place so I replaced it with crushed slate. I also fitted the window at this stage. Two crossed strips of wood over a circle of black acrylic.


I turned the brass doorknob on my small hobby lathe. Back end first, then finish the front.

Fit the door and window and it is finished. The chimney pot came from Walsall Studio Ceramics.

On the left is Number 3, Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, The Shire. Home to Gaffer and Sam Gamgee.

On the right is Bag End, Bagshow Row, Hobbiton, The Shire. Home to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.

I just need to build Daddy Twofoot's hole, Number 2 Bagshot Row, and I will have the whole set



Chris.

In the first landscape it seems to me that there aren't enought soil for the tree... and because of that you'l have to repot it quite sooner, am I right?

Joao Santos

I got lost for twenty minutes looking at these photos on Flickr.

Thanks for the wonderful photos of all the stages of construction.

Chris, I love your work & really appreciate your effort, it's so appealing, just don't understand how a person with such a good eyes & skill could lost his interest in bonsai!!!!! you might got too many things to do & were short of time , what ever it was I am so happy you are back .
You gave me such a great idea that I start designing my own right after your posting , THANK YOU my friend , I enjoyed every second watching your work, Thanks again for sharing

These are also a great lesson for people new to bonsai to look at. Imagin how much less evocative these would be if you had used trees with 1/2" trunks and less taper.

Mike Pollock wrote:I got lost for twenty minutes looking at these photos...

Same here. Very lovely creation. The broom and the brass knob did it for me.

Cool!

-dorothy

Chris. Don't forget Tom Bombadill's house. Sadly neglected in the films!!!

Thank god you got interested in bonsai again. Why did you lose interest? I also remember your first post of Bilbo´s house, I liked it instantly. If you don´t have time (or interest) to maintain it, send it to me!
Greetings from Germany,

G'day Chris...

My ancient and well worn creativity fails me...can't come up with the right words...I must get my GRAND granddaughter to collaborate with me...

A truely living work of art...

Pat

Chris, I was just looking through some shots of mine and this one from last summer resonated with your display structures. I thought you might be interested in this
It is a Neolithic passage burial chamber on Anglesey, called Bryn Celli Ddu.

Chris,

I enjoyed these years ago and I am happy to see they still survive, as well as your interest in the art.



Will

Chris,
I speak in all sincerity. The loss of your article when bonsaitalk went down was the greatest blow to me in the entire database. Thank you so much for updating here. Bag End has meant a great deal to me over the years, and I am so happy to see that it survives, along with your interest in the hobby.

Chris

Chris

I could not resist



All the best

Andy

Joao, apart from the organics in the 'muck', the potting medium is all inorganic, so I will need to supply most or all of its food any way.

Mike, thanks. I enjoy your photos on flickr also The trees in each trayscape were very carefully selected, each had a curving concave section that I could fit the door up in to. Girth and maturity helps a lot in the final image.

mehrdad chavosh, I'm very pleased you have started your own project.

Dorothy, glad you like it. I just love making stuff like this. All Sunday afternoon in the greenhouse, radio on low, Mrs Treebeard sitting and chatting, cups of tea on the hour every hour. What more could a chap want

Will B, Old Tom Bombadil, always left out of things. Not in the animated movie, not in the BBC radio production, not in the PJ movies. Mind you, he is a bit weird... (Tom that is, not PJ)

Claas, I just lost interest... could have been any one of half a dozen reasons, but the interest is back good and strong now. I don't think I will be sending Bag End to Germany any time soon

Pat, Thank you so much for your words, they mean a lot to me.

Kev, I saw that photo in flickr, excellent inspiration. I did create a longbarrow bonsai trayscape a few years back, but I used the wrong moss on it and in a few short months the moss had nearly swamped the tree, and had also totally grown over the barrow entrance. I still have the stonework, maybe I will try to recreate it over the winter months.

Will H, thanks.

Chris, hello, good to see that smiling face of yours on my screen again I still have the old bonsaitalk article intact somewhere on a CD. I really should get it online again.

Andy, very good! In scale, too

Chris.

Chris, I forwarded your photo links to several Hobit fanatics. They absolutely love your treescapes. The rebuild looks stunning. Thanks,

Jay

Treebeard,

Very nice work indeed, but where are the 'taters?

Any thoughts on a Wellinghall project? Right up your alley I should think.

Best regards,
Martin

Hi Martin,

What's 'taters, precious?

Hmm, yes, Wellinghall... I had not thought of that An obvious subject now you mention it.

Chris.

Tater can refer to any one of several things:

* Dialect term for "potato" (see potato (word))
* The Tater people, a medieval term for the Norwegian and Swedish Travellers, a group of the Romany people
* A last name of people with roots going back to the Indian desert state of Rajasthan
* A nickname such as Nashville's famous Mark "Tater" Harris
* "Tater Salad", nickname of comedian Ron White
* Baseball jargon for a home run (see Wikipedia article List of baseball jargon (T), item 13, for more information)
* A popular flash video remixed from footage of Sam Gamgee and Gollum from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers repeating the phrase "Po-ta-toes, boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew." - Wikipedia

I was intrigued by the Wellinghall reference, here are a couple of illustrations for anyone unfamiliar (or having forgotten, like me).
http://www.tednasmith.com/lotr2/TN-Wellinghall.jpg
http://intertwingled.net/images/lotr/Wellinghall.jpg

Treebeard wrote:Old Tom Bombadil, always left out of things. Not in the animated movie, not in the BBC radio production, not in the PJ movies. Mind you, he is a bit weird... (Tom that is, not PJ)

Not always left out--he was in the 12-hour Mind's Eye radio production which aired in the US on National Public Radio 30 years ago, and released on tape and CD. Acting wasn't as good as the BBC production tho.