Home made Jiitas for displaying my shohin trees

I've been busy lately making Jiita for displaying my shohin trees.

The first one was finished today and only has 1 coat of stain, 4 or 5 more coats will be applied over the next few days. It's made from an old oak floorboard that I spotted at a friends house, I also managed to persuade him to let me take a few more pieces of of wood from his fire wood pile.....he who dares wins !

The second one is made from off cuts of mahogany window boards.

Constructive criticism welcome.

Hi John
After seeing them at the BSA at Willowbog my only criticism is I cauldn,t afford them at the Auction! Brilliant John,you cauld sell them in Japan.
See you at the weekend
Bob

Great stuff John. Quality work and recycling too. Are they machine carved (Dremmel)?

Thanks very much Bob,
I'm at B.O.B. on Saturday hopefully bump into you and the gang.

Thanks Will,
Yes mate, jigsaw, makita and dremmel.....followed by vibration white finger !!!

Take care gents
John

Very nice work, John!

Many thanks Todd

Very nice work John ! See you soon. Mark & Ritta

Thanks very much Mark, hopefully see you on Saturday at Birmingham, another long weekend for you and Ritta !!

Definately getting more refined JB,
This one looks very light and delicate.

Have you had enough practice to tackle the big walnut log yet?

Stunning work John.

Mike

Display slabs and slab stands for Japanese sencha/literati enthusiasts emphasize nature and craft. They were early proponents of bringing plants indoors & combining plants with naturally contoured objects for display. Better examples, whether the board lies flat or is footed, often have a bead on the outer edge of the meandering rim of the top. I imagine it would be worth the effort if carving a great crosscut slab.

Bead on slab edge...

good work john, they look great.

Mike and Jim
Many thanks for your compliments.

Johnny Boy
The Walnut log languishes in the garage, I've stripped the bark in preperation, an attempt will be made soon....possibly after a few bottles of strawberry cider next to the BBQ.......then I have somewhere to dispose of it if it all goes horribly wrong

Chris
Thanks for your insight. I've studied many photographs in the Gafu Ten books and online, and as you say, many boards do have the carved edge, also many have a flat or lightly chamfered finish.
I think it may be down to the density of the wood type and wether or not the slab is sliced from the end of the log (end grain) or along the grain. The wood I've worked with to date is only from planks etc and as such has the grain running along the board in one direction or another this unfortunately makes it difficult to retain an edge to the board, this may be why the japanese use Quince & Rosewood, also they use a lot of burred wood, again very tight grain.
I'm keeping my eyes peeled for better quality wood to work with, and I'll certainly be trying to add the bead to the edge.
Thanks for taking the time to comment

I've got a piece of cherry wood john, small trunk, about 10-12cms dia,
you are welcome to take some slices of that to play with.

Hi John, give us a shout if you see me in Brum. My Juniper is being displayed on a nice burr that has been a combined effort in the making, be good to hear your views.

Until the weekend mate, see you there.

Ian.

Ian,
I'll be there on Saturday bud, I'll keep an eye out for you so that we can chat......

Good job my sons don't frequent the IBC......... grown men talking about slices of wood.........I get enough sh**e about the tree hugging

I know it`s worrying isn`t it

Ian.

We tried one of the jiita's on Mark & Rittas stunning shohin display:



We thought that a slightly longer board would sort the pyracantha shown

This is another root stand that I'm currently working on.
This one is thicker than the ones I've made before as I'm building up to trying the taller root stands soon, and wanted to get a feel for any added complications working with the thicker wood.

I swiped some pieces from a friends fire wood pile, it looks as though these were offcuts of oak gate posts or roof beams.

Starting point & end point



Underside of stand



Top of stand, ready for staining

Looking good John !!

John,
I think some of my shohin could benefit from a couple of these.
Will see you at Sheffield on Sunday 25th Sept???

Graham

Mark, thanks very much.......the elusive root stand draws closer

Hi Graham, good to hear from you.
Yes I'll see you at Don Valley, I'll bring some pieces along for you to look at for ideas.....if I remember !
I'm usually in a full on panic trying to remember all the stuff for our club display

Here is the finished product with my potentilla at our annual club show last night.

Just to let you know I've set myself a blog up to showcase my stands and any displays I show, or displays I particularly enjoy whilst visiting bonsai shows.
Constructive criticism welcomed, please be gentle

The link to my blog is shown below.

You've seen most of the pictures on here before, I'll add to the blog as I make new stands or see items that rock my world !

I'll be starting my next two projects soon.

The piece on the left is Elm (I think), looking forward to finishing this one as it will be the largest stand I've made to date, and the grain looks fantastic.

The piece to the right is reclaimed oak flooring.



I'll post them as they are completed.

John