Home made Jiitas for displaying my shohin trees

I bought some pieces of wood yesterday for making into ji-ita boards in the future.
I got these from a local retired gentleman who does some woodturning.

The piece to centre left with the light band running along the grain is laburnum, it's not often you come across laburnum wood.




Nice burr detail on elm (I think) & oak boards.




The black lines to the bottom left of this board are called spalting, it's caused by fungus.




Burr detail on oak board




Burr detail on oak & elm boards




This piece is walnut, a lovely coloured & grained wood.




My apologies to the "non wood freaks", had England not lost to France at rugby and had it not been raining outside this post may never have seen the light of day

No need to apologise this is the thread I have been watching closely and enjoying so please continue to
convert more non wood freaks

Thanks very much Dick, I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the thread, I thought I may have gone too far showing the pieces of wood, my good lady thinks I'm "touched with the brush" ....Did you manage to join the BSA and get the current issue ?, if not PM me your address and I'll post my copy over the pond for you.

Anyhoo, for all you crazies who have been holding your breath since my post of 28th September, here are a few pictures of the carved stand ready for staining:

Overhead view:



Underneath:







This ne-taku is approx 340mm at its longest points and approx 230mm at its widest points.

Anybody else as excited as I am after seeing that grained and knotted top...........didn't think so..........they only let me out at the weekends now !!

Cheers

John

Lovely work. All the new samples of wood look very thin. How will you treat these ?.

Thanks Peter, much appreciated.

I just rushed into the conservatory to take this picture hence the abysmal shot.

The thinner pieces of wood will be used to make ji ita sets for accents and mame, some of the boards will be left larger for individual shohin ji ita boards.

The wood used for the set shown below is poplar:




The biggest one is approx 170mm long, mid size approx 130mm and the smallest approx 100mm.

All require a couple more coats of stain but you get the idea.

Regards

John

John,
I have some cut sections of Laburnum from a neighbours large tree.
Next time I come down past J28, I will call in with them and some other pieces of hardwood I have.

Just sent you a PM regarding sizes
Graham

Thanks very much Graham, much appreciated.

As promised, here are a few pictures showing stands that I have been working on lately.

Elm root stand (ne taku)



Oak root stand



Poplar ji ita set


Oak ji ita

This one needs a couple more coats of stain

Great job John it looks fantastic

Regards

Michael, thanks very much, I'm glad you like them

John

Ever since seeing these displayed at the Green Club after Kokufu ten, and being astonished at the artistry and prices, I've wanted to do some. You are setting an excellent example John, these are truly lovely.

Many thanks for your kind words Kev.

Regards
John

Lovely work again John !!!

Thanks very much Mark.

Looking at the Capel Manor show you had some lovely displays on show, looks like I missed another excellent event.

Regards
John

Great work John,

The cross cut ones work best to me.

Go ahead and try carving the bead along the top as Chris suggested, it will slow you down, but add much to the finished look and increase the value of the stands too. If you use a trim router and flat bottom bit, you can rough out the bead very quickly and finish the last part by hand. Be careful of the sanding or you'll remove the bead. I'd also add a bit more variety to the diameters of the pierced holes.

Thanks for your input Rob.

I'd made an attempt at the bead detail on the smaller oak root stand shown above, unfortunately the picture doesn't show it clearly, still a bit more work to do on the next attempt though, I need to remove more wood from the inside of the bead, the worry of course is wrecking the piece completely
I agree with you on the holes as well, the stands with more variety to size and shape look much better.
Thank you again
John

These are some of the Japanese ones that I saw.

just their sight makes me begin singing from fiddler on the roof..."if i were a rich man "...

Thanks for the picture Kev, I love seeing these stands and studying them.

The guys that make these things in Japan are real craftsmen, the detail is incredible.......and the prices

I'd better up my game....about 5000 %

John

I've just finished staining this Oak ji ita set.

I'm really pleased with the burrs showing on the larger piece.



The larger piece is 175mm x 155mm x 7mm



The smaller piece is 112mm x 95mm x 6mm



Regards

John

Here's a larger board that I finished over the weekend.





This board is 600mm long x 360mm wide x 12mm thick

Cracking work as usual John. This might look good under my Lonicera

Ook, Ook,
Simon

Thanks very much Simon,

I'm sure it would look very nice under your Lonicera with one of your lovely little planting set off to the smaller end of the ji ita. Can you feel it....

Bloody beautiful work John

Regards

Andy

Cheers Andy, very much appreciated.

I've been playing around with some burred oak again to create these ji ita.

I'm particularly happy with the smaller piece with the textured detail.







The larger piece is 180mm X 155mm X 6mm

The smaller piece is 102mm X 89mm X 6mm

I hope you enjoy them

John

It's been quiet in the Brocklehurst workshop lately as I've been suffering with the "Man Flu", wood dust and a runny nose are not an attractive combination.

I've finished some more stands, so here they are:

This one's a keeper, it doubles up as a table tennis bat if I forget to pack one whilst travelling in the Orient



Size is 262mm x 150mm x 5mm



Nicely burred oak to the larger board



Sizes: 185mm x 160mm x 7mm, smaller board 100mm x 87mm x 6mm



More pictures on my blog if you're interested, the link is shown below.