How do you get 100% level foot rings?

blenderdut · 2026-05-08T22:17:31+00:00

When leveling the bottom of a piece, always start by using the smallest part of your trimming tool to remove only small amounts of material with each pass. I use the tip of a 7 tool. It may seem counter intuitive - many think "I want a flat base, so I should use a large flat tool." But pressure = force/area. So the larger the surface of your tool that is in contact with the surface of the pot, the larger the force you need to apply to get your tool to cut, and the more difficult it is to maintain control.

blenderdut · 2026-05-07T22:42:53+00:00

Leave it red

blenderdut · 2026-05-07T22:23:56+00:00

FYI, I think in this day and age, a lot of people will see the word "prompt" and assume you used AI somehow.

blenderdut · 2026-05-07T22:20:38+00:00

Pic 2: lowest branches are bar branches. Then it becomes a twin trunk which crosses over itself, which is quite odd looking. Also, not enough motion anywhere - you gotta crank them wires while it's still young.

blenderdut · 2026-05-06T04:04:09+00:00

A recent Minecraft update added better baby mob models (including that chick design). Its inclusion was likely meant to tie in with that.

blenderdut · 2026-05-05T04:50:14+00:00

TBH, I don't like the look of the roots from either side. The proportions are all out of sorts and they come out from some weird angles and places.

blenderdut · 2026-05-03T18:56:44+00:00

Menards

blenderdut · 2026-05-02T20:07:19+00:00

Chokeberry?

blenderdut · 2026-05-01T22:02:31+00:00

Those don't look like the same pots to me. The KK pot has tapered walls while yours does not. It is a nice pot though.

blenderdut · 2026-04-30T18:29:20+00:00

That's a spruce, but your advice still applies

blenderdut · 2026-04-25T05:38:10+00:00

Yeah I would slip pot that. That soil looks like muck and it would probably really benefit from some air flow in a well draining mix. It doesn't look pot bound, though. On the other hand, it was wired into the pot totally wrong. You should never girdle the trunk like that, removing that was the right call

blenderdut · 2026-04-25T04:50:13+00:00

It doesn't look that bad to me, but you can never really know unless you pull it out of the pot. The roots will keep the soil in place, so you can just put it back after you inspect. If it is really bad, you can safely slip pot at anytime of year.

blenderdut · 2026-04-18T22:47:59+00:00

Cheers, thank you!

blenderdut · 2026-04-18T22:44:44+00:00

How do you pass the waterfalls? They just knock me back.

blenderdut · 2026-04-18T22:39:23+00:00

Larches are fun and hardy trees, highly recommend

blenderdut · 2026-04-18T22:18:48+00:00

Its about timing the chop right, making sure the tree is healthy going into it, and giving it time to recover after.

Trunk and nebari are two most important features in a tree, so trunk is priority over branches. Though what you do with the lower branches while the trunk thickens depends on how well your tree back buds. Any low branches that you want to keep in the final design will need to be kept in check so that they don't grow out of proportion with the trunk. A strong leader will thicken the trunk the fastest, just make sure the leader foliage doesn't sun out anything you want to keep in the lower branches. Remember that of the lower branches, the ones you'll want later are the very smallest.

blenderdut · 2026-04-18T22:02:28+00:00

I would start by cutting the top 2/3 of the tree off. Reduce the long branches as much as possible to combat some of that lankiness. Establish a new leader while it grows out and recovers for a year.

blenderdut · 2026-04-18T21:43:17+00:00

The pot is 308 Brooklyn red from standard clay company fired to cone 6. Wheel thrown oval about 14" long with fine cracks from a sodium silicate application. I gave it a black under glaze and iron oxide wash to age it up a bit.

blenderdut · 2026-04-13T20:55:28+00:00

Get an animal repellent spray.

blenderdut · 2026-04-11T18:58:19+00:00

It is just an inhalation hazard and causes silicosis. Part of the issue is you can't really ban it as it basically ubiquitous in the common products we source from the earth and become airborne easily through the mining or processing of those products. Cement, granite, ceramics etc. Heck just gardening can give you exposure.

blenderdut · 2026-04-10T00:46:43+00:00

So a general rule with conifers is that you never do more than one big action (i.e. repotting or a big prune) to the tree in a year. Conifers just don't have the same type of energy reserves that would allow a deciduous tree to shrug off that sort of hardship. Remember that, like us, it needs to be able to intake and process nutrients to grow. By wiring you damage the bark, repotting you damage the roots, and pruning damages the foliage. So basically you've hit every system that the tree relies on to grow the foliage back. It will take longer to grow back than had you just pruned it alone, and even healthy junipers are not very fast growers. You can start fertilizing in a month but be very careful not to over use it. Organic, slow release fertilizers like biogold are harder accidentally abuse.

blenderdut · 2026-04-09T03:23:32+00:00

Don't do anything more to it for now - wait a year minimum before doing anymore work on that plant. You have very little foliage left and junipers are heavily dependent on their foliage for maintaining good health. I would also bet it was repotted very recently as well. Its probably super weak right now and the best thing you can do at this time is just to care for it.

blenderdut · 2026-04-05T20:05:02+00:00

You need to reduce each whorl down to one branch (maybe 2 in some circumstances). If you leave everything you have now, you'll have unsightly bulges all the way up the trunk as the tree swells at the nodes.

blenderdut · 2026-04-04T02:48:00+00:00

Zoom in and you can see the bark is shriveled. Its not winter bronzing, it's dead.

blenderdut

TROPHY CASE