#float copper

I kept this one simple - a single succulent bonsai using a great little Portulacaria afra variagata starter I bought at the San Francisco Succulent and Cactus Society show from Bud and Ev’s Succulents. All I’ve really done to the plant so far is lean it over and expose the roots. I’m looking forward to getting a trim in this summer, but I don’t want to stress the plant right after re-potting.

The color and asymmetrical rhythm of the little pot made by Christofer Aven are really the starting points of the presentation. The topping is jade bean pebble, but that might get replaced or mixed with another pebble color.

The structural platform “rock” is actually a solid copper nugget that is naturally tumbled by a glacier. It has formed a crust of malachite and other copper “rust” minerals after being exposed to the elements for thousands of years. This is similar to a patina a sculptor might use, and I suspect to some of the pottery glazes as well. I have been getting amazing copper mineral specimens from a Michigan rock hound named Richard Cushing, who loves to take walks with his metal detector.

Catalog # si201610

Potted: June 2016

Images: when potted