I did a lot of assembly work today to complete my detailed mid section of the miniature “Ta Prohm” style temple. It is for my future “root over temple” bonsai.
I left off yesterday by casting all the pieces i need to complete the midsection of my miniature to prom style temple this temple will eventually have a ficus tree growing over it so it’ll be a root over temple planting here’s a look at all the pieces that i cast yesterday everything i need to complete the midsection of the temple so i’m going to start by opening up the sprite first this is the last one i need for this section and it’ll look hopefully like this so here i go the cement should be good and hard it dried overnight the plaster seams hardened up quite a bit too my plant room always gets cool overnight i guess the outside temperature drops well so far it’s looking okay you can see the face here some of the hair fell off of my original sculpture here but that’s okay it makes every sprite a little different i’ve been having a lot of problems with casting the legs they come out kind of strange looking but this one has a bit of an air pocket in it too the one leg turned out pretty good but i need something to help pick out the plaster scene here it’s kind of stuck to the cement pretty good well the cement looks good and hard and it’s not cracking and falling apart so that’s good means i got my mixture right so i have a bit of flashing at the edges i’ll have to remove but overall i’m very pleased with this one this is one of my better ones which is good because i need nice ones on the corners yeah so there’s there’s the sprite looking really good now these ones they were just sprites that i cast the rectangular base around them so i’ll just get those out of the mold they’re quite easy to get out just take the edges off here yeah that looks pretty good my sprite’s a little off-center at the bottom but it’s not too bad okay there’s another good piece and i’ll get this one off this is just the sprite with the cast rectangular base around it so just take off the side pieces the end pieces and the side piece here get it loose from the table here there we go yeah that one turned out pretty good there’s a look at it quite happy so there’s just my columns now to take out i don’t anticipate any problems with them but you never know and that completes my casting for the midsection of the temple which is kind of exciting because it was a lot of detail work on this piece the rest of the temple might be there’ll be some detail work on it but a lot of it’ll be structural work not so much you know carvings and that but there will be some okay there goes my column that’s a nice one look at that turned out pretty good and another one it’s kind of fun opening these up it’s sort of like you wonder if the piece is any good there it is looks like this piece is good too yeah no problems with that one that’s a good good pillar and i got a couple more here so all in all i’ve been pretty happy with this plaster scene casting it uh gets a fairly detailed piece with you know not a lot of expense or molding effort there we go that one looks good too yeah i i if i wanted a more precision piece i would definitely go with a you know a silicon mold or a latex mold or something but for my temple for the temple ruins i think it worked out quite well okay there’s my last pillar and that turned out quite nice too bit of a void there but not too bad it just looks like a chip in the chip in the stone work okay so everything is ready for assembly now here’s a look at all the pieces that i’ve got to put together today so i’ll be uh cleaning them up with a file getting rid of all the flashing soaking in them in water and then cementing them around the base here now i got to get rid of this flashing which is a little thick on this one that works nibble away at it with the pliers i’ve got all my pieces cleaned up and they’re soaking in the bucket and i’ve wet down the temple so it’s all ready for assembly i’ll start by putting the blocks on these faces with the sprites on them then the columns and then i’ve got to figure out how i’m going to do the four corner ones i’ve got another block attached here so i just have this one to go i’ve got my second block cemented on now so now i’ve got to do my columns each side of the blocks i’ve got my two pillars added now it starts to look really complex it’s kind of cool um so i’ve got two more pillars to go on this side now so i’ll do that next i’ve cemented the last two columns in place here now so all this part is complete except i have to add my corner sprites so that’s the last step i’m going to place my best two sprites on the front of the temple so i’ve got to look at them all this one’s a nice one i like that one i think i don’t know i think this is the other best one and then these two can maybe go towards the back they’re all good but uh yeah i think these two are just slightly better so these two will go on the front corners of the temple i had a tough time picking the front of the temple but i think this is the slightly better face it looks good from all directions but i think this one’s just slightly better so i’m going to put my best corner sprites on the corners here and i’ve got to figure out you know do i just want to cement them in place against the temple there um do i want them spaced out don’t think i want them spaced out like statues but but i don’t know maybe i do so there’s there’s put them spaced out the only problem is they’re not really you know this one’s a little flat on the back side here this one’s a little more rounded but i think spaced out they don’t look part of the structure so i think they’ve got to be in it looks like separate statues sticking out but which is fine it’s a good look but uh i think it looks better with them tucked in as part of the part of the temple i’m keeping everything sprayed down with water for cementing the four corner sprites in place all right here i go i’m just going to try putting cement on the back and just pushing them up in place and that’ll be it i’ve got my first corner sprite cemented in place it was a little tense putting it on i had to make sure it was positioned right and get all the cement around the edges of the piece to kind of make it look like it’s carved out of a stone you know from the large stones so but it went okay it was all right so i’m going to do my my second sprite in this corner now i had to step away for a while and my statues have dried they’re they’re kind of the nice light cement color now so yeah looking really good i think that’s what it looks like so i still have my two sprites to put on the back face here so i’ll make sure everything’s soaked down it’s kind of dried out at the moment and i’ll get cementing once again i’ve got the four corner sprites cemented on the middle section of the temple and next i’ll be building up the lower part of it which will make it even higher let’s go in and have a look at it now [Music] here’s a look at the canopy on my ficus microcarpa it continues to grow in nicely it’s really exciting watching it grow in it’s looking really nice i’m going to take advantage of all this beautiful sunshine coming in the windows and put all my trees out on the floor and on this table here so that’s going to be it for today i’m nigel saunders thanks for joining me in the bonsai zone
