Handbuilt and Bonsai Trees - Fake Landscapes

handbuilt and bonsai trees

indoor

Something of a misnomer, as all of our trees are actually hand-built. We could call them ‘bespoke’, but it’s not a word we like. Like ‘atelier’, it’s got a touch of the cucumber-sandwiches-with-the-crusts-cut-off about it. And don’t even start us on ‘faux’...

Semantics aside, these are quite lovely smaller versions of our large trees, among the very best things we do. It’s all about style and balance, and we probably start three for every one we finish. If they don’t have the wow factor, we take them apart and start again. It’s pretty intangible, but it’s really just a question of having an ‘eye’ for it.

They’re all for indoor use, particularly good with modern architecture - and really benefit from a sympathetic choice of container and good lighting - as per the pictures here. And yes - if you have to ask the price, you probably can’t afford them! Though someone did say ‘that’s much less than I thought’ the other day…

handbuilt and bonsai trees

indoor

775 fake landscapes handbuilt red acer 225cm

775

Our large red Acer leaf on a nearly black one-piece trunk on which we’ve left the wild bits of wood untrimmed. There are actually two trees in the picture, that’s another one on the far side of the column so the foliage goes all the way round. Nice house and nice lighting, too. 775

776 fake landscapes handbuilt umbrella camellia tree 195cm

776

Probably our most popular hand-built tree, you’ll see the camellia being used on a much grander scale in the large trees section. This shows the umbrella shape we favour for nicely, plus a funky pot. As no live tree grows that neatly at that height, you can probably guess we’ve added all the smaller branches. Add ‘fine joinery’ to skill-set we use to make these! 776

777

Bonsai alert, with added ‘cloud tree’ elements, and a decent 180cm tall. There’s probably a Japanese word for ‘Big Bonsai’ (how about ‘Big Bonsai’? Ed.) This is with a podocarpus leaf, built on a steel plate so it appears to grow from the ground - and one of a pair going between the pool and the changing rooms, as you do! 777

778 fake landscapes handbuilt 210cm spring chestnut tree

778

Here’s a nice oddity – it’s a completely unstructured tree built on flexible trunks and looks like the sort of sapling you see in woodland in springtime. That’s why we call it a spring tree… It’s in a sort of modern-formal room here, but looks just as good in a steampunk industrial setting. 778

779

Takes the idea of an umbrella tree to a nice conclusion! This is bonsai-sized, around 70cm tall, with a nest set of tiny trunks and a canopy of ilex leaves that are only about a centimetre across. Nice pot and stand from the designer, this is part of a larger project in a bank in Saudi Arabia. 779

780

Following on from the previous ilex picture (assuming you’re scrolling forward…) this 2+m high ‘widescreen’ tree is made from exactly the same leaf and exactly the same wood! The canopy is also about 2m wide, but only extends about 60cm into the space, as it’s located on (very hip!) concreted walkway between two buildings hence the dappled sunlight. That’s quite a tall pot, so the whole thing ends up a whisker under 3 metres high. 780

781 fake landscapes 90 cm tall red acer bonsai 1080DEF

781

One of our classic 80cm (-ish, they vary) classic hand-built bonsai, this time using our miniature Acer leaf, which also comes in green. The trunk is made from bits of ancient vines that have gone past their wine-producing prime, and which we season for years. These are pretty popular items which often end up in a study or a boardroom, so we normally have a few ready-to-go. 781

782 Fake landscapes handbuilt 4m tree Curtain Hotel

782

This probably belongs in the ‘large trees’ section as well as it’s around four metres tall, but the interesting part (for us, anyway…) is that we’ve grafted the upper sections onto a dead olive trunk so it’s really chunky at the base. This is in an hotel in Shoreditch, and why the top of the tree isn’t in shot is a mystery. 782

783

The phrase ‘full perm, eight from 10’ probably doesn’t mean a lot these days, but it did when football pools were all the rage. In a tenuous link, this tree uses the podocarpus leaves from #777, attached to the dark trunk of #775. It’s pretty spiky low down, so not really suitable for a house with small children. 783

784

A cool mix of things here, papyrus on the left, and marram grass on the right, with a sort of half-bonsai at around 120cm tall just off-centre in the middle. We spent a long time on the spacing! The bowls work nicely to tie it all together, and they’re all on a raised section at the end of a swimming pool, again with nice lighting specified by the architect. 784

785 fake landscapes 150cm giant mutant podo bonsai

785

This is another of the humungous Big Bonsai, a bit like #777 but built to go tall rather than wide. It’s a good 180cm in the planter, and can be made in the red acer as well. There’s one of those in the showroom at the time of writing, but we don’t seem to have a picture of it – but it’s a real statement piece! 785

786

This is a good example of how our broad canopy (2m+) camellia trees work from above, giving a decent sized splash of green - along with a bonus of some boxwood balls in a cool planter. In exotic Liverpool, no less! 786