Antony and Mavourneen Smith ...aka ‘Willow Bonsai Pots’ are a wonderful couple from Pretoria, who have been passionately pushing the boundaries for South African bonsai and have become popular on the European bonsai scene. Antony demonstrated at the U.K. National Bonsai Show 2019, and whilst in London, I took the couple to visit leading potters; Stone Monkey Ceramics and Walsall Studio Ceramics. Having spent some time with them, it really was inspiring to see their dedication to bonsai and to creating attractive, useable and affordable pots.
 
We are excited to announce that Willow Bonsai Pots are producing a limited edition EBPC Stamped range of their beautiful pots, with some of their best forms and glazes. These will be available in the EBPC store, and will be released at ‘The Trophy’ exhibition, in Belgium at the end of February 2020.
 
Congratulations also to Willow Bonsai on their new website – being launched NOW – as this article is published! 

• So please check it out at  www.willowbonsaishop.com

 
But first, you can read more about them and see a selection of their pots on their ‘Potter Profile’ here.

The bonsai workshop was busy again, and some great trees were worked on over the two days. A variety of games and raffles were also arranged, with many local businesses around Ashford kindly donating raffle prizes. In addition to raising money for a great cause, a fun weekend was had by all. 

The EBPC is very excited to offer for sale the 'Raku Series' from Stone Monkey Ceramics. 
Dual stamped with the EBPC stamp together with the Stone Monkey Ceramics mark, these superb pots come in a wonderful variety of forms and colours!

Raku is a Japanese technique of firing ceramics such as 'chawan' tea bowls. Rather than placing the ceramics in a cool kiln, raku ware goes straight into a hot kiln for a time, and then are cooled rapidly. Raku pots are cooked to around 1000 degrees centigrade, which is lower than stoneware, and as such they do not reach the heat required to 'vitrify' or make them 'frost proof'. They are however superb, useable bonsai or accent pots and the flames and extreme changes in temperature offer some quite stunning results. These were fired in a kiln belonging to a  friend of Andrew, as his new studio and kilns are being built. 

Please see the online store for the selection.