Surprise! One of my Suiseki is a National Champion.

I entered two stones for the New Zealand National Suiseki Show which was part of the National Bonsai show. This was done as I have two stones in Daiza gathering dust in the shed. It is all home made. Well, obviously not the stones, they were made by mother Earth. Here is the story.

About three years ago I discovered a box full of stones that my wife used in her Geography classes. She is a College Geography teacher. I took three of the stones and over the next two years the stones were at home and my intention was to use them as part of a Bonsai display. Never did it cross my mind that I was going to display the stones on their own.

During this time, I saw a video of a person making stands (Daiza) for Japanese Viewing Stones (Suiseki) and this triggered me getting into action. Out came the router, two pieces of timber and then the wood dust and splinters flew. Without going into too much detail, it was not easy and the end products do look quite homemade with the majority of the damage covered with wood stain and a varnish.

This year as I was preparing Bonsai trees for the show, I discovered the stones in my shed again and thought I would throw the stones in as well. I did do some reading and watched a few videos on Suiseki and decided to apply oil to the stones. I did have Camellia oil at hand as I use it to oil my Bonsai pots and stands. The stones were lovingly and regularly oiled and polished.

Off to the show I went and the two stones, now distantly resembling Suiseki, were placed on the appropriate shelving at the show for New Zealand sourced stones. In New Zealand there are two categories, the other one is for Internationally sourced stones. There is a trophy for each and also a Best in Show trophy.

I new my trees were not going to be awarded anything due to all of them being late to get into foliage. I completely forgot about the stones and did not even take photos of the stones until the last day. Huge was my surprise when the little black stone, named Black Mountain stone, was announced as the winner of the New Zealand sourced Suiseki section. Trophy, certificate and the title of New Zealand champion Suiseki! Needless to say, these were proudly displayed on the last day of the show and that is when I had a good look at the other stones on display. Photos were taken as proof, as few people would believe my story.

What next? I cannot see myself becoming an avid Suiseki hunter, but will always, as in the past, be on the lookout for good stones. These are for displaying with Bonsai and some for creating root-over-rock style Bonsai.

On returning home after the show, I looked at some of the other stones with a different perspective and realised that the other stone which came out of the same Geography box, also has potential. Now I have to get the router out again for a stand…….

More on Suiseki here: http://www.suiseki.com/about/index.html