Zen garden beauty

There was an auction for the Taste of Marin last night and I raced to get a small display ready for the auction. This was like making a small scone out of thinset cement, rock, and gold. I hand crushed the rock into fine sparkling sand and pressed it on like sugar crystals. I slivered the gold so fine it was like setting jewelry...
for the garden...

I found the bonsai dish at the home of a Japanese bonsai master in Mill Valley. I have visited his home during cherry blossom season, when a huge tree spreads it's canopy of double pink blossoms downturned over his bonsai garden. I stopped by to purchase a bowl for the display. His wife was there and led me into the garden, his outdoor studio with ceramic potter's wheel, his arboretum of bonsai and yes, there was one empty planter that was suitable.

It was perfect, I felt it lent good luck to the project, guiding my creating the perfect zen garden to house the small mosaic. I arranged the two colors of moss, placed two pieces of abalone shell, planted a small Japanese maple seedling. I played with the colors of the moss, the light and the dark, til they fell into place.

(This piece and another were exhibited in the Dwell Design Conference in San Francisco, 2007)

A treasure trove of colors

These granites and marble, limestone and others are from all reaches of the world. The colors range from subtle rainbow, blues and greens, to red, golds and browns, earthen tones from umber to buff, some with dramatic markings, others marbled, mottled, muted, some with flecks of sparkling mica. Whatever symphony is wanted to lend beauty to the home/garden, it may be found here with these everchanging specimens the colors of...

jade...bloodstone...tiger's eye...jasper...carnelian...moss agate... serpentine.. aquamarine.. pearl...topaz...coral...