what to do with this bark?

[DirtyCoconuts]

A few years ago a large tree was felled in the neighborhood and i took a few pieces and dried them for making mounts and stuff-

i ended up with a lot of this bark- it is about 1 cm thick, quite brittle and super neat- the outside is rough and firbrous and the inside is as smooth as sanded wood

i think it is too brittle for a mount , alone at least, but i have no ideas about how to use it..

any thoughts?

Finally! by J Solo, on Flickr

some great shapes and forms too

here is a standard Philips head screw driver for size reference

Finally! by J Solo, on Flickr

[Orchid Whisperer]

DC, I have used interesting but fragile wood in the past by reinforcing it (on the hidden side) with wire. Held in place using hot glue.

First step, try to figure out what kind of wood or bark you have. If it is something durable, great. If it will decompose into mush in a year or two, probably not worth using it for a mount.

If you decide it is probably durable enough for a mount, figure out what plant you will mount, and how the plant will be situated on it. To reinforce a thin wood/bark mount you will need wire thin enough to bend by hand or with minimal tools (like pliers). You will also need a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel slightly wider than the wire, and a hot glue gun. The wood should be dry.

On the hidden side of the mount, cut slots into the wood a couple inches long and deep enough to hide the thickness of the wire (1/4 in. deep if possible). Bow the wire down into the slot. Use the hot glue gun to glue the wire in place, allow the glue to cool. Repeat this process at several places around the back of the mount. You may also want to drill deeper holes if the thickness of the wood allows it, and bend a twist of wire into the hole before securing with hot glue.

Eventually you will have a mount that is interesting and natural looking, but mostly supported by the wire. I will try to take some photos of a mount that I did this with, than now has a Brassavola Little Stars growing on it.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Here's a photo of that mounted plant:



You can see that the top of the mount is too thin to support the weight of the wood plus plant. That wood is the "fat wood", or heart of pine, from the roots of a loblolly pine where the soft wood has rotted away. The fat wood is very rot-resistant.

Here you can see the reinforcing behind the mount:

[DirtyCoconuts]

Terrific idea!! I am getting decent at wire bending and I think I could do just that.

I don’t really know how to tell the type of wood but maybe I’ll make a mount for a random NoID and test out the longevity.

I’ve had these pieces for 2-3 years so another 2-3 is no big deal lol

If I end up mangling it I can always use it for mulch haha