Behr, you ask:
"
I do have a question though...Without covering any inlay, does it not create a better visual balance to place a semi-cascade or slanting trunk style slightly to one side of center, away from the foliage?"
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No, that is sometimes an issue for the pot, but not the stand. The stand is like the frame to a picture. The picture still goes right in the middle of the frame, even when the visual weight of the painting is to one side (virtually always). Placing a semi-cascade or slanting tree to the lighter side of the stand induces imbalance into a mechanism that is supposed to bring balance and stability (the stand).
The stand serves an entirely different function in relation to the tree than does the pot. Repeating the same "compensation" in the pot and on the stand is superfluous. If the tree is planted to one side in the pot, the balance has already been addressed. Addressing it again (with the stand) reintroduced the imbalance.
I know this sounds convoluted, but I hope it helps.
Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas