Sometimes they use paperbark and other goodies from the forest floor. The root ball is gently encased in a good layer of sphagnum moss which helps keep the roots cool and moist. The process involves slightly trimming the plant roots (likened to Bonsai) and encasing the roots in a nutrient rich mud ball of peat moss, quality potting mix and slow release fertilizer. The kokedama are made by hand with the finest of materials to nurture the plant to be its very best. Walking towards their stall at the Caloundra Street Fair, you are immediately drawn into an inviting, green space, of hanging plants and herbs. We see again what is there, redefine the focus and celebrate beauty.” “We tap into the raw energy of nature, allowing our creativity to organically evolve. “We work with nature to create beautiful kokedama roots are wrapped in a whole lot of goodness and become as much the feature as the plant itself.” explains Nola. With three children they were used to multi-tasking but knew it was time to make a change – a peaceful change. David, an ex-chef and Nola, who has a background in visual arts, make a dynamic, creative team. “Koke” meaning moss and “Dama” meaning ball is a Japanese string garden where balls of nutrient rich soil are gently formed around the plant roots, then bound in moss and string to create dangling objects of beauty.Īfter managing holiday resorts in Vanuatu as well as in Australia, they were looking for a tree-change to alleviate the grind and the constant 24/7 demands of working in hospitality. NOAA, Michelin Three Star restaurants, hospitality of all sorts, museums, seafood institutions, and a few celebrities such as Jeremy Wade (“River Monsters”) and Hazen Audel (“Primal Survivor”).Stall holder at Caloundra Street Fair David and Nola are a husband and wife team, who have embraced an ancient Japanese art-form, Kokedama. We have an article in an issue of Forbes Magazine. Four Seasons, Sensei Lanai purchased 27 original pieces to decorate one of their main hallways. They also sent my family and I on a tour around North America to several of their stores to demonstrate and speak about the art. Patagonia had one of our earlier pieces grace the cover of one of their books. I have been blessed with some incredible clients. This was a sort of personal milestone for me that I still continue to draw inspiration from to push further these core traditional techniques.Ĭan you tell us who some of your biggest clients/fans have been? But you’ll see that this one is from an entirely different perspective, the fish is twisting, the dragonfly is real, the ink splatter controlled. Gyotaku is typically created from the flattest side of the fish. It shows a koi fish leaping upwards towards a dragonfly, incorporating all the many techniques that I have discovered and learned all in one piece. The piece entitled “Celestial Koi” is the one gyotaku piece that I am most proud of.

But from above, the image is then allowed to tap into memories and feelings. People would still not be able to recognize it. It wouldn’t matter if the details of the fish were absolutely perfect from the side of this fish. Once printing the koi from above, everyone immediately connected the image to the colorful fish in the ponds of Asian gardens. I realized that for people to recognize the koi fish as one of the ones that they would have also seen in a garden pond, I would have to print it at an angle that they were accustomed to seeing it from…from above. My favorite fish to print is the koi, but when printing it from the side, regular folks would only see it as a fish rather than the beautiful koi that I so enjoyed watching as a child. Yes, there came a point where I tried to print a fish in a different perspective out of necessity. How do you give feeling and sensitivity to something that is essentially a dead animal?

Courtesy of Dwight Hwang (Instagram: gyotaku prints are flat, but I’ve noticed your artwork has a lot of 3D-style life and movement to them.

Japanese living art form