KOKEDAMA/STRING GARDENS IN MUMBAI

               THE FOREIGN ART IN MUMBAI CITY

           Since Mumbai has seen much of the urban jungle and is keen on going green, we are making greens available which are available no where in the country but at our little Copper Brains' cave. We are proud to be the only ones making kokedama/string gardens in the city and if the research is right, the whole country.

         If you've been searching for these, the hunt ends here. We'd like to share some images for all you green lovers. Enjoy and don't forget to let us know how you like em :)

             Hope yoiu guys enjoyed these beautiful green globes. These can be hung or placed on a stand, dishes etc. There's amazing possibilities to tend to these kokedama which are available in various sizes and many varieties of plants. If you are looking for kokedama in Mumbai, you know where to look now :).

Kokedama - String Gardening

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Kokedama (translation "moss ball") is a Japanese art technique. In the original Japanese art form, the root system of the plant is removed from its container. This root system is then encapsulated in a mud cake which consists of peat moss, akadama or bonsai soil in fixed proportions.This entire formulation is then bound within a large sheet of sphagnum moss with a string approx 3 yards long. 

These art creations with real bonsai plants are then displayed on a platform. 

Chinese Jade kokedama (1 year old)

But this was not enough, so Fedor Van der Valk of Netherlands, went a step further and suspended this moss ball from a pulley. Acknowledged as the king of contemporary kokedama, his tiny manipulation to this art form has opened new horizons of decor using living plants.

Spider kokedama

We at CoppeR BrainS have perpetuated this art form to all plants found in our environment, and not just to bonsai. Mumbai being the busiest cosmopolitan of our country, there is an essential lack of space and time in human lives. String gardens are a very contemporary way to incorporate plant life into your home. They make for a masterpiece array in your modern homes. 

Yellow Lantana kokedama

Santa brought us many gifts to fill up all the space under our cute hanging X'mas kokedama ;)

  

Juniper kokedama

Kokedama  isn't exactly carefree. Depending on the weather and the type of plant used, plants will need watering twice a week or more. Wilting of leaves is definitely not the best sign to watch for to judge if the plant needs watering. We suggest you to feel the moss ball with your bare hands. Check the weight and moisture on the moss. If the kokedama feels light or the moss is comparatively dry its a tell-tale sign that the plant needs a good watering. Submerge the plant in a small bucket of water for 5-10 mins and hang it somewhere for the water to drain off. Once it stops dripping you can bring it back to its display position.

An esoteric kokedama display

You can drop by at our studio in Borivali to have a look at these unique creations and get one made for yourself as well.

We make these Kokedamas here in Mumbai itself with a lot of love and passion. All you green lovers would find it quite fascinationg for sure. You can always also drop by at any of our exhibitions near you, to see them on display adorning our kiosks.

  Have a happy time enjoying a kokedama drama of your own!!! :)

FORGING FIRES AND THE FANCY OF MANKIND

              The fist is a power, different for a fighter from an artist. It is overwhelming what a mind can conjure but it is even more exemplary a sight to see how the body executes. Out of the numerous times we go out on trips, we come across many areas of interest. Some we are appalled by, some we love curiously and some are worth telling about.

            On a such very recent trip, we thought of telling a story. The story of the finest craftsmanship. The story of possibilities. The story of a blacksmith.

           Very basic a setup. A shed made of  metal roofing material, probably out of scraps. A frame out of raw boughs and twines to hold them in place. This space occupied by a gleaming furnace fueled by a blower, designed traditionally and fashioned by painted leather. The whole mechanism utterly earthen and hand made but efficient. Efficient enough to create pieces functional and artistic, at least to our eyes. Here is a peek into a welcome blacksmith's workshop, most standard.

          Have a close look at how functional this place is. The furnace filled with charcoal, the blower blowing heat to it. A contraption maneuverable from afar for the blower. A hand's distance from the blacksmith's iron anvil mounted on wood. All the tongs to his left and the hammer to his right. Left to the anvil is a shallow stone hewn water holder to cool off the hot metal.

          The blower has a tiny hole in the floor which draws air once pumped with the help of a bamboo which gushes it into the furnace we were told and that is how the fire sustains.

          The soaring flames that will forge the metal to it's desired shape. Pay attention to the tongs here.

                 Once the metal is red hot, a suitable tong is used to hold the hot metal in place over the anvil and then it's time for the hammers to tango. It's fairly artistic how rhythmic the two hammers go blow after blow in perfect synchronization. It's as good as a symphony. Considered menial, yes, but what we saw was a splendid work of art. The way the iron is shaped into desired geometry is like a poetry with curves and edges.

         In a matter of moments the metal shapes up. A veteran blacksmith takes less time to shape up the metal. It's very ordinary for most to pass by these places without acknowledging the fact that it is a unique skill and at one point in history, was the only route to winning wars. Technology and machinery may have replaced a fair bit but nothing can replace the art form, achievable through this age old profession.

    The old hands made a chisel in a matter of minutes with no machinery, no electricity, no computers and no FACEBOOK or GOOGLE. Only a basic setup and pure artistic skill. The meaning of blacksmith itself says a 'skilled worker'. We saw possibilities in this shed in our own way. 'N' number of them. The things that could be shaped out with these tools and tradition. Here is a small sneak into what the happy blacksmith makes.

      We may have come a long way from manually made household, but art my dear people will never fall prey to technology, It will only serve one master i.e. SKILL. We hope you guys gauge what we envisaged.

The 9 day green journey

    With all the green we make and do, there is a force to reckon with. The Green People of India is teaching us and giving us all the options to practice what we and they preach! Thus was The Green People of India Festival 2.0 which we were a happy part of for 9 whole days. From 25th Oct 2013 to 2nd Nov 2013. It sought out small and big companies from all across India to bring under one roof/premises at the Birla Bungalow in Juhu. Providing all things green, organic and safe for the environment we live in and to safeguard it for all our generations to come. Needless to say it was a grand success with an even grander finale (For those who missed it, there is always one around the corner). 

An array of products on display included our infamous terrariums and kokedamas!

Among other things, we had organically dyed clothes, products of bamboo (this really cool bamboo pen we acquired), Pure cotton clothing lines, Solar Powered lights, Red Rice Dosas (the best!), Disposable plates made of dried leaves, etc. So all you green people out there stay tuned ;)

Amidst all the hustble bustle of the festivities, there are few people who we are glad, we got to know. So, we met some striking figures who took us on this 9 day green journey, not only by supporting us but also sojourning with us. Speculations and crunchy time schedules did not constrain Copper Brains when the lady behind the festival Mrs.Nidhi Singh welcomed us warmly, well John Abraham and other celebrities did their convincing too :P .

 So lets start with the pillars of the show. 

Glad to meet Mrs.Nidhi Singh (alongside her very own brand Indigreen)

The most photogenic Mr.Ashish and the ever helpful Mr.Venkat

And the man who captured it all Mr.Manoj Singh (though we captured him the best! ;))

                                                   


   
      So a rally of known faces, some enthusiastic about the festival and some elated. We had an array of celebrities who enriched this 9 day journey. A few names that we were glad to see were:

Maria Goretti

                        

VJ Gaelyn

                                       

Pooja Ruparel (Chutki of DDLJ)

         Among these famous faces there were also the ones that weren't very star clad and we were glad to make friends with these amazing people.Some of them we captured the rest are included anyways. Sai and Tejas you guys were really adorable..            
                                                                                        


           We wouldn't want to leave out the super fab entertainment (courtesy of Alia Curmally) that enlightened the atmosphere of the festival. Some crazy guitars, harps and some soothing soulful vocals. To mention the artists, we had Dwayne Leroy Gamree, Kunal Naik, Alisha Pais and Nikhil Dsouza taking the mike.A big thank you to them all for entertaining us for the 9 days! 

                                                                                                   

For all the people who missed the Copper Brains' stall, here is a quick slide show...
                        
                     

                                              

         

           We were glad to have had such a wonderful time. And a big hug to all of you who dropped by to say hi!

Our event digital media partners put some show on. We were happy to see the founder Mr. Xavier Periera pose for us.

                                  

             We've missed out a lot more interesting personalities unfortunately here on this blog but we would like to thank all these amazing people for a wonderful 9 day green journey. We are proud to be a part and all you guys who haven't made it this time, make sure to stay tuned for the next venue..

why PONDER?

 Why PONDER?

    Routine, schedule, appointments and meetings. A part of our daily lives, give or take, we are left with a couple hours, out of the entire day. Now what do we do with this time???

   Obviously, eat, watch T.V.,go facebooking and worry about the next day to come. Well we aren't incapable of doing anything else apart from the aforementioned, we just do not have the will.. At Copper Brains we sought a different life, a beautiful and classy but economic and easy on pocket and lately it is spelled as DIY.

    Numerous Do It Yourself projects are being highlighted everywhere, mostly on the world wide web but all we common people do is either criticize them or plainly be awestruck, then the most we do is press "SHARE"
 
    It reads DIY, meaning 'DO IT YOURSELF' and that for a reason. A lot of common ideas if put to use can beautify your living space and also save some money and we at Copper Brains have put it to the test. Guess what! it does really work. A few hours spent and a little efforts taken, much can be achieved, all you need is the basic tools and the 'WILL' to do it.

    Let me bring to you one such DIY which emerged out of need.

   Space crunch and a lot of stuff to keep. All settled, where is the space for a wardrobe. The shirts were lying wrinkled. We PONDERED and finally came up with this idea >>>>

Well, It doesn't seem a lot of work, does it now?? We rummaged through some left over wood from the storage. Found few branches curved upwards and then came the tools. Let me show how the whole installation actually looks and works.

:) It works, definitely works. the purpose is served and the money saved and it does look appreciably good too. So every day life is as easy as you make of it. All you need to do is ponder and make your mind up. Let us show how we went about this DIY project and see if you guys want to try it too.

We cut the branch into desired sizes, minding the required length, shape and direction. 

 That done we cleaned them followed by a little sand papering for some loose shards.

Then we sought the base to assemble the cut branches and polished it clean.

Then we measured the sides and the distance we needed the branches apart from each other and drilled the holes for screwing.

And finally we are done with the installation.

            Hope you guys find this useful and fun to do. Do Ponder!!! 

History of Terrariums

The bringing of the art of the terrarium is generally credited with a man called Dr.Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, a London surgeon and gardening enthusiast. This came about with the publishing of his book called "On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases" which he published in 1842.

He had the desire to watch an insect chrysalis transform into an insect so he placed it, along with some mold in a capped wide-mouthed glass bottle. He observed this bottle on a regular basis and noted how, because of the sun, moisture would be drawn to the top of the bottle during the day then circulate back down to the mold and soil in the evening. But his big surprise came when quite unexpectedly a seedling fern and a sprout of grass bloomed inside the bottle. He was very surprised by this because he had been unsuccessfully trying to grow these very things in his garden. He had surmised that pollution from local factories had been hostile to the plants and was killing them. This made him believe that the plants were doing well in his little bottle because they were sealed off from outside influences and protected from contaminants. He placed this bottle outside the window of his study and the plants inside continued to thrive for four years with no watering or outside intervention at all! From this he devised further experiments and thus his pursuit, and the science of the terrariums, was born. For a very long time these small glass enclosures were named Wardian Cases after him and even though the term is still in use today it is generally not well known and we just call them terrariums.

At the Great Exhibition of 1851, Ward displayed a bottle containing a fern and mosses that had not been watered for 18 years. The Wardian case unleashed a revolution in the mobility of commercially important plants. In Wardian cases, Robert Fortune shipped to British India, 20,000 tea plants smuggled out of Shanghai, China, to begin the tea plantations of Assam.Ward's terrariums also became popular for growing the plants, and it became, in various guises, almost a domestic necessity. The poor had to content themselves with inexpensive rudimentary versions, but there were no limits for the rich. Wardian cases grew into miniature Taj Mahals and Brighton Pavilions, perfect vehicles for the contemporary love of elaborate ornamentation as well as living plants. The Wardian case was fashionable in the United States in the early 1860s, and hardly a self-respecting Victorian household was without one. Even though history dates back terrariums to the 18^th century, it is still a comparatively unknown art form in India. 

First Step...

                

               In the world we live in today, which profoundly lacks in greenery, where we literally have the effects of global warming breathing down our necks, it is a beautiful respite to go to the beach or even take an early morning or evening walk amidst any type of greenery around us. Be it the local park near your homes or the infamous Juhu chowpatty or a walk down the marine drive promenade. In a city that never sleeps, I wonder how many of us really have the time to look up and catch a glimpse of the trees above our heads while we are walking…somehow dodging the road painted with spit seems to overtake more of our attention than these simple pleasures that mother nature always so selflessly obliges. The few of us, who realize how selfish we have been, hold up protests almost every week against deforestation and uprooting the last shred of nature left around our very own houses in the form of mangroves or the few trees left mercifully dotting our sidewalks. Thus we need to take vacations to go to a place far away which is radically different from our current situations. Some place where our hearts and minds would be refreshed. Some place where we can walk on silken grass with our loved ones in peaceful anarchy. It is that feeling exactly, which all of us crave so deeply. Thus we have “hill stations” and “resorts” and “overseas” to go to, to bring us that feeling. But we at CoppeR BrainS dare to think differently. Why can’t we have a piece of Mother Nature right in our homes!!! So we can look at it and have that same peaceful pulse running down our spine every time we want to. Why not have a miniature beach right in our eyesight. Why not have a piece of the forest with a river trickling down from the woods, right into our homes.

  

Essayist Scot Russell Sanders in his Promethean inspired tale ‘The Terrarium’ describes a socially engineered world within earth itself where pieces and materials of nature are used to create the Enclosure. The Enclosure was created after the earth was rendered uninhabitable after it was plagued by pollution.  It is a life sized, albeit intriguing, fictional idea which we at CoppeR BrainS have tried to bring into a contemporary living reality. In a space starved society where we look outside our windows only to be peeking into another man’s window, we try to remember when was the last time there was a huge tree in its place and you could see a sparrow relentlessly feeding its newly spawned young ones, or an adorable chipmunk foraging for nuts.  So we decided to come up with something, so that you have to look no further than your bedside table!!! Yes that is what a terrarium is. It is a self-controlled self-sustained microcosmic ecosystem all in itself. We give you a piece of nature itself, to keep in your homes however space starved you may be. We have something for everyone!!! This is our small effort where we really wish to revolutionize and reinforce people to live au naturale.

                

                For all the love of nature that is left within the rare corners of our hearts, this effort we hope will strengthen that pillar of our humanity. We sometimes believe that we humans have made everything and everything possible too. But on the contrary the truth can never change. Nature is where we come from and that is where we perish. If one can’t simply cherish this age old balance that our planet has struck then I believe its about time we remind them.

     

      Let every single being realize of this small tiny eco system, which he or she can play God to. All it requires is a little admiration and it will definitely reflect a smile. Yes!! Admiration is all it requires, no care or maintenance. All you have to do is take it home and be happy. It’s a world in itself. A balance struck world. It will garner its strength from within itself.

     

There is a difference between saying, that change is hard to achieve and saying that the average person will never do anything. One is a challenge, and the other is a cause for despair. We at CoppeR BrainS have decided to take on the challenge.

Like Peter Marshall says - Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.

             This is our first step...