jaso – Page 2 – Koda Creative

Amazon aviary

We built this parrot aviary in the beautiful Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park, Gibraltar. The central aviary supports (7M high) are solid concrete/shotcrete and are replicas of the buttress trees (Ceiba Pentandra) native to South America. The rockwork is inspired by the geology found around the upper reaches of the River Amazon. Within the rock, there are nesting boxes developed in co-operation with the animal park keepers. For the external structure of the aviary, we used stainless steel zoo mesh supported by bespoke stainless steel struts and local pine poles treated with a non toxic and environmentally friendly wood preservative. A small waterfall and stream runs through the exhibit which is kept clean by bio filters and UV sterilisation.

Materials used:
Steel, concrete, shotcrete, stainless steel and sustainably grown pine.

Two jungle trees for White Faced Sakis

These two jungle trees were built into an exhibit for white faced sakis, golden lion tamarins and pygmy marmosets. The zoo keepers previously had to keep replacing real trees in here which was time consuming. In addition to this the real wood was getting infected with mites which were causing a nuisance to the animal inhabitants.

Some of the branches contain hidden feeding stations which are epoxy lined and draining for ease of cleaning.

Materials used:
Steel, fine concrete, epoxy and outdoor grade acrylic paint.

Cambodia Macaque Temple progress

These are a series of photos showing our progress building an Asian influenced macaque temple exhibit. All pictures shot from roughly the same angle.

Original enclosure — Original steel enclosure before demolition.

Monkey temple progress 1 — Old enclosure demolished and now we have the temple stonework and zoo mesh support poles.

Monkey temple progress 2 — Zoo mesh in place and stone work coloured.

Monkey temple progress 3 — Just before opening.

Long Tailed Macaque portraits

A few select shots of members of the pack of long tailed macaques at The Alameda Wildlife Conservation Park.

The smiling Buddha faces of Angkor

Often a client will ask for a reproduction buddha head in the style of the stone carvings from the Angkor region of Cambodia. These iconic heads with their mysterious smiles have long been copied in zoos, aquariums and theme parks world wide. The oldest reproduction I have seen is in Rotterdam Zoo and very recently I made one in De Vogelkelder, Netherlands.

The project I am researching now is a bit different as it is in a private home. I gathered these images to use as reference for this next job and to inspire me in the meantime. I have never been to Angkor Wat (yet) so I am thankful of the people who have and documented it with these amazing photographs.

If you feel like digging deeper, click on each image to find out more about the photo and its photographer.

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20 inspirational images of temples and tombs

Stone forest research trip

Just recently, I visited the geological wonder, Pobiti kamani, otherwise known as ‘The Fossil Forest’ or ‘Stone Forest’

This natural phenomenon consists of many stone columns spread over a large area in the hills above Varna on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. The limestone structures do indeed resemble a fossilised forest and no one knows exactly how they were formed. There are many theories regarding their formation but it is likely that they were created by gasses seeping through the ancient ocean floor and depositing calcium as they escaped.

As a rockwork artist and creator of imitation geological artefacts I was interested in collecting some reference pictures and getting an idea of how I could recreate parts of The Stone Forest artificially.

The following images (iPhone HDR’s) are a selection of the pictures I made on the trip. I hope they give an idea of how wonderful and inspirational the Stone Forest is.

Helsinki Zoo Mammoth Dig

Here a few pictures from a Mammoth Dig we made in Helsinki Zoo. Every evening, in summer, the bones get buried in the sand. In the morning the young archaeologists make the ‘new discovery’!

mammoth dig helsinki zoo — Young archaeologist, Emmi, with the discovery of the day.

20 inspirational images of temple ruins and tombs

Quite often we have to make architectural style rockwork with a temple ruins, Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider theme. The following 20 images were compiled whilst researching such a project. I have left out the obvious head carvings in this round-up, this compilation is all about mysterious entrances, spooky passageways and wondering what is around the next corner.

There are plenty of images from Cambodia here and some others from India, Egypt and Indonesia. Clicking on an image takes you to its Flickr page and there you can find more information about the picture and its photographer.

Ten inspirational natural rock formations

As rockwork artists, we often find ourselves searching the web for reference pictures. Matching a habitat to an animal is usually the first stage when developing a project. Matching a species to a geographical locale is a high consideration as is rock texture, form and colouring. Nobody wants to see animals kept in concrete cages anymore and thankfully, forward thinking zoo’s now invest more time and money into species specific habitats.

This early research also works for other artificial environment reproductions wether it be an aquarium, theme park attraction or whatever. Often the client doesn’t know exactly what he or she wants. Gather a collection of reference images and it will prevent a lot of grey areas as the project develops.

The following ten images were accumulated whilst researching a project which required heavily stratified rock formations.

Angkor Wat head

Main Contractor : Houthoff Zoo Design

I loved making this head recently in the giant petshop I talked about in a previous post. It is made from EPS carved with a chainsaw and then shot with a render (shotcrete) the render was then carved to the final finish. The colours are an acid stain and acrylic wash with hand painted lichens expertly done by Susy V. The height, which you cannot tell too well by the photo is about 2.8m.