Kokedama- Japanese art of planting

Kokedamas is a Japanese method of growing plants without pots.These are hanging in nature and
very easy to make.I just saw a you-tube tutorial and thought will share the info with you.

There are so many variations which you can implement once you know the actual technique.
Join me with your favourite brew or a glass of aam -panna for that cool and refreshing feel and come let's get started.

Select a plant of your choice.I feel it is better to start with a succulent since they are relatively maintenance free. Also use coco peat as the soil medium.Make a ball, the size you would prefer to hang.Place the succulent firmly inside it. and wrap it with a moss sheet.That's it. Now to hang it and make it attractive ,tie the moss ball in strings.The strings can be colourful .Make 5 or 6 of such moss balls and hang it to form a string garden or each one suspended freely.






Watch this video to get a better understanding.

I will just leave you here with these images.You can try out your variation with plants other than succulents. Insert certain decorations along with the plant inside the moss. Make a horizontal string of Kokedamas and create your own curtain of plants.Ideas are many.You only need a little push and motivation to try out new things.Meanwhile, let me try my own kokedama...

The Japanese art of Imperfection: Wabi- Sabi

Do you know Wabi-sabi?

 It is quintessential Japanese aesthetic. A form where in you try to see the invisible..Perfection in the most imperfect things. It is the beauty in accepting the incomplete, impermanent or imperfect things.
To tune your mind in seeing and believing, that might not be the most perfect.The Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi offers an inspiring new way to look at your home and your life.

A wedding gathering...

There is a legend behind this. There was once a young man, who wanted to learn the various set of customs known as the way of tea. He went to a tea master.The tea master wanted to test this fellow and asked him to clean the garden. The learner cleaned up the fallen leaves, raked the ground till it looked perfect. Then, just to make sure, he shook a cherry tree which caused a few flowers to spill randomly on the ground.

Ha, so now do you get the connection? It was perfect wabi-sabi...An art of imperfection like those fallen flowers on the cleaned, perfect garden ...yet one that looks perfect with the imperfection on it.

The young man was Sen no Rikyu and to this day he is revered in Japan.With all the lavishness and luxury in home decor, when you try to blend it with rustic and earthy tones that is wabi-sabi.

 A crack ...some motifs..hand drawn

In the decor world, it can sum up as being that raw beauty, the crack in a pot, those flea market finds, that lonely abandoned hut in a faraway place among all the sleekness, mass produced mall shopping artifacts,the well done up luxury penthouse etc.

Do you get the picture? Sometimes the ultra modern, sleek and luxurious decor stands no chance against the rustic, weathered and ancient humble abode. But that is wabi sabi...
 I truly loved this term and bringing about a post on this too. It has a very deep meaning not only in the aesthetic world where we tend to measure everything but also in real life.

Terracotta and paints...couldn't stop myself from painting them...

You know now, exactly why handmade is beautiful,right? All things handcrafted may not meet all the quality standards but that's  what makes it precious!

Beauty truly lies in the eyes of the beholder!


*** The images are mine from a recent DIY activity and even the crack in the earthen uruli, did not stop me from painting it.Do you see beauty in it? It is my tribute to this Japanese art of practicing wabi-sabi.