Orchids et all

Work on orchids started way back in the early 80′s as i began to visit the singapore orchid growers at Seletar. At that time seletar had many many orchid farms and i got very much impressed with the National orchid gardens, Jurong bird park and Mandai orchid gardens and it left a deep impression on me.

Fortunately I had a very good friend in Mr. Chaw chin sin of Genting orchids and this relation was a long standing one who gave everything he could about orchids, their cultivation, habits, breeding tips, growing, care and maintanence.

Had a dream- wanted to make a beautiful private orchid park for the botanical specimens of india and started documenting the 1200 odd species that dot the indian orchid belts. Bare foot climbed mountains, forests and nature in demystyfying the orchid wealth  and getting to know the rare orchid habits.

From Himalyan orchid belts, western ghats and other major pockets each are was worked on during the several trips that ensued and photo documentation was carried out.

Work on Hybrids and breeding also was started simultaneously which led to my work on TC of orchids and cloning of orchids and i had to go to Thailand to do that research. Thailand is a nature beauty adn artistic. The people even though were not good in communicating in English had a beautiful idea on breeding and produced a large number of hybrids.

Playing god like was what i felt about orchid breeding. You could choose the color, form, shape and meddle with nature to create a riot of color was very simialr to the mother profession i was in. Here Nature was your partner. You set the experiment goals and results were from Nature.

It was one beautiful understanding into the myriad of ways by which Nature plays its role in creation.

See photos

JAGS

orchid farms

Dendrobium Nobile

orchids growing on trees

More to follow

JAGS

Clay modelling for designers

Recently we developed a new range of modelling clays and accessories for the creative designer. These clays range from water based bodies to oil based formulations. we have also one product in the polymer clay segment that can be carved ,moulded ,shaped and then post baked at 135 *C to create a permanent hard model.
One more product development that we have nurtured is in the paper clay segment. we have two products here on which is virtually a paper clay for artists and designers that can moulded , shaped in to any freeform and another clay that is for ceramic designers to create unique clay ceramics using the beauty and style of paper clay ceramics.

All these grades are available in 250, 500 and 1000 gms as well as bulk packs.
A set of modelling designer tools are also available for clay modellers.
We have also developed a range of foam modelling kit comprising a hot wire design tool as well as tool tips to make complex forms in a ziffy.

Walking the tough line

walking thru the rough seas

Work on bio-diesel and alternate energy areas

Well for quite some time we have been working on bio-diesel areas of research. Jatropha is one area of major work. We started this work around 4-5 years back alongwith other major crops.

Jatropha seeds

We at that time were in Mumbai and wer operating a floriculture compnay by the name of Drishti floral which had a projct site at Karjat having around 15 acres. My earliest begiinings of Jatropha began when we saw that the crop was used a live fence and we liked the plant as a live crop because animals will never touch the leaves and stems of the same.

Later we explored entering into Jatropha as plantation for semi arid and arid zone crop. But we found Jatropha likes a better environment where it survives well.  We documented from Nature its natural habitat. Belonging ot the family of castor family. At the time there wer not many who wer interested in the crop. But later interest became much as governmental institutions started promoting Jatropha as an energy crop.

We had customers from across the globe contacting us for a detail on the Jatropha and its advantages. There was one compnay from UK D1 Oils that had setup base in coimbatore and we saw they wer doing a lot of work in Jatropha.

We started working out of Coimbatore to create a model jatropha plantation as there were many araes which had a lot of windmills and most of these windmill locations had a land undeneath that we thought we could tap for Jatropha and vanilla.

Here is the pictorial story below:

Wild undergrowth

overview of the wind mills in the zone

windmills-2

land topography

overview

undulating landscape and topography

Jatropha plant and its seed pod closeup

Our team with me at the left end

We then got into the techno commercial aspects of the bio diesel production including the trans-esterification process. Well that is another great design story to be told.

Thanks

JAGS

A long journey

Having started as an art lover and creator of paintings and sculpture the journey into designing began. Through this blog i bring in my experiences of all things that influenced me as a designer. My thoughts, ideas, views, actions and the story goes on!

My love for orchids!

My sojourn with crafts !

My work on furniture !

About my business episodes, strtup firms, defeats, tribulations et all.

The untold story of design for a living.

Myself on a sojourn