Okay I can’t get enough of making daiza. It is just amazing to me to start with a block of wood and then transform it into a flowing piece of furniture. I just love it. Well I wanted to show how my last daiza turned out, and show what else I have been working on.

Here it is after a light coat of SPAR Urethane. It really brings out the beautiful color of the Bolivian Rosewood.

A member of the Central Florida Bonsai Club asked if I could make a daiza for one of his rocks. I of course agreed because I wanted to practice. This was a little more difficult because the bottom of the rock was not flat.

Sometimes I loose site of the daiza and just enjoy the entire Suiseki (rock & daiza). Here is close up of the daiza. Notice how much carving I had to do inside of it to get the rock to sit flat. Too bad this portion is covered, it is rarely ever seen.

Here is the group of the daiza that I have made so far. They don’t take all that long to make, and are really enjoyable.

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Okay this day was pretty brutal. I must have removed about 15 wheelbarrows of soil out of this garden. Backbreaking work, but extremely rewarding to see the final look. So over the past weeks I have worked to uncover the canvas of this garden, and now finally and I can see it. At this point the outline is now defined, and I have identified the items I want to keep. Also I have located placement for the three main stones. The sand is a little dirty, so it is not as white as it should be. I need a good rain to rinse it clean.

The bamboo in the top right of the photo bothers me a bit because it is located in the sand, and gives me an even number of objects. However its not my main focus right now.

From this angle you can see both mounds of soils are gone (thank goodness).

I now plan to add two bamboo screens to bring interest and contrast againt the green background as well as to hide the door. It has come a long way in a rather short period. I should be able to finish up this weekend. Wish me luck!

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So far the Zen garden hasn’t been very relaxing for me. I worked for a few hours just trying to refine the border of the garden itself. I moved much of the clutter from the center of the garden to the outer edges so that the view would be improved. I also had to decide what I wanted to keep, and what needed to go.

In this picture you can see how I removed the large stone areas in the top center and right side of the photo. The large mound of dirt in the foreground really needs to go. It is too large and so unappealing to look at. Once it’s gone it will really change the look of the garden.

The area where I am standing is on the rocks that used to be the center of the garden. I felt they would work better as a border instead of a focal point of the garden

There is just so much in this photo. Zen gardens are supposed to be relaxing and meditative. This picture has your eye so busy looking at everything that you can’t help but be stressed. Still a long way to go.

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I was contacted recently by someone looking for help to revive and redesign their Zen garden. They had lost the person that had done it before me and had difficulties finding someone to care for the garden. I must admit I was very excited about the idea, and knew that this was something that I had wanted to do for some time. The following pictures are of the garden the first day I saw it.

As you can see the garden was very cluttered and didn’t offer the relaxing feeling of a real Zen garden.

The owner and I agreed that the previous design included too many features and elements. It just has too much going on. I think the most important aspect of the Zen garden is the rakes gravel. With the current design you barely noted the sand.

From this angle you can see how jagged the outside edges of the gravel flowed. It wasn’t smooth and soothing, but instead had hard drastic lines. I could see I would have a lot to do.

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