(and how he came to build a Noah's Ark of art)
As a Queensland Museum preparator of the 7O’s, Natureworks’ David Joffe feels somewhat qualified to declare that the art form of taxidermy as a tool of wildlife presentation is well and truly stuffed! When David was working at the museum as a young museum preparator/taxidermist he was forever faced with the dilemma of trying to achieve miracles. This involved patching up road kills or resurrecting poor specimens of rare fauna to enable the animal to be “properly” presented.
Founding Natureworks
Upon leaving the museum in 1979 and setting up Natureworks as a company applying museum techniques commercially, David realised the value to the commercial world of developing a range of lightweight fibreglass, life-size, high-detail animal replicas, presented as an accurate work of art for both indoor and outdoor use. These animals would prove to be well-behaved and perform tasks not possible with the “Real Thing”.
He scrapped the scalpels, cotton wool, formaldehyde, and bloated corpses for clay, plasticine, fibreglass, silicones, polyurethanes, and glass-fibre reinforced cement and developed an entirely new approach to 3D wildlife art. He realised that the public never responded well to the best of stuffed animals anyway!
Building a Noah's Ark of Art
His vision was to ultimately put together a Noah’s Ark of Noah’s Art! An obsessive collector since birth, it seemed daunting to take on the task of sculpting from scratch all the animals on planet Earth in lifesize form but he “Never Ever Gave Up”.
He realized that to achieve this impossible dream with the three score years plus 10 allotted to him by the “Maker”, leverage of some sort was essential. So, undaunted, he began to collect – People! Mad artists and sculptors with exceptional three-dimensional sculpting talents often lack only the opportunity to be paid to invest their time in this pure art form. David embraced their talent and pushed them to their limits to achieve absolute realism.
Some examples of David's work
Growing the business
From the day he left the museum the phone never stopped ringing and he has been fortunate enough to re-direct many of the commercial enquiries into commissions bit by bit, sculpture by sculpture, that fulfilled the dreams of the young naturalist who spent his early years obsessed with frogs and lizards.
How could he have ever dreamed that one day the company would peak at employing 120 staff building the bizarre?
The process had Its highs and lows. Two children were born, two wives were worn out. Employing other mad artists to help him service the enquiries and larger and larger undertakings in natural history construction and fabrication has been an experience in itself. Indeed the ark was nearing completion in 2012 as the Mayan Calendar prepared him for D-Day (which didn’t happen then, but who knows when it will!). As the polar ice caps melt, just imagine this latter-day Noah and his Ark full of fibreglass animals sailing off into the sunset…
Managing the menagerie
As the old silverback gorilla of the Joffe clan looked down the barrel of 57 years (in 2009), the Joffe children who had been despairing about the storage of 2000 elephants, gorillas, cassowaries, crocodiles and dinosaur masters and the vast collection of production moulds, deliberated on the logistics of their “valuable?” inheritance.
For years the kids had watched the old man trying to make a “quid” out of his mania, having declared that if the old boy could not make the ten sheds full of animal art earn its keep in his lifetime they would “bring in a skip” after the funeral. He realised drastic action was needed. Being produced here in Australia, whilst the pieces were beautifully made and in demand, they were “too expensive” for the average collector. The time had come to go offshore.
Expanding Natureworks' reach and affordability
Natureworks has now launched on both the Australian and international markets its range of museum quality, Australian-designed, reproductions of animals, plants, and garden art. The final casting and painting is completed offshore and everybody is getting their “kilo of resin”. The range includes Animal Art, Big Things, Egyptian Theming, Fantasy Props & Art, Marine Life, Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Art, Garden Statues & Decor, Artificial Rock Art, Works of Art and Quirks of Art!
The retailers are happy. The frog, the elephant and gnome collectors and the bank manager are all smiling. Now, armed with a great range of products, Natureworks is offering the museum, zoo, interior and garden worlds a fantastic range of beautiful, unique museum quality, life-size animal art previously unavailable at these prices on planet Earth. The team at Natureworks in the Samford Valley near Brisbane, Southeast Queensland now focused mainly on prototyping new pieces and putting into production much of the 2000-piece history of the company.
A distribution network is currently being established and the positive feedback has been overwhelming.
Natureworks does what others can't
A new wave of “no need to feed” animals has begun to populate the planet. Natureworks continues its custom-built one-off sculpture as always out of its’ Samford studios. It continues with the artificial rockwork, aquarium sets, artificial trees, interpretive and cultural centres and other fabricated and bizarre construction – as long as the requests don’t include straight lines and things easily built by other trades.
David's still at it!
The “old Silverback” still relishes new challenges and fabrications that are out of this world, creative and fun. David’s memory bank and his tools of trade drawing on the thousands of moulds of the natural world continue to provide a valuable resource for those interested in entertainment, conservation, education, profit and smiles.
Take a journey through the last 40-plus years of his creative team’s achievements. Check out the products, read diverse project case studies, and explore the interactive map of Natureworks sculptures around Australia. To chat with the man himself, call David on +61 7 3289 7555.
The world of natural history has inspired many to dream of professions working with the animal world in various ways. We became zoologists, photographers, painters, vets, curators or stable hands – unified by our love of the natural world.
Concerned at the direction in which the planet is heading, we all have a role to play keeping the plight of the natural world on public display. As the real world disappears it is a sad reality that the demand for artificial environments will forever grow, to remind our children of the "Lost World" that once was."
This is an edited copy of an article originally published in:
Australasian Society of Zoo Keeping (2009). Taxidermy – An Art Form – Well & Truly Stuffed (An Obituary) – A David Joffe Perspective. Thylacinus, 33(4), 16-18 (2009). (See the original here)
