Creating aesthetic spaces Joska’s bread and butter
From a pile of bamboo offcuts, Joska Easterbrook has carved himself a niche in the design and creative industry of Christchurch.
The 36-year-old grew up with practical parents and had a workshop ‘‘of some sort’’ since he was a child, the fruits of his early labour now paying off in the fitouts of popular eateries and sales of custom items to clients across New Zealand.
After the earthquakes, keen to escape the career in hospitality and coffee that took him to London then back to the Lyttelton Coffee Company, he started Joska & Sons.
‘‘A friend of mine was making skis in Lyttelton and I was just hanging out at his workshop one day and saw this pile of bamboo veneer offcuts that he uses for the cores of his skis,’’ Easterbrook said.
‘‘They were quite a cool material, so I took them home and was pottering round and that eventuated into three models of lamps.’’
He began making mirrors from his workshop in New Brighton, selling to fellow designers and through homewares stores including Alex & Corban Homestore in Auckland.
Since then, he has turned his creative hand to fitting out establishments around Christchurch. He started with the expansion of Roots restaurant in Lyttelton in 2015.
‘‘I changed the lights and changed the atmosphere in there, made it a bit warmer,’’ he said. ‘‘Then I did the Anchorage on Walker St which led to The Fermentist.’’
His fitout at The Fermentist won a gold pin at the Best Awards in September, the judges commending the Lyttelton local for ‘‘avoiding cliches’’ in a brewery environment.
‘‘This design recalibrated the traditional take on a brewery with a holistic approach to the design and original design concepts,’’ the judges’ comments said.
‘‘I took [bamboo veneer offcuts] home and . . . that eventuated into three models of lamps.’’