The idea for Rainforest Designs began following my first rainforest retreat to Mount Tamborine in the Gold Coast Hinterland in Australia. The photographs on this site are some of many taken during walks which left me in awe. Inspired, I wondered if I could combine my love of art and nature to create eco-friendly gifts to support the protection and restoration of rainforests and their biodiversity in Australia.

Having recently enrolled in a Psychology Degree for personal development, I also realised that rainforest retreats have another name ... Forest Bathing ... and are a form of ecotherapy. The term emerged in Japan in the 1980s to describe a psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku (“taking in the forest atmosphere”) and evolved as an antidote to technology burnout. In the 1990s, researchers began studying the benefits of forest bathing, providing the science to support what we instinctively know... time spent in nature is good for us.
 
Even more reason to explore and protect our rainforests!