Hartstongue - Inspiration

Saint David (Welsh: Dewi Sant; Latin: Davidus; c. 500 – c. 589) was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw (now St Davids) during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and a relatively large amount of information is known about his life. His birth date, however, is uncertain: suggestions range from 462 to 512. He is traditionally believed to be the son of Saint Non and the grandson of Ceredig ap Cunedda, king of Ceredigion. The Welsh annals placed his death 569 years after the birth of Christ, but Phillimore's dating revised this to 601.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_David

: Last Updated: 01 March 2021; Hits: 1252

Read more: Jacqueline McGlade

Taking a radical stance on the way we produce our objects, Alice & Gavin Munro are at the cutting edge of an emerging art form, an art form that highlights an interesting way to be closer to art and nature and to create symbiotic abundance for both.

Challenging the way we create products as well as how we see the items with which we surround ourselves, the Grown Furniture has an immediate tactile, visceral and organic appeal.

The first seed was sown when as a young boy playing in the garden, Gavin noticed an overgrown bonsai tree had the distinct appearance of a chair.

It was an image that stayed in his mind for 25 years.

The second seed had time to germinate when he had lots of time to think about that chair a few years later. Gavin went through several operations to straighten his spine.

“It’s where I learnt patience. There were long periods of staying still, plenty of time to observe what was going on and reflect. It was only after doing this project for a few years a friend pointed out that I must know exactly what it’s like to be shaped and grafted on a similar time scale.” – Gavin Munro

The third and final seed of the project sprouted twenty years later on a beach in San Francisco – after Art College, a Degree in Furniture Design, an apprenticeship to a cabinet-maker and a long stint building with natural materials in Scotland and California – Gavin had a period of making driftwood furniture.

It was a sheer delight to see what new materials each tide would bring, then a matter of stitching the wood back together – each ‘stitch’ fitting into carefully cut-out mortices.

This was the moment Gavin realised that we could grow trees directly into beautiful and useful shapes.

How are these Grown Furniture pieces made?

In essence it’s an incredibly simple art. You start by training and pruning young tree branches as they grow over specially made formers. At certain points we then graft them together so that the object grows in to one solid piece – I’m interested in the way that this is like an organic 3D printing that uses air, soil and sunshine as its source materials. After it’s grown into the shape we want, we continue to care for and nurture the tree, while it thickens and matures, before harvesting it in the Winter and then letting it season and dry. It’s then a matter of planing and finishing to show off the wood and grain inside.

The whole process takes place over seasons and years – between 4 and 8 years to grow a chair – but when you look at how long and how much effort it takes us now to go from having no tree to the final wooden object, then you realise that the craft we’re a part of developing is not just more cooperative with the natural world; it has an elegant efficiency all of it own.

https://fullgrown.co.uk/

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: Last Updated: 18 February 2021; Hits: 1009

Percy Harrison Fawcett was an explorer and artillery officer. His efforts to prove that civilisations existed in the Amazon before the arrival of western culture were semi-fictionalised in the 2017 film The Lost City of Z. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's Founders Medal in 1916, but disappeared in 1925 while on an expedition with his son Jack.

Percy was born in Torquay and he his family lived in many parts of Devon, including St Marychurch, Teignmouth, Uplyme, and Stoke Canon.

Stoke Canon is situated on raised ground near the meeting of the waters of the Rivers Exe and Culm. The village is the eastern starting point of the Devonshire Heartland Way which leads to Okehampton. The Exe Valley Way also passes through the village.

Use his memory to spark your own investigations of the rivers and streams where you live. What forgotten mills and farms lie on their banks?

: Last Updated: 16 February 2021; Hits: 2090

Luke Pollard was elected as the Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport in June 2017, and re-elected in 2019. Luke was born and lives in Plymouth and is the first MP to be born in Plymouth since Michael Foot represented the city in 1945.

https://www.lukepollard.org/

Luke Pollard’s voting in Parliament

Luke Pollard is a Labour/Co-operative MP, and on the vast majority of issues votes the same way as other Labour/Co-operative MPs.

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25690/luke_pollard/plymouth%2C_sutton_and_devonport

Luke Pollard (born 10 April 1980) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport since he gained it from the Conservative Oliver Colvile in 2017. He was appointed as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in January 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Pollard

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: Last Updated: 28 January 2021; Hits: 1119

University of Plymouth Iain Stewart is Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth, UK, and Director of its Sustainable Earth Institute. His academic interests in applying Earth science to pressing societal concerns - climate change, geo-resources, geo-energy, disaster risk reduction - form the basis of his 2018 recognition as UNESCO Chair in ‘Geoscience and Society’.

Iain’s academic roots are in active tectonics and geohazards. After completing a BSc in Geography and Geology at Strathclyde University (1986), and a PhD in earthquake geology at the University of Bristol (1990), he taught Earth sciences at Brunel University, west London, until 2002. In 2004, he joined the University of Plymouth, where he developed his interdisciplinary interests in ‘geo-communication’.

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/iain-stewart

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