DRIFT Volume 25

Volume No25

£10.00

In pursuit

of PERFECTION Testing the boundaries of artistic desire in search of extraordinary flawlessness

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GUIDE PRICE £1,500,000 | EPC C

PORTREATH | NORTH CORNWALL

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Image © Unique Homestays

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Drift /drift/

noun 1. the act of driving something along 2. the flow or the velocity of the current of a river or ocean stream

verb 1. to become driven or carried along, as by a current of water, wind, or air 2. to move or float smoothly and effortlessly

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On the cover Andrew Bryant has been shortlisted as one of 17 finalists for the Contemporary British Painting Prize 2022 for Untitled (glider), 2022, oil on canvas, 100cm x 120cm, as featured from page 82.

andrewbyrant.net

CEO

Editor

Ben Pratchett – 01326 574842

Hannah Tapping

Miguel Belert

ben.pratchett@enginehousemedia.co.uk

hannah.tapping@enginehousemedia.co.uk

miguel.belert@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Operations Manager

Content Manager Rosie Cattrell

Managing Director Richard McEvoy – 07771 868880

rosie.cattrell@levenmediagroup.co.uk

richard.mcevoy@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Creative Designers

Finance & HR Manager Charlotte Forster charlotte.forster@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Spencer Hawes Jamie Crocker Client Director

Credit Control

Jonathan Perkins – 07587 072706

Digital Content Creative

Tracy Dart – 01326 574842

jonathan.perkins@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Rebecca Hawkey

tracy.dart@enginehousemedia.co.uk

PROUD TO BE PART OF

Drift is published by: Engine House Media LTD Holbrook, The Moors, Porthleven, Cornwall TR13 9JX www.enginehousemedia.co.uk www.levenmediagroup.co.uk

ISSN 2632-9891 © All rights reserved. Material may not be re-produced without the permission of Engine House Media Ltd. While Drift will take every care to help readers with reports on properties and features, neither Engine House Media Ltd nor its contributors can accept any liability for reader dissatisfaction arising from editorial features, editorial or advertising featured in these pages. Engine House Media Ltd strongly advises viewing any property prior to purchasing or considerations over any financial decisions. Engine House Media reserves the right to accept or reject any article or material supplied for publication or to edit such material prior to publication. Engine House Media Ltd cannot take responsibility for loss or damage of supplied materials. The opinions expressed or advice given in the publication are the views of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of

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Engine House Media Ltd. It is suggested that further advice is taken over any actions resulting from reading any part of this magazine.

Engine House Media Ltd is a multi-platform media business with a passion for everything Cornish. Visit www.enginehousemedia. co.uk to find out more. Our mission is to create READ-WATCHEXPERIENCE media opportunities marrying together consumers with the fabulous businesses across Cornwall. Our publishing and marketing teams are specialists in creating print and online communications, devised to achieve a range of marketing objectives. With over 20 years of marketing, brand management and magazine experience we develop effective communications that deliver your message in a credible and creative way. We operate across all media channels, including: print, online and video.

03/11/2022 15:34

T E A M

Foreword Powerful stories are what inspire us, not just in childhood but as adults too, helping and encouraging us to learn new things, break new ground and embrace new directions, ones that we may not otherwise have thought possible. From creative talents to design-driven individuals, wayfarers to wanderers, innovators to epicureans, we bring them together to tell their tales. In addition to serving King and country, Joe Jackson (15), accompanied by his camera lens, explores the wilds, ‘spinning a quick dit’ with every frame he captures. Coast Creative (27) has a story of its own to be told; a coming together of three design minds to achieve craftmanship without compromise. DRIFT’s stories often weave a sustainable thread and this volume is no exception. Finisterre’s founder, Tom Kay (47), fosters a relationship with the sea, one which runs

deep through the brand’s narrative informing its design and material choices for the good of both people and planet. While the product differs, the approach is the same for Sara Castaneda and Andres Altamirano’s ethically sourced chocolate.

Rio Nuevo (57) is a feel-good product that has Ecuadorian farmers, alongside the environment and sustainability, at the heart of its ethos and values. There’s no doubt that art, in whatever form, has its own tale to tell. Holly Bendall’s bronze statue Waiting for fish… (92) was as a result of a change in life circumstances and needing to take time to reset, while each element of Simon Bayliss’ (100) creative activity ‘moves the space around it, unsettling expectations and arousing new ones’.

Steering a course to new horizons is what DRIFT embodies and we invite you to join us on the journey.

Our contributors

Hannah Tapping

Mercedes Smith

Rebecca Hawkey

Dan Warden

Martin Holman

Lottie Lewis

Join our team

Proud to sponsor

We have an exceptional and loyal team here at Leven Media Group but as a fast growth business we’re always interested in talking to outstanding individuals. If you’re a superstar of extraordinary talent then we would love to hear from you.

Call Richard McEvoy on 07771 868880 or email richard.mcevoy@enginehousemedia.co.uk

Visit drift-cornwall.co.uk to read more about our writers

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We invite you to continue your lifestyle voyage online.

Find inspiring stories and uncover more luxury content on Instagram @driftcornwall. Join our exclusive e-journal community at drift-cornwall.co.uk to receive recipes, reviews and insider knowledge of some of Cornwall’s most-loved luxury destinations. drift-cornwall.co.uk T HE

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COASTAL | COUNTRY | TOWN | MODERN | PERIOD

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T: 01637 850850 | E: sales@dba.estate | www.davidball-luxury.co.uk

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Perfectly located just a stones throw away from the vibrant heart of Newquay, this development comprise of just 5 four-bedroom town houses.

Space, style and comfort are offered in abundance through open plan living spaces, boutique hotel style bedrooms and stylish that are all right ‘on point’ for costal living.

These impressive homes provide the perfect blend of living accommodation over three levels. On the ground floor there is a stunning bespoke kitchen which leads you into a fantastic living space opening out on to a vast sun terrace and private rear garden via sliding doors.

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This is a perfect space for entertaining or unwinding with family and friends on sunny days. On the first floor there are two double bedrooms that share a contemporary family bathroom, complimented by a useful home office/bedroom four.

The top floor plays host to the principle bedroom which incorporates a stylish en-suite and sliding doors leading out onto a private balcony making the most of the far reaching views over the beautiful Trenance Valley and beyond.

GUIDE PRICE £495,000 | FREEHOLD SANDY LODGE CORNER | NEWQUAY | CORNWALL

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Beautiful Beautifulprivate privategrounds, grounds,located locatedclose closeto tocoastal coastalhotspots hotspots Falmouth, South Cornwall A fabulous Manor house, sitting private in just over four acres of grounds, close to some popular coastal hotpots.

Plethora of period features throughout, six bedrooms with three bathrooms, principal bedroom with separate dressing room featuring a vanity unit, open plan kitchen/breakfast/reception room, four reception rooms, study, utility room and boot room.

Freehold | About 4 acres | Council Tax Band = G | EPC Exempt – Listed Building 4,946 sq ft | Guide £1.9 million

Chris Clifford Head of Sales 01872 243 201 cclifford@savills.com

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Sean Anderson Residential Sales 01872 243 210 sean.anderson@savills.com

George Hill Residential Sales 01872 243 205 george.hill@savills.com

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Charming interiors with secondary holiday let accommodation Trevarno, West Cornwall A beautifully restored stylish Georgian house with a separate newly refurbished barn in a rural setting currently being used as a highly successful Holiday Let. Five bedroom main house, detached four bedroom barn, private gardens, large kitchen & breakfast room, formal dining room, two sitting rooms, separate garden room, recently refurbished in a contemporary style, flexible accommodation as either a 4 bedroom or 2 x 2.

Freehold | Council Tax Band = E | EPC Exempt – Listed Building 4,100 sq ft | Guide £1.75 million

Penny Bolton Residential Sales 01872 243 209 penny.bolton@savills.com

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Staci Shephard Residential Sales 01872 243 206 staci.shephard@savills.com

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C O N T E N T S

At a glance 15

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EXPLORING THE WILDS With photographer Joe Jackson

A C O M M U N I T Y C O L L A B O R AT I O N A unique collection from Roo’s Beach

27 39 47

THE PERFECT FIT

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Craftsmanship without compromise

S I M P L E TA S T E S

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Inspiration from Neil Haydock

W H AT C O U R AG E MAKES POSSIBLE

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A tale from the founder of Finisterre

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RAISING THE BAR

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L U X U RY H O M E S

108

Exceptional chocolate from Rio Nuevo

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At the pinnacle of the Cornish market

PA I N T I N G S A N D D R AW I N G S Andrew Bryant’s extraordinary work

WA I T I N G F O R F I S H Dave and Bird find home by the sea

C L AY P R I D E A look at Cornwall’s art traditions

C R E AT I N G I N C O L O U R Connecting with talented local artists

EVENTIDE A final word from Darren Sutton

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W O O D F O R D ARCHITECTURE

INTERIOR DESIGN

Woodford Architecture and Interiors were the winners of the 2020-2021 international property award for the best residential property in the United Kingdom.

From our studios, we work on projects across the South West and the UK, as well as overseas.

15 North Street, Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7QH Tel: 01364 654888 www.woodfordarchitecture.com

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Exploring

the WILDS WO R D S B Y R E B E C C A H AW K E Y

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F O C U S

Cornwall-based photographer Joe Jackson recalls his inspiration for picking up the camera.

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Antarctica and whilst I’m not sure I can compete with that, I have, almost entirely because of that, developed a love and passion for photography.”

year ago, in a serendipitous meeting of two folks who love photography and the outdoors, I crossed paths with Joe Jackson. I am now lucky enough to call him a friend, and a constant inspiration. Even though he is currently sailing open oceans with work he still found time to sit down and chat to me, albeit remotely, about his journey with photography and where it all began. “I can’t have been very old; maybe six or seven, but I distinctly remember trawling through old analogue photo slides, pressing them into a slot in the little white cube, the light inside illuminating, and there, lit up in all its magic would be a picture of a penguin, an iceberg or another wonderous Antarctic scene. It fascinated me. The photography was simply enchanting. My old man set the photography bar pretty high with his years working in

“As much as I love it, and I do love it, photography is just a hobby for me. The day job, so to speak, involves a ship and considerable time away, but at work we have a phrase: “spinning a quick dit”.

At this point anyone in the naval service will probably laugh or sigh, but they all know what it means; to tell a story.

With every photo I take I want to have a story to go with it. A conversation piece. That’s what I love about photography. Yes, hopefully the photo, if it’s good, will tell its own story, but what I love in particular is the back story; what lead to that shot? It may just be something as simple as good times with good

PREVIOUS Making friends on the moor

A B OV E Joe Jackson

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© Rebecca Hawkey

TOP Tall ships mooring in Cornish coves

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A B OV E A mighty fine summer afternoon

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© Rebecca Hawkey

A B OV E A 30-second window of golden light, illuminating an iconic engine house

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TOP The lighthouse in all its glory

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A B OV E A sunrise worth waking up for; dawn over a meandering creek

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A B OV E Ross sending it with this sunset gainer into murky waters below

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F O C U S

away, we are lucky enough to gain an insight into life aboard ship from seas that span the world, thanks to his inability to put his camera down for long. When he is home, he captures Cornwall from a perspective that some never get to experience, be it a bird’s eye view of pirate ships on a blanket of blue, or the blinding golden beams from a sunset dipping below our rugged coastline. He encompasses the Cornwall that many know and love, her raw beauty, her wild inhabitants, her textures and tones, in a way that keeps people like me on the edge of our seat, waiting to see what wonder he finds next.

people; the sunset gainer with my friend Ross at Rinsey for example. Or, there may have been some trepidation; I rather hilariously rolled my ankle something awful just minutes prior to taking the Kynance sunset shot in a bid to capture the fast-exploding light. Each of these accompanying photos has its own backstory which I hold dear to me and I often regale the “dit” when catching up with the relevant friends or family. And it has to be said that, more than any other place, Cornwall has memories and stories.”

It is clear from Joe’s photography that the ocean is a constant throughout his evergrowing portfolio. When he is called to work

joejackson7 A B OV E Ross, shooting the exploding sunset, at one of Joe’s favourite places

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© Rebecca Hawkey

TOP The power of the sea

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A B OV E Surf ’s up on Cornwall’s north coast

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TOP The Cornish coast turning a mesmirsing shade of sunset red

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A B OV E L E F T A dark sky zone with a towering engine house

A B OV E R I G H T Hidden waterfalls amongst green botanics

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1 Infirmary Hill,

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A B OV E Shot just before the first lockdown, resplendent golden rays and sublime light

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joejackson7

01/11/2022 12:09

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SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

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PERFECT FIT WORDS BY MAT ARNEY

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Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx © Pippa Hambling

The

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C R E AT E

Taking inspiration from the international design scene, this is craftsmanship without compromise; working perfectly and created to last forever.

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up next door to one another. Dave started Cord Industries in 2014, hand-making contemporary furniture in wood and steel.

After studying boat building in Falmouth, Nick founded Coast Creative Joinery, creating bespoke fitted interior and exterior joinery. Luke achieved a BA in product design and then an MA in design thinking at the University of Plymouth before spending ten years designing innovative products for the UK furniture industry.

or all of its rural ‘far corner of the country’ associations, Cornwall has an enviable reputation for innovation and progression.

Perhaps the county’s location and aspect, protruding into the restless Atlantic, means that its inhabitants more often than not look outwards, over the cliff tops and out to sea towards the rest of the world, rather than inwards. This is true of the designers and makers behind Coast Creative, who ship their made-in-Cornwall furniture around the world to customers in New York, San Francisco, Dubai and Sydney, as well as creating kitchens and interiors closer to home.

“Nick was the hub around which the relationship started to form,’’ says Dave. “I would always use Nick for any CNC [computer-numerically-controlled] machining required for my furniture and having one of your oldest friends and a truly gifted woodworker next door was a huge bonus!’’ Dave continues: ‘‘Luke first got in touch with Nick in 2017 looking to have some furniture components made.

Over time we all became pretty good friends,

Coast Creative is a company born from the coming together of three separate Cornwallbased entrepreneurs: Nick Williams, Dave Jones and Luke White. Nick and Dave have been friends for over 20 years, both founding companies that would one day end

PREVIOUS The kitchen at Noordhoek

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© Pippa Hambling

TOP Hairpin leg chair with walnut seat

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A B OV E Drawer detail at Noordhoek

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Making sustainable living beautiful

Artisan homeware handcrafted in Cornwall. www.tomraffield.com

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C R E AT E

and set of benches that he made for a friend generated multiple commissions from other friends. His furniture brand grew into a thriving business with pieces in every major European capital, most US cities and right around the rest of the world. He now handles all the metalwork that has become such a striking and unique feature of the Coast Creative offering.

Jersey-born Luke is the sort of talented designer who can start with a blank piece of paper and a couple of questions, then begin to build a concept fully tailored to the client’s tastes, needs and space, safe in the knowledge that whatever materials he and the client decide to use, be it traditional hardwoods or state-ofthe-art sheet materials (usually both), Nick, Dave and the workshop team have got it covered.

then Nick and I started talking seriously about bringing our two companies together in 2019. We realised that if we could talk Luke into coming on-board as well, we could create something really special. We all share common values regarding how things can and should be made, and we each bring complementary skills to the business.’’

And he’s right. Nick is, by any measure, the complete 21st century craftsman: a passionate woodworker who trained as a boat builder and built his business on his talent with hand-tools, but who took his skills into the 21st century when he added a huge 3m x 2m three-axis CNC machine to his workshop.

This incredible piece of manufacturing technology allows Coast Creative to create almost anything that their customers can dream up, and in a huge range of materials beyond just wood. Nick was born and raised in Rock, north Cornwall, and now his work graces many of the high-end homes in his childhood village. Dave, originally from north Wales, is a talented metalworker who left the specialty coffee business to make furniture after a hairpin leg dining table

Luke’s remarkable computer generated ‘renders’ allow him to take clients on a virtual 3D tour of the design as they collaborate to develop the concept. He has been working directly with clients to design their dreams, as well as working with

INSET Nola dining set

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Coast Creative’s most recent installation is a standout example of the sort of dream interiors that the team can create.

Noordhoek is one of the most significant residential developments in Cornwall in recent years; the kitchen and pantry alone cover 470 square feet and the project has utilised every single one of Coast Creative’s specialist services. “The owners of Noordhoek were great,’’ says Nick. “They gave us the architect’s drawings for the layout but after that we had carte-blanche to suggest anything we thought would work to fulfill their design objectives. Luke created such an incredible concept: a 4.7m floor-to-ceiling Crittall-style screen between the kitchen and pantry, an enormous wine glass rack suspended from the roof above the kitchen island and the most incredible cast-in-situ concrete worktops. We also went for a really complementary mix of finishes and materials: natural oak door and drawer fronts, matt black on all the metalwork, blackened oak on the hidden drawers and the storage, and a hand-trowelled microcement finish on the highline cabinet doors.

There are way too many bespoke details to list but it was such a great journey to go on with them, and something we look back on now with a huge amount of pride.”

architects and interior designers to translate their vision into the most beautiful and functional spaces imaginable; his knowledge of what is possible using Coast’s in-house manufacturing expertise and equipment has allowed him to elevate their clients’ initial ideas to the next level. “We passionately believe that your home is a canvas for your self expression,” explains Luke. “Our clients can have as much or little design input as they feel comfortable with, but the end result will always be something that not only looks incredible, reflecting them as a person, or a family, but can materially improve the way they and their family experience their home in terms of functionality.”

So impressed were the owners with their work in the kitchen that Coast Creative was soon commissioned to supply all the

A B OV E Hairpin leg dining set

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© Pippa Hambling

TOP Dave, Nick and Luke

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A B OV E Combining colour with form

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C R E AT E

hybrid work arrangements saw demand for their innovative Modsys desks skyrocket: “The Modsys range is our take on the future of flatpack furniture,” explains Dave. “It’s a modular range with a single steel bracket design that connects various different table top or seat options to different height legs, offering a wide range of furniture outcomes.

We’ve also just developed a ‘Modpop’ range with solid oak legs and Fenix laminated tops that are available in a range of colours. The resulting desks are minimalist and incredibly stylish, and available in a variety of sizes and heights, including standing. Previously our hairpin leg bar stools and chairs were by far the best selling items of furniture in our range, but these days we’re shipping a lot of Modsys desks too and they’re competing for that “best seller” title.”

bedroom storage and a good deal of the furniture. Dave explains: “They loved our hairpin leg bar chairs and ordered some in zinc yellow for the kitchen island and the BBQ counter in the games room. We also made some one-off versions of our ModSys benches for the hallway, some coffee tables and Luke designed these beautiful little dressing tables for the bedrooms.’’

It’s this furniture, made in their Cornish workshop but shipped to almost every corner of the globe, which provides the other half of the Coast Creative offering. It’s been flying off the shelves, too. The pandemic and resultant huge and instantaneous shift to working from home, remote working, and

TOP Hairpin leg sidetable with oak top

RIGHT The pantry at Noordhoek

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This limited edition book is a celebration of the artists for whom Cornwall provides constant inspiration. Intriguingly current and timelessly readable DRIFT Art Review is at once a valuable tool for collectors, a coveted addition to coffee tables for the year ahead and a collectible for those who value the enduring appeal of the arts.

Visit www.drift-cornwall.co.uk/artreview and quote ‘DRIFTART2022’ to get 10% off your copy (RRP £29.99).

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C R E AT E

to pay slightly more for that product, has made space for independents and reduced the dominance of large multinationals. He sees an opportunity for the same to happen in the furniture and interiors market.

Dave has a long-held belief common to many designers that form should follow function.

“In the distant past, the only two design goals of any product were to work perfectly and last forever, that’s it. But somewhere along the line those ideals were corrupted in favour of quicker and easier profit or prioritising appearance over functionality.

Take flat-pack furniture, for example,” he says, “It has a reputation for being flimsy and short-lived, but that needn’t and shouldn’t be the case. If you design something well, use the best materials and fittings and take pride in its production, then it will function perfectly and last a very long time. Not only that, but it will become beautiful by virtue of its success. Nearly all of the furniture that we make is flat-pack, for ease and economy of delivery. Despite this, it’s still made from solid hardwood, solid steel and will last a lifetime. It’s also not a problem if you happen to live in Edinburgh, Berlin or Miami.”

There is little doubt that as that shift occurs, Coast Creative will be one of the businesses at the forefront, leading the change. The breadth of offering that these three entrepreneurs and their small team have created ranges from small furniture items such as stools, through to large-scale bespoke interiors; they are shipping Cornish designed and made items to homes, offices and hospitality venues all around the world, and bringing international inspiration and state of the art manufacturing technology to Cornish projects.

“At the end of the day,” Nick tells me, “We simply want the things we make to improve people’s lives in some meaningful way. It could be getting your home to work better for you or it could just be walking into a room and going ‘Wow, I love it in here.” It’s not an unreasonable, or unusual, aspiration for either a craftsperson or a businessperson.

These three are doing it though, and doing it so well.

Pairing good design with the best materials and having products made by a skilled workforce in the UK carries with it a price tag, but the difference in the quality of the product is obvious. Dave cites the evolution of the coffee industry as a positive example of how consumer desire for a higher quality product with ethics, traceability and sustainability at its core, and a willingness

thecoastcreative.co.uk the_coast_creative

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C U I SI N E

Simple

TASTES WO R D S B Y H A N N A H TA P P I N G

Neil Haydock, Executive Chef at the Watergate Bay Hotel, creates post-surf grills, salads and classic dishes served with a side of ‘laid-back’ at the Beach Hut.

watergatebay.co.uk

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C U I SI N E

Crab linguine with chilli SERVES 4 INGREDIENTS: 20 cherry tomatoes

400g picked white crab meat

3 large red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

100g flat parsley, washed and chopped including stalks

6 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely grated

400g spaghetti/linguine or bucatini

80ml olive oil

Drizzle of olive oil

METHOD Preheat the oven to 100 °C. Place the cherry tomatoes on a baking tray and place in the oven for 60-90 minutes to dehydrate and concentrate the flavours.

In a large frying pan, add 80ml of olive oil and gently cook the garlic and chilli without browning. Add the crab and stir through to warm, about 30 seconds before adding the hot spaghetti.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and heavily season with salt, cook the spaghetti stirring occasionally. When just cooked (around 8 minutes) drain and toss in a little olive oil.

Combine the crab mix and pasta before adding the chopped parsley and tomatoes.

Check the seasoning and distribute between 4 bowls, drizzle with a little extra olive oil and serve.

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C U I SI N E

Shroom, beet and walnut burger SERVES 6 INGREDIENTS: Potato bun (we use Dabara bakery) For the plant-based patty:

For the beetroot relish: 200ml cider vinegar 40g caster sugar 5g salt 500g grated raw beetroot

50g walnut halves (soaked in water for 24 hours) 500g black beans, drained (or kidney beans)

For the filling:

450g button mushrooms

Your favourite vegan cheese slice

200g grated beetroot 20ml sunflower oil

Remoulade sauce (vegan mayo, tomatoe ketchup, sriracha hot sauce, diced gherkin)

Salt to taste

Dill pickle

Large tomato slices

METHOD Soak the walnuts in a bowl of water and place in the fridge for 24 hours. Finely chop the button mushrooms. In a frying pan, heat a drizzle of sunflower oil. Sweat the mushrooms on low with a pinch of salt. Add the grated beetroot to the mushrooms and continue to fry for 20 minutes on low. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in a large bowl.

For the relish:

Finely chop the soaked walnuts and add to the cooled mushroom and beetroot mixture. Add the drained black beans and combine all the ingredients, crunching the beans between your fingers until the mixture is well combined.

Lightly dust the patties in rice flour. Shallow fry the Shroom burger patties for 4 minutes on either side on a medium heat until lightly browned. Prepare your burger bun with a spoon of remoulade sauce on one side. Once the burger is cooked, pile it all together in the bun with the vegan cheese, beef tomato slice and topped off with a heap of beetroot relish.

Bring 200ml of cider vinegar to the boil with 40g of castor sugar and 5g salt, leave to cool.

Place the 500g grated beetroot in a bowl and cover with the vinegar solution, leave for 24-48 hours to pickle.

Put it all together.

Shape the mixture into burger rounds and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Refrigerate for at least two hours before cooking.

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C U I SI N E

Bramble cocktail SINGLE SERVING INGREDIENTS: 25ml Tarquin’s British Blackberry & Cornish Honey Gin

25ml Gomme/sugar syrup

25ml Atlantic Cassis

Crushed ice

Blackberry and twist of lemon peel to garnish

25ml lemon juice (1 lemon squeezed)

METHOD Served in a tumbler or rocks glass.

Top glass with crushed ice. Drizzle cassis in a circular motion to achieve a marbling effect.

Half fill the glass with crushed ice. Add the lemon, gin and sugar syrup.

Garnish with a twist of lemon peel and a blackberry if you like.

Take a spoon or stirrer (end of a spoon works well) and mix.

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03/11/2022 11:31

What courage

MAKES POSSIBLE

Rebecca Hawkey

WO R D S B Y R E B E C C A H AW K E Y

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SU STA I N

“The place where land ends has intrigued man for centuries, fostering both a real and a romantic relationship with the sea; a relationship that runs deep in our narrative.”

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ago in 2003, from a flat above a surf shop in the village. Starting with a humble fleece, it would be an understatement to say the company has grown. Supplying the likes of you and me with the gear to withstand sun and showers is just a fraction of what Finisterre now stands for.

The Nimbus Insulated Jacket, the Farne Roll Neck Knit Jumper, the Hegen ¼ Zip Wool Fleece, the Yarrel Cord Trouser, or the Fisherman Beanie; these are just a few of their favourites and the list keeps going, their collections as versatile as they are veritably stylish, covering all manner of occasions for all manner of personalities, lifestyles and preferences, and thereby well and truly dominating the Cornish clothing market.

orn of humble beginnings, one man’s need for warmth and protection against the elements became a catalyst for the product Cornish surfers were waiting for. Finisterre is more than a brand, it’s a name well-known not just across our coast, but outside the realms of this island. Notorious for their dedication to sustainable design, functionality, and style, the products have gone beyond keeping local wave hunters warm. For those that are unfamiliar with this story, then let me enlighten you.

Tom Kay, RNLI volunteer of 20 years and now Helm at St Agnes Lifeboat Station, a regular in the Cornish surf line-up and founder of Finisterre, began this journey some 19 years

INSET Founder, Tom Kay

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Rebecca Hawkey

Rebecca Hawkey

TOP Finisterre flagship store, St Agnes

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A B OV E Displaying their new RNLI Collection in-store

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SU STA I N

Tom was sedulous in forging a path relatively untrodden at the time of Finisterre’s conception, one based on making informed, innovative, inspired decisions about their impact on the environment, and as a business, they remain committed to product, environment and people. It is, after all, their ethos, and one they continue to stand by. Thanks to this philosophy, Finisterre has amassed a large following. But with that comes responsibility, and the team are using their platform to make a difference not just in their local area but across a myriad of sectors.

They have a plethora of campaigns under their belt, all of which aim to encourage us to explore the wider world, experience the wonder of cold-water swimming, reduce our plastic usage, or reuse and repair our worn and torn Finisterre items through their Lived and Loved workshop. They have collaborated with the likes of Vans, Blundstone and Vivobarefoot to create products that are functional and sustainably conscious, all the while encouraging these organisations to think more about the waste their products leave behind.

Some may think that a Finisterre purchase occasionally pinches the purse, but these products are built to withstand a nonsedentary lifestyle, one that is ordinary to those who live in such a formidable location as Cornwall. I spoke with Tom recently and, without falling into a well of economic parley, we discussed the balance of product cost in relation to our current climate, and, quite rightly, he defended what customers would have to part with in order to own a coveted Finisterre item. It seems that as a population, for the most part, our understanding of the impact that poorly made products have on our planet, and the people that make them, is broadening. It is the tipping of the scales, a balancing act between the financial cost of a well-made product, versus the environmental cost we must pay by purchasing fast-fashion.

When we realise that we, as human beings, are an integral part of our ecosystem and not just observers – a part that has a lasting impact on its longevity – then we, as a collective, can enact considerable change.

Finisterre is working hard to spread such insights.

INSET RNLI Cromarty Jumper, Ecru

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SU STA I N

have dedicated their time, experience and knowledge to finding a new way, a new path.

Instead of rushing into the customary, they have persisted, tried and tested something unconventional. Patience pays off, and now this range of ocean attire is a beacon of future possibilities, being used by professional surfers as well as neophytes across the world.

Another collaboration that lies closer to home, and certainly close to Tom’s heart, is RNLI x Finisterre, which has just released its third collection. Given Tom’s impressive service record, it’s no surprise that this partnership is important to the company as a whole, inspired by British seafaring heritage and the hardiness of the human spirit, with ten percent of every sale supporting the vital work that they do. Each item is beautifully crafted and celebrates the fortitude of those volunteer crews who drop everything when the call comes.

In 2021 they recertified as a B Corp™, improving their previous score from 80.8 to 93.2. This may not mean much to those who aren’t familiar with the points system, but even achieving this score is incredibly difficult, as B Corporations are companies that have been independently assessed to ensure they meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. It grants consumers clarity on business practises, thereby allowing them to buy from eco-conscious companies should they so choose. It’s certification that Finisterre is proud to bare, and one that the team are continually looking to improve on.

All Finisterre products are designed and made to cope with a life well lived, from highland adventures to coastal expeditions on both large and small scales. Given how Finisterre started, from Tom’s love of surfing, it is no surprise that wetsuits, seasuits and swimwear are now among the selection. They have crafted apparel that gives people the confidence to experience the beauty of the water in all forms, whilst also renouncing the traditional usage of neoprene and instead shifting to Yulex® Natural Rubber, a clean, plant-based alternative that is less harmful for the planet. Tom and the team

I’ve been surrounded by the sea for a long time; I’ve seen the damage it can do if underestimated, and also the wonder it can

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TOP LEFT RNLI Pom Beanie

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A B OV E RNLI Cromarty Jumper, Navy RNLI Fisherman Beanie, Flame/Navy

TOP RIGHT The crew ready for winter

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MADE IN CORNWALL – FOR OVER 30 YEARS

01209 215 759 | enquiries@philipwhear.co.uk | www.philipwhear.co.uk DRIFT--25--AD--Philip Whear--1.00.indd 2

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Rebecca Hawkey

SU STA I N

Tom Kay had an idea in 2003 to create a product that would warm cold souls fresh from the sea, but in reality, it has evolved into so much more. Whilst Tom will be the first to say that improvements can always be made, his drive for innovation and sustainability is infectious, and through it all, Finisterre has stayed true to his ethos of remaining committed to product, environment and people. Always.

bring when respected. She has the capacity to enchant anyone, from all walks of life, if they let her. The team at Finisterre understand this and are going above and beyond to protect and prolong our relationship with her, for us to enjoy both now and in the future. Not only are they campaigning with charities like Surfers Against Sewage and institutions like The Natural History Museum, they are also educating anyone who wishes to play their part in making a difference through Sea7, the UK’s first online ocean activist training camp which you can read more about online.

rnli.org finisterre.com

A B OV E Morley Penaluna field testing his suit

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Raising the BAR WORDS BY JEN SOBEY

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SU STA I N

Exceptional chocolate offering an honest reflection on where it comes from and how it is sourced.

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are the days when the only option for our morning fix is black or white. Sugar or no sugar. We are likely now to know the blend, the origin and the sourcing methods of most of our favourite brands, and yet there is often little thought to these things when considering the chocolate we buy. The farms on which it is grown or the varietal of the bean is, not always, but mostly, left unconsidered.

hocolate. We all love it. It is so regularly used as a vehicle for celebration, for commiseration, to mend heartache, spread happiness or to simply say thank you. There is almost no occasion where chocolate can’t play a part. Speciality chocolate however? You’d be forgiven for not having really heard of that.

Unlike coffee, which in recent years has seen a surge in demand for better quality, well-sourced and fairly traded beans, the chocolate industry remains remarkably behind its commodity counterpart. It is almost unthinkable to walk down even the smallest of highstreets and not find a coffee shop with an espresso machine serving specialty coffee. Long gone

Aiming to change that, and make a positive mark on the industry is Penryn-based specialty chocolate company Rio Nuevo Chocolate. Set in a small industrial unit just outside of the harbourside town, husband and wife partnership, Sara Castaneda and Andres Altamirano, have created a brand with purpose at the very centre.

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© Photographer

A B OV E Artisan chocolate as a drink is now getting as much attention as its coffee counterpart

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SU STA I N

inequality and the unfair market prices. All of these things made me more sensitive to social and environmental issues.”

They describe Rio Nuevo as a creative, ethical and impact driven chocolate company on a mission to change the chocolate supply chain and alleviate poverty in cacao farming.

Andres grew up in Ecudaor where a huge 100,000 families rely completely on cacao production. Despite the heavy reliance on the trade, there is no formal cacao classification system in place and the lack of transparency in the supply chain makes it difficult for buyers to work out the logistics, as well as ensuring the quality. The need for direct trade is essential. Sara explained, “For Andres, although he grew up in a big city, his grandparents owned farms that he would go and visit during the holidays. Ecuador’s history is one of cacao production. The finest cacao variety, Arriba Nacional, which we buy for our drinking chocolate and bars, comes exclusively from Ecuador and Andres grew up hearing stories about his grandmother’s cacao plantation during the 70’s. Whoever had a cacao farm was very proud of it as cacao in Ecuador is referred to as the golden seed.

The whole country was built on its trade.”

But it wasn’t there that their journey with chocolate began. It was at their wedding in 2014, in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest that this rich farming history began to mould the couple’s future.

It is a real feel-good product with true values that pack a punch and make even the most cynical of buyers think a little more before grabbing their normal choice of chocolate bar.

Since its inception five years ago, Rio Nuevo has worked with two rural communities in Ecuador, paying around 60% more than Fairtrade prices for the raw product. But their commitment and environmental work goes far beyond the price of the bean.

From Colombia and Ecuador respectively, Sara and Andres met in London 15 years ago after having moved to the UK in their early childhood. “Andres moved to London in 1997 when he was 14, and I moved over here in 2001, aged 12,” explained Sara. “Both our families moved to the UK in search of a better future.”

Both Sara and Andres have memories of farming being integral parts of their lives growing up in South America during their early years. Sara grew up on a small coffee farm in Colombia. “I saw my parents having to give up on coffee production because coffee prices were too low. From a very young age I understood the challenges farmers face, how hard they work, how much they love the land. But they, like others, are forced to move to bigger cities in search of other work – all because of social

While in the rainforest, Sara and Andres met local farmers who showed them how they make chocolate, but also shared with them the troubles they were facing in the industry.

Long associated with unfair pay, slavery, child

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“But we’ve been very fortunate to have had friends along the way who are in the chocolate and coffee industry who have helped us in this chocolate journey. From tasting training to product development.”

Up until recently, the couple hand-made each bar in Penryn. From roasting the beans, making and tempering the chocolate, moulding the bars and grating the drinking chocolate. Right down to hand folding the packaging on each individual bar.

labour and abuse, Sara and Andres’ dream of helping lift cacao farming communities in Andres’ home country was born. “When we heard the cacao farmers stories at our wedding in the rainforest it resonated with me, I understood where their frustrations were coming from, coming from a family who had experienced similar in the coffee industry growing up.” And with that the couple bought 300kg of cacao beans directly from farmers and shipped them back to their Falmouth flat.

But in another wellthought-out move, Sara and Andres decided to move the production of the chocolate back to the country of origin.

“We pay $200 dollars a bag, for our cocoa beans direct to a farmer. There is no co-operative in the middle, we know exactly where the money is going. On the wider market, that bag under normal prices would get around $40-$60. So already we pay a significantly higher price for our farmers,” said Andres, “but we wanted to do more. We still want to do more.”

The couple joke there are quite a few things that YouTube can teach you, but even with their infectious drive and authentic passion, they admit the journey to make a truly delicious chocolate bar was a little trickier than they had first anticipated.

With a roaster in their lounge, they began the journey of learning how to make great chocolate. Sara said, “Another chocolate maker warned us that our first ever batch of chocolate would be a disaster and he wasn’t wrong. We followed the steps very carefully but it did not taste good. It took us about a year to learn the basics, to understand the cacao beans we were working with and how to develop flavour profiles during roasting, grinding and conching and we’re still learning!

Moving the production, following the couple’s carefully curated recipe and methods, back to the country of origin means more wealth is retained in Ecuador, supporting a more sustainable industry.

INSET

Sara and Andres 62

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© Photographer

A B OV E A recent trip to Ecuador

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SU STA I N

created with 30% seaweed and the rest made up from recycled material. Sara said: “We view this project as a natural extension of our commitment to the long-term welfare and success of the cacao communities in Ecuador with whom we have partnered.

Contributing to the warming of our oceans, food insecurity and the collapse of vital natural ecosystems, plastic-waste is an issue that reaches far beyond national and geographical boundaries. By working to reduce our plastic footprint, we’re not just helping to keep our oceans, forests and few remaining wild spaces clean; we’re helping to reduce the pressure on cacao farmers in the developing world whose livelihoods rely upon the success of increasingly unpredictable harvests.

While the farmers are at the heart of the company’s ethos and values, so is the environment and sustainability. While it is increasingly common for businesses to have ethical hopes and dreams, most have plans of rolling out more as the business grows.

Rio Nuevo however sits somewhat uniquely, having prioritised all of its sustainability essentials from launch.

The cacao used in Rio Nuevo’s bars and drinking chocolate is an ancient native variety under threat. The Arriba Nacional varietal is widely acknowledged as being one of the finest in the world, but due to the rise of hybrid crops, developed to be more pestresistant, chemical dependent and higher yielding, the native species is struggling to survive. The investment into the varietal by companies like Rio Nuevo means that the cacao can grow in an organic and natural way. This supports the delicate ecosystems of the forests in which it grows, supporting the farmers to be able to grow food to feed themselves alongside their cacao, and to ensure the survival of some of the native species at threat through deforestation. The sustainable theme runs through the product from bean to bar, and even box.

“Our Pyramid is an expression of the way in which we like to do business. By working together, and combining the talents of experts across a variety of fields, we believe that we can provide an outsized contribution to the problems that we all face. Whether we’re working to raise the living standards of our growers, or to reduce our own plastic footprint, we think that embracing a collaborative approach and pooling our collective expertise with new partners is the best way to achieve true innovation.”

Last year Sara and Andres worked with seaweed packaging specialists Notpla to develop a completely compostable 100% seaweed film. The ambitious proof-ofconcept Chocolate Pyramid project was the catalyst behind the brand’s newly launched drinking chocolate boxes which have been

To receive a 10% discount on online orders use code WELCOMEDRIFT10 at checkout. rionuevochocolate.com rio_nuevo_chocolate

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P RO P E RT Y

INNOVATIVE excellence

A stunning five-bedroom modern barn conversion enjoying many sustainable design features, all set within four acres.

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et just minutes from the spectacular north Cornwall coast, Trescullion Barn finds itself amongst rolling countryside on the edge of the village of Little Petherick. At the end of a private drive, surrounded by four acres of beautiful gardens and grounds, this exceptional modern barn conversion offers a wonderfully spacious and flexible layout to the accommodation, enjoying delightful views across the Cornish countryside.

The property was created in 2017 from the conversion of a former stone barn and a newbuild two-storey extension, which are cleverly united via a striking contemporary glazed link.

The overall layout has been cleverly designed to allow for it to be resided in as a straightforward single family-sized residence or, if required, part of the ground floor can be separated off to provide a very spacious and fully self-contained annexe. This could potentially be used as accommodation for a dependant relative, guest accommodation or letting to either full time or holiday tenants.

TRESCULLION BARN Guide Price £1.85M ROHRS & ROWE 01872 306360 info@rohrsandrowe.co.uk

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P RO P E RT Y

EXECUTIVE living

Seaholly is situated along a quiet lane, in an elevated position, near to Holywell Bay beach and dunes.

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anged across three floors, Seaholly is an impressive example of a contemporary home. The ground level incorporates a spacious open-plan kitchen and general living space that leads onto a sheltered, southfacing garden, complemented by a utility room and WC. The second floor is dominated by a grand master bedroom that welcomes in a view of the rugged Cornish coastline through generously proportioned sliding doors, with the accommodation completed by three double bedrooms and a contemporary stylish family bathroom on the first floor.

The quality of this property is echoed in its finishing detail. Digital thermostats control the underfloor heating throughout, while Italian tiles in the wet rooms give off a Mediterranean vibe. Velfac window systems enhance the professionally designed interiors with bespoke window dressings in all rooms along with a pre-wired built-in sound system in the lounge.

SEAHOLLY Guide price: £750,000 DAVID BALL LUXURY COLLECTION 01637 850850 sales@dba.estate

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Exquisitely RARE

Located in the verdant hills of Cornwall’s outer west, Rosemorran Manor House sits in over 2 acres, and awaits a new owner.

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n the quietly quaint village of Gulval, located in the rolling countryside of west Cornwall, lies a picturesque long house, a style of property extremely rare and traditionally Cornish. Gulval is situated just minutes from the harbourside town of Penzance and the fishing villages of Newlyn and Mousehole, and the abundant facilities they have to offer. Gulval itself is home to an active community which includes a primary school, a 12th century church and a popular pub, The Coldstreamer.

Rosemorran Manor House is originally a Tudor period home, but having been remodelled in the 18th century it is now recognised as a ‘Cottage Omee’, with Gothic style and a thatched roof famed as the longest in Cornwall. The property is a single dwelling, however, due to its layout it would be perfect for multi-generational living.

The kitchen, the heart of any home, boasts an impressive vaulted ceiling with Velux rooflights, part exposed granite walls, warming AGA and a spacious Belfast sink, and this stunning space offers but a glimpse of what this extraordinary property has to offer.

ROSEMORRAN MANOR HOUSE Guide price: £1.8M SAVILLS CORNWALL 73 Lemon Street, Truro TR1 2PN 01872 243200 cornwall@savills.com

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T H E L U X U RY C O R N I S H H OT E L AWAY F RO M T H E C RO W D S

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A community

COLLABORATION WO R D S B Y H A N N A H TA P P I N G | I M AG E S B Y A D J B RO W N

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C O U T U R E

An independent lifestyle store and brand imaginatively showcases its latest collections, modelled by customers and friends.

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Founder, Roo Cross, set up the business almost ten years ago after moving to Cornwall with her young family: “We had bought a place in Mawgan Porth over 20 years before, and spent increasingly more and more time here. We got to that critical point where we really wanted to be in Mawgan Porth full-time. Being part of an open-minded community appealed to us; there is a real freedom of thought and spirit living in Cornwall.”

Roo has always had a keen fashion and design eye, but actually, funnily enough, had never worked in retail, until she opened the business. “I realised there was a gap in the market for brands that I could get access in Hampshire and London that weren’t represented in Cornwall.

have been a self-confessed fan of Roo’s Beach since the early days. Drawn by its expertly curated selection of colourpopping fashion collections, accessories, homewares and gifts, the store houses a plant department and coffee shop, making it a stylish meeting place and setting for the Roo’s Beach regular socials, while the website affords out-of-county shoppers access to a unique brand roster which includes L.F.Markey, Levi’s, GANNI and American Vintage amongst many others.

While locals and visitors to Newquay are regulars, Roo’s Beach is also a destination store, drawing customers form further afield, such is its renown for collections that focus on fabric, fit, style and sustainability.

PREVIOUS Roo’s Beach, Porth

INSET Roo Cross

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TOP Angela Hayne who was Roo’s Beach first ever customer.

Angela wears Bellerose and Hartford

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A B OV E Ellie and Lucy from The Old Garage Wine & Deli Lucy – head to toe in GANNI Ellie – GANNI coat, YMC trousers

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TOP Hilary, Rob and Frankie the dog Hilary – a great mix of Bellerose, Hartford and Levi’s Rob – Stan Ray cord jacket, YMC shirt and Edwin jeans

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A B OV E Andy, Holly, Amy, Ollie, Harvey Wavehunters’ Watergate Bay team with Lentil, one of Roo’s Beach’s favourite shop dogs

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C O U T U R E

People told me that I wouldn’t be able to sell fashion in Porth and that no-one would come. For me the success of the business has had to be based on us being open every day.” Roo sells brands she is proud of, ones where she believes in their ethos: “Our absolute stand-out and biggest selling brand has been GANNI. It’s an expensive brand, but its environmental credentials are head and shoulders above any other.

It is beautifully made – I’ve got pieces of GANNI I’ve had for five or six years, and they look like they’re brand new. It’s such a well-curated, well-made, and very responsibly sourced brand.” contains strong colours. Pink and yellow always sell well as does anything leopard print.” Roo’s denim edit is also exceptional, with Levi’s to suit every shape and age: “My mum is going to be 80 next year and she’s still wearing Levi’s from us – I love that. I always say that I don’t know another store that will sit Rhythm, American Vintage, YMC, Vans, Hartford and GANNI side by side. We believe our edit is unique to Roo’s Beach and we buy based on colour, print and a laid back style rather than what’s in fashion – funnily enough we tend to be bang on trend without necessarily meaning to be!”

With a broad customer base spanning many walks of life and age groups, people are drawn to Roo’s Beach for an aspirational look that reflects the eclectic Cornish lifestyle, promoting a sense of fashion freedom, un-governed by traditional parameters of age, size and sex. “I’ve noticed this over the years and it’s shaped the way the business has evolved and essentially has dictated the style that we have adopted and the brands that we have curated. We buy very differently from other independent stores and always have done; this has evolved and developed as we’ve got to know our local community and developed our own style accordingly.”

Bringing all these unique elements into play, for Winter 2022 the creative team at Roo’s Beach have launched the R Neighbourhood photo campaign, imaginatively showcasing their latest collections, modelled by customers and friends of the store.

“We have such an interesting, mixed community here in Cornwall.

“I buy completely emotively and always have done. I literally go and see the collectors and buy the things I like, and what I know our customers will like. We offer a very accessible, casual, everyday sort of fashion which always

INSET Expertly curated homeware

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03/11/2022 04/10/2022 11:38 15:38

C O U T U R E

“The Boyz in the Wood have a place very close to my heart as they have worked alongside my husband Ian and I for the past ten years building various projects, including the shop, with us and are also great friends – this took them far out of their comfort zones – but how good do they look? Hilary is also amazing and just looks fabulous in everything. She’s got such a great style and I love the way she puts things together. I feel the photographs of her are truly inspirational. The response to the campaign from customers has been overwhelmingly positive – people have loved seeing the photos and I feel proud to celebrate local talent and style this way, it also gives us such a great platform to style our clothes as we imagine that they should be worn, in everyday life, practical and making people feel great about themselves,” says Roo.

There’s a real spirit of entrepreneurship and individualism amongst our locals, driven by their love of living by the coast, wanting slightly different things out of life and almost top of the list is putting lifestyle above everything.” The R Neighbourhood idea was a natural progression for the store. “Being able to photograph our clothing on the local community, by calling on long-standing friends, customers and fellow independent business owners, is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the inspiring folk we have in Cornwall. I love the idea of people seeing our clothes on real people – it gives them the confidence to see that they too can wear clothing that makes them feel amazing and takes them out of their comfort zone,” says Roo.

“Yes, some pieces are expensive and we make no apologies for this as we believe in good quality, well made, sustainable, responsible fashion which is made to last and overall offers great value in a cost per wear way. This has to be the future of fashion and we are educating people that if they buy good quality items, they will more than pay for themselves in the long run. Take Angela for example; she was our first ever customer and she came to me this year and said, “Roo, I think I owe you money for that skirt I bought, because I’ve literally lived in it!” I think people do have to think about buying less; buying the things that they love and that they can really get lots of wear from. Then if you do get fed

INSET Awash with colour

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TOP Ray, Lee, Tom, Gaz Boyz in the Wood – local chippies The boys are dressed in Stan Ray and Blundstone

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A B OV E Nat and Anna – owners of Gorse Bakery Nat and Anna are predominantly in YMC other than Anna’s GANNI boots and handbag

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C O U T U R E

buy men’s and women’s wear together. It’s good to have fresh eyes and we’re excited about stocking brands who have men’s and women’s collections and use the same fabrics for both, or who offer unisex styles.”

up with it, you can take it to a charity shop and someone else can love it. It’s that whole circular consumerism in fashion, which I think again, is really key.”

Launching a menswear edit has contributed to the success of Roo’s Beach. Joining Roo, Joe Leman has been instrumental in growing the offering, bringing incredible retail experience and some fantastic brands to the store. “R Neighbourhood has been great in that it shows guys that they don’t have to wear a logo t-shirt from a surf shop. You can wear a nice shirt and not feel like you’re being too smart.

A lot of the menswear brands we have are British, such as Universal Works and YMC, whose clothes are made in Portugal in family orientated factories. Joe’s been really good for me in terms of buying, as we

As Roo’s Beach nears its tenth anniversary, there are plans for their own-brand collection. Working with a family-run jersey factory in Portugal, a range of jersey t-shirts with a perfect fit for both men and women will come to the Roo’s Beach rails next year. “It has been an amazing journey and with the recent introduction of menswear and our very own plant shop, we feel we have truly become a destination store and pride ourselves in offering something for everyone,” concludes Roo. roosbeach.co.uk

A B OV E John, Mathilda with children Rasmus, Axel and Dusty Eldridge – owners of Strong Adolfos Café John wears Universal Works suit with YMC shirt, Mathilda wears Mads Norgaard trousers and everything else GANNI

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Paintings and

DRAWINGS

WO R D S B Y M E RC E D E S S M I T H

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F O C U S

Andrew Bryant’s extraordinary work circles around “questions of fantasy, dependency and lack”.

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and presence they exude marks them out as deeply considered works on canvas and paper. Gathering from books and internet searches, Andrew transforms found photographs into seductive monochrome oil paintings. His images invariably contain a component of staging, of conscious presentation — a reference to the practice of painting itself. Whether it is engineless toy planes, shelves bolted to the floor, or empty and static trolleys, his subjects are in some way inadequate, or simply stuck, longing for the fulfilment of their purpose. The lengths to which Andrew goes in pursuit of flawlessness are excessive and he can spend months on a single painting, striving for a perfection which, he says, in its “very failure [..] articulates gesturally the central paradox of [my] work, namely the elusive potential of human and artistic desire.”

nformed as much by his training as a psychoanalyst as his lifelong engagement with art, Andrew’s work brings together what he calls “the narcissism of wishful thinking with the disappointment of experience”.

© Steve Tanner

He has an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College London, recently graduated from Newlyn School of Art’s One Year Professional Mentoring Course, and in 2021 he was shortlisted for Wells Art Contemporary and longlisted for the Jackson’s Painting Prize. He is also an accomplished writer, having written for a-n magazine, a highly respected publication committed to the support of contemporary art. As if those stellar achievements weren’t enough, he has now been nominated for the 2022 Contemporary British Painting Prize, putting his work firmly on the radar of serious art collectors.

Andrew lives and works in Cornwall and his work is held in private collections in the UK and abroad.

The level of detail in his paintings and drawings is extraordinary, almost photographic, except that the meaning

andrewbryant.net

PREVIOUS Untitled (UFO), 2021—22, oil on canvas, 120cm x 90cm

A B OV E Andrew Bryant

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A B OV E Untitled, 2021, oil on linen 60cm x 70cm

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© Rebecca Hawkey

A B OV E High Wire, 2017, pencil on paper, 50cm x 35cm

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TOP Fool, 2016, pencil on paper, 21cm x 21cm

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A B OV E My black ball, 2009—2012, black plasticine, 27cm diameter (approx)

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A B OV E Untitled (silver trolley) 2019, oil on linen, 50 x 60cm

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TOP Untitled (spooky trolley), 2018, oil on canvas covered board, 30cm x 42cm

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A B OV E Untitled (spooky trolley) 2018, oil on canvas, 36 x 46cm

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TOP Untitled ( jet), 2021, oil on canvas, 110cm x 85cm

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A B OV E Untitled (glider), 2022, oil on canvas, 100cm x 120cm

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A B OV E Untitled (trolley), 2021, oil on linen, 50cm x 60cm

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Copyright ownership of the original photographic image/s is currently being sought.

andrewbryant.net

02/11/2022 14:37

Waiting

for FISH WO R D S B Y H A N N A H TA P P I N G

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I N SPI R AT I O N

© Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Immortalised in bronze, Holly Bendall’s sculpture finds its home by the sea.

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Holly. “But then mum became ill in my last year of working for them and I decided to re-evaluate things. That’s when I first got back into sculpture; it was a kind of therapy for me.” Holly had been travelling so much for Red Bull that she was based at her parents’ house in Dorset, which is where she met local sculptor Clare Trenchard: “One day I just wanted to get my mum out so that we could have a break from what was going on. We went to try and find some of Clare’s works that are located in Lyme Regis.

We found a couple but not the ones I really wanted to show mum, so I ended up reaching out to Clare and going to her studio for a chat.”

This chance meeting was to be instrumental © James Warbey

olly Bendall is a West Country girl. Born in Devon and brought up in Dorset, she touched upon sculpture at A-level, but actually went on to study sustainable product design at Falmouth University.

On graduating, she emailed her portfolio to the high-end Londonbased cycling clothing label Rapha and was offered an internship in sustainability, instrumental in the early days of the brand, swapping out materials for more sustainable alternatives. “I then went on to work for Red Bull in sports marketing, which was like a dream come true at the time as I love extreme sports,” explains

LEFT Dave, looking out to sea

INSET The real Dave, Holly and Hugh

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© Greenpeace – Neal Megaw

© RebeccaHawkey © Greenpeace – Neal Megaw

TOP Bird

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A B OV E Two friends perched on Porthleven Harbour

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I N SPI R AT I O N

to apply for a course and I ended up visiting Cadgwith pretty much every day during this time, sketching the local characters, the cliffs, the beaches and scanning the horizon for when the boats came in to land their catch so I could be ready to draw them too.

Once the house sale went through, I moved back to Dorset and found myself a little lost again. My sculptor friend Clare suggested I fill my days by making a sculpture from one of my Cadgwith drawings.

“I chose the sketch I had done of ‘Dave and Bird’ on my first day in Cadgwith, as it summed up so much to me.” Holly’s style of drawing is not exact; Clare taught her to look at the subject and not the page and to let the pencil movements flow, drawing a continuous line, capturing the essence of the character and the moment: “I try to draw from a feeling,” says Holly.

in changing the course of Holly’s career as she ended up being taken on as Clare’s assistant for a time. Moving between London and the West Country, it was when Covid hit that Holly moved to St Agnes in Cornwall.

Finding a new job for the American mountain bike manufacturer Cannondale running their social media, Holly worked from her house in St Agnes during lockdown.

However, unsociable hours and the loneliness of working remotely took its toll, and so in a brave decision Holly left her job, put her house on the market and embarked on a year out: “I didn’t really know what lay ahead but I had started getting back into drawing and was introduced to poetry, and suddenly I felt there was a lot of creativity waiting to pour out of me.” Holly had always been someone who was very conscious about the environment and provenance, both in terms of her job and her lifestyle and seeing the BBC documentary, Fishing Lives, inspired her to discover more about fishing in Cornwall.

Holly was helping on one of Clare’s courses and in return was allowed to set up her own little corner in the studio. The course only ran for a few days, but Holly ended up staying two weeks in order to complete her project.

“All I had for reference was the drawing. I wanted it to stay as true to that as possible, so I basically had to use my dad for the measurements! To start, I made a wooden armature structure which sits inside the

“While I waited for my house sale to go through, I ended up going to Cadgwith and falling in love with the place. It was the people there, the community and the passion that I felt made it very magical. I was trying to get a few sketchbooks together as I wanted

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focussed which also made it very therapeutic as the carving is an incredibly slow process and very meditative. I spent about two weeks solid, maybe eight hours a day, of literally just sanding and smoothing.”

sculpture and holds all the plaster. I then used scrim dipped in wet plaster to build up the shape. I also used wire, especially around the belly where it needed some reinforcement, and then it was a case of building up the shape as much as possible. I had to look at various different people sitting in different positions to get it just right.”

Dave was first exhibited in his plaster form a year ago at Holan, a pop-up gallery in St Ives which was also his first foray to Cornwall. “I took him in a trailer and he was in a studio looking over Porthmeor beach.

On his last day there we took him out at dawn and sat him on the beach to watch the sunrise. It was from that moment that people began to ask if he was going to stay.

Porthleven Arts Festival reached out and asked if I could bring him to the event in September.

While meeting with them, owner of the Porthleven Harbour and Dock Company, Trevor Osborne asked me what my plans were long term for Dave to which I replied that I would love him to have a forever home by the sea but that he would need to be cast in bronze.

Trevor’s reply was, “if you can raise the money to cast him in bronze, he can have a home in Porthleven!” It was perfect timing.” © James Warbey

Using an old shirt and some jeans that her Dad hadn’t worn in a while, these were also dipped in plaster and draped over the sculpture to form the contours of Dave’s clothes. “The head was super-challenging and I started it too early, so I left that to the very end.

You use the plaster a bit like butter icing, slowly building up, building up and building up before using a tool to sculpt the fine detail and definition. In fact, I just used this one tool that I found for the whole project, something akin to a palette knife, and became very attached to it!”

“You have to work so fast with plaster as it sets so quickly, but once it’s gone off you can start to carve it back. So, it was a process of lots of pasting on and then waiting for it to go hard and then carving away and then pasting on again and repeating the process.

It’s all-encompassing and all you can think about, which for me is why it was such an amazing thing to do. I had to be hyper-

The Crowdfunder was launched in May 2022 and with the target being reached in just a month, Holly was able to put the sculpture through the bronzing process.

The Lost Foundry in Axminster cast

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© Greenpeace – Neal Megaw

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© Greenpeace – Neal Megaw

I N SPI R AT I O N

future. I was so grateful to have my mum fully recovered, and with my family and friends there to see how proud they were.

It’s the best feeling to see and hear about all the people (and dogs) enjoying Dave and Bird and hopefully thinking about where their fish comes from.”

Dave and Bird using the traditional ‘lost wax’ method, which took three months to complete.

“I went to meet the real Dave who I sketched for the first time back in Cadgwith, and had a cup of tea with him and his wife overlooking the cove whilst they told me stories about their pet seagull,” Holly reminisces fondly. “I gave them a miniature bronze of Dave and Bird and an etching of the sketch, and invited them to the unveiling that evening – it was so special with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall coming to unveil them, and local small-boat fisherman Jeremy delivering an incredible speech alongside Hugh and Dan Crockett from the Blue Marine Foundation on sustainable fishing and their hopes for the

Completed just in time for the 2022 Porthleven Arts Fesitival, Waiting for fish, as the sculpture is officially titled, has found its final resting place sat atop a lookout shelter on Porthleven’s Breageside, where Dave and Bird will watch the fishing boats f loat in and out of the harbour, weathering the storms together for years to come. hollybendall.com

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Clay

PRIDE WO R D S B Y M A RT I N H O L M A N

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C R E AT E

Simon Bayliss reveres Cornwall’s art traditions with constructive irreverence.

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imon Bayliss is forthcoming about the direction he wants his ceramics to follow. “I don’t want them to be polite,” he says, “but I also love the idea of being part of tradition.” The tradition is studio pottery. St Ives, where Bayliss lives and works, exists near the core of that tradition.

Bernard Leach, who worked in the town from the 1920s onwards, is often described as the ‘father’ of studio pottery.

Indeed Leach, who trained in Japan, established the model that the genre still follows: his ‘ethical pot’ remains the yardstick – typically plain and utilitarian with a natural shape that ‘transcends mere good looks’ (in Leach’s phrase).

Ranged on racks in Bayliss’s studio are the cups, bowls and teapots that he creates as single works and in small batches. Also there is the kiln in which he fires the slipware decorated with coloured slips and transparent glazes, techniques that are part of pottery’s heritage. Last year at the Burton Museum

in Bideford, north Devon, Bayliss put this aspect of his work on display in an exhibition with harvest celebration as its theme.

Jugs and plates bristled with exuberant colour and designs that represented his take on the occasion: lovage leaves and phases of the moon, but also a flying unicorn, a zombie hand with painted nails and abstract shapes reminiscent of Terry Frost and his generation of St Ives modernists. Bold glazes of tangy yellows, aquatic turquoise and rich oranges flowed around conventional forms and mixed with blacks and pinks to evoke the spirit of celebration. In the background a soundtrack played that made use of the south-west folk ritual of ‘Crying the Neck’, a reminder that Bayliss deals with tradition on his own contemporary terms.

Bayliss grew up in east Devon where town and countryside meet. He has worked as a surf instructor and a landscape gardener, his parents having introduced him to the value

LEFT One of ‘Three Ceramic Paintings for St Austell, Channeling Bernard Leach in The Age of Aquarius’ by Simon Bayliss, 2021, permanently installed at Chandos Place, St Austell (part of Austell Project’s Whitegold Ceramics Arts Trail). Photo by Jamie Darling

A B OV E Simon Bayliss at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives. Photo by John Hersey

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of home cooking with good quality seasonal ingredients. They continue to grow their own food on an allotment and Bayliss follows their example, cultivating leaks, spinach, chard and other vegetables in the garden adjacent to where he lives. He also immersed himself in the local rave music scene, composing his own themes from age 14 with digital software. Synths and samples are arranged with a pulsing dance rhythm. More recently he has added video to the music, similarly edited from found clips and new material, that echoes its beat and grinding, physical undertone. Every output of Bayliss’s activity moves the space around it, unsettling expectations and arousing new ones.

In fact, Bayliss makes constant links between his day-to-day life and the objects he makes. His pottery puts the everyday onto an aesthetic level where it approaches the status of ritual activity. Sharing an occasion to eat, create or dance is no less of a ritual for being familiar. In the Bideford exhibition – which he called We-Ha-Neck! after the harvester’s call when the last neck, or clump, of wheat is cut – the designs on pottery broadened out beyond the stereotypical image of country wholesomeness. Gathered in the museum staple, a glass-sided display case, were neat rows of black jugs bracketed on either side by fecund bundles of corn stalks that looked ready for processing into food. The jugs themselves also suggested the fruits of nature but from unexpected territory in these surroundings. Animated spermatozoa spilled over the decoration of the tableware’s smoothly decorated bodies with ecstatic glee.

A diffident individual who weighs his words before speaking, Bayliss talks about the rage he still feels for the limitations placed by society on his adolescence. As a young man, Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 prohibited local authorities from promoting ‘the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. The legislation, of course, effectively branded a section of the community as ‘abnormal’, cheating a generation of the legitimate open expression of their most intimate selves.

Bayliss is part of that generation. His work now makes up for that lost time. Queer artists, he insists, want to see themselves reflected in the world as much as the heteronormative majority. With humour and candour, in music and words as well as with his ceramics, painting and performance, Bayliss integrates the pleasures of gay life into his life-affirming vision of the world around him.

At Bideford Bayliss carefully planned the show’s installation and content with that intention. One tradition he admires was evoked by selected pieces from the diverse historic collection of slipware formed post-war

by R.J. Lloyd and conserved by the museum.

Another was reflected in the table-like plinth on which his own work was presented.

Triangular in shape and coloured pink, the table resonated with meanings beyond either pottery or the harvest.

Its shape recalled the installation artwork called The Dinner Party. Made by American artist Judy Chicago and first exhibited in

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TOP Installation view of We-Ha-Neck! (A harvest supper), Simon Bayliss’s solo exhibition at The Burton in Bideford in 2021

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A B OV E Standard Sperm Jugs by Simon Bayliss, terracotta, slips and clear glaze

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© Nick Cooney

TOP LEFT Teapot (Positive Action /Radical Hope)

TOP RIGHT Teapot (Saturn – apricot, black, citrus) and Teapot (Saturn – turquoise, yellow, black), both 2022, by Simon Bayliss, terracotta, coloured slips and clear glaze, in Feet of Clay at Kestle Barton. Photo Nick Cooney

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A B OV E Simon Bayliss in his St Ives studio. Photo

by John Hersey

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C R E AT E

1979 from a collaboration with numerous fellow makers, it is acknowledged as a feminist milestone in twentieth-century art.

Celebrating female accomplishments, like weaving and sewing, historically framed as craft or domestic work, it challenged their widely-accepted inferiority to activities dominated by men. Chicago changed minds.

Bayliss also referred to the pink triangle symbol of the confident LGBTQ+ community, which reclaimed it from its shameful past.

As a badge forced upon minorities the Nazis labelled as undesirables, especially homosexuals, its wearers were singled out for harsh and degrading treatment.

So Bayliss borrowed a pottery stool by Cardew from a university collection so that he would be symbolically present. In further homage, he placed examples of his own stools at the table.

Bayliss respects Cardew as an ambiguous figure who challenged convention, an artist who rejected the art world’s preoccupation with fame to prioritise quality. And in life he was married in England while in Africa found ‘a great love’ with a handsome youth called Clement Kofi Athey. One of Bayliss’s stools is decorated with red lipstick kisses on a proudly garish yellow ground; another features line drawings of men urinating – irreverent images that ‘queer’ an entire technique’s inheritance.

What relevance does either link have to ceramics? “The world of studio pottery,” Bayliss says, “particularly within craft traditions, avoids thinking about identity politics.” Yet, he points out, ceramicists deal with ‘the body’ all the time, naming parts of their tableware after the shoulder, lip, neck, terminology that is intrinsically sensual. So is handling clay, throwing it on a wheel or slab-building a structure. These histories are intertwined with Bayliss’s compositions. He made seating for his triangular table and invited to it the memory of ceramicist Michael Cardew who learnt pottery as a pupil of Leach before branching out to experiment with new shapes and decoration. One of Cardew’s inspirations was the earthenware stool, appropriated from the ancient pottery forms of West Africa he greatly admired. In the 1950s Cardew developed a successful ceramics training centre in Abuja, Nigeria, to help make artistic pottery an economic proposition.

Cardew also promoted a pottery type that Leach abhorred – the screw-top teapot – a design that might still provoke purists in St Ives, the home of the Leach pottery. Invited to display at Tate St Ives Bayliss offered his own Mermen of Zennor, which, of course, is a screw-top teapot. Its subject matter comes from Leach’s celebrated slip-decorated earthenware platter (1925) modelled on the popular Cornish folk tale, the ‘Mermaid of Zennor’, Bayliss ‘queers’ it into maleness with tenderness, humour and critical intent.

For him ‘queer’ means questioning attitudes so that fear is dispelled. His Mermen, therefore, is not a passive pot but a positive force. At college a tutor encouraged him to ‘be expressive, be free’, advice that he found liberating then and which inspires him still.

Bold gestures show themselves in different ways. His music is particularly fast and particularly banging. His words, used as poetic

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text on walls or statements on objects, employ haiku-like intensity to make random private thoughts permanent and public. Riotous, exaltant colours ensure his work stands out in any company. For he delights in materials, especially glazes loaded with minerals like cobalt, manganese and iron. These produce bold results like the honey glaze over a rusty red slip of his Mermen of Zennor from simple recipes, similar to those used by figures he esteems, like American Betty Woodman or Mary Wondrausch, the British ceramicist.

She trained as a watercolour painter and brought the fluid luminosity of that technique to the coloured glazes applied to cold slips that deepen colour and add depth and texture.

Bayliss began his career with painting.

He studied at Exeter College before graduating from Falmouth University in 2006. Although he also made ceramics, he was obsessed with paint, looking critically at established artists like Peter Lanyon, John Virtue and Frank Auerbach, all of whom treated landscape, either of the country or town, the two locations Bayliss feels emotionally pulled between. It was not, he says, until 2015 that ‘I came out as a landscape painter’. Except that with Bayliss, all tradition is open to his interpretation. Since that date he has organised Landscape Painters Anonymous, an informal outdoor (or ‘plein air’) project that has brought together amateurs and first-timers in Cornwall, Plymouth, London and Margate. For them, painting from the television is as legitimate as being surrounded by air, land and sea.His return to ceramics is quite recent. In 2013 he came back to Cornwall and back to pottery.

Access to Richard Phethean’s studio at Rosudgeon was formative: he experimented with slipware and terracotta glazes, transferring painting techniques to pottery and introducing figures into his imagery.

His most painterly works are his pasty-like tablets with their distinctive crimped edges.

They have grown in size, shape and design, with examples recently installed at a public site in St Austell.

Slowly, he also became aware of tradition, following Leach’s dictum that ‘the passage to becoming a potter is by making a teapot’. Many pots followed and many failed; but he learned from making and from looking, and then by infusing production with his own essential spirit. “The more skilled I become,” he says, “the more I try to bring unpredictability into what I do.” Bayliss has used the seductive qualities of ceramics and his other art forms to comment on and chronicle contemporary society with anger from the human perspectives of history, sexuality and social status. No sensibility is safe from examination.

In his Porthmeor studio sits a loop-handled teapot, its body banded in black and yellow like an angry bee. Clearly spelled out in bold capitals are the words ‘POSITIVE ACTION’.

It could be his manifesto piece. “When I talk about ‘queering the tradition’ I want it to be playful in a joyful sense. At the same time, it’s critical and irreverent.”

Standard Ware, the exhibition of new work by Simon Bayliss is at hweg, 34 Causewayhead, Penzance, 18th November to 23rd December. simon-bayliss.com hweg.co.uk

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TOP Installation view of Meditations in an Emergency, Simon Bayliss’s solo exhibition at Mirror, Plymouth College of Art, in 2018: from left SIMON BAYLISS / SIN ON GAY BLISS, neon fabricated by Nick Maylon; Harvest jug, terracotta; and Untitled (XL metaphysical pasty), slab-built terracotta (with assistance from Ben Kew).

Photo by Andy Ford

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A B OV E Urinal (for Yankel Feather), 2022,

by Simon Bayliss, terracotta, coloured slips and clear glaze.

Photo by Nick Cooney

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Creating

IN COLOUR WORDS BY LOTTIE LEWIS | IMAGES BY JESSICA KOOMEN

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Connecting and working with talented local artists to produce exciting and unique tile collections on the north Cornish coast.

D

ecorum’s studio working environment is dreamy. Tall, heavy boughed trees hang over a large farmhouse, surrounded by various outbuildings.

You can hear the resident sheep behind the hedge.

A heron flies overhead.

A couple of chickens pass by and ducks splash happily in the pond.

The place feels like home; a fruitful veggie patch, a couple of young Jack Russells careering around, quiet chatter and laughter floating out of the stable doors of the studio and a cup of tea offered the moment you enter.

Decorum creates hand painted tiles in Cornwall. Made in their signature colours, the artists not only follow their extensive

range of patterns and designs, but also create bespoke ideas for their customers.

Given the exact dimensions they can fill a space, assisting clients to add their own style to their home. Helen, a local artist, is one of four skilled painters who work in the studio: “This time of year, the first order of the day is to throw open the double doors at the end of the studio to let the early morning sun flood in.

We are lucky to work in a rural location. I always like to take advantage of the fresh air and birdsong whenever the weather allows it. No two days are ever the same here, whether we are fulfilling a customer order or working on some new design ideas, loading or unloading the kiln or gathering inspiration for new collections.”

A B OV E Each tile is hand painted by local artists

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Originally established in 1992 by Ray Koomen in Buckinghamshire, he and his wife Susan launched Decorum in their early twenties, with the intention of bringing colour and creativity into the homes of their customers.

Three decades later they decided to relocate the studio and business to Cornwall. During the process, Ray began to collaborate with his youngest daughter Jessica Koomen, who lends her passion for sustainability and her MA in Sustainable Design to the company, and the next stage of Decorum’s life began.

“Working with dad, who has 45 years of experience within the tile industry, and bringing together a team of local talented artists to produce high quality products, feels amazing,” says Jess, “After a decade-long trend of grey and beige we are excited to bring colour, fun and personality to homes. We offer something unique that transforms spaces and brings joy with a splash of colour or detail.” She adds, “Our tiles, due to their hand-painted nature, each have their own individual character, as opposed to the standard manufactured look.

Each piece is truly a work of art.”

The day begins with Ray strolling to the workshop after letting the animals out, before turning on the kilns in their solar powered studio. The team at Decorum have a work ethic as relaxed as the setting they spend their days in, arriving anywhere between 8 and 11am, popping the kettle on and settling into the flow of a creative new day. “There are always visits from the puppies, crowing of passing cockerels or the grumbling chatter from the group of ducks as they wander by on some unknown mission!” laughs Helen.

They also like to keep things close to home. “Our customers appreciate that Decorum products are designed, hand painted and fired in the UK. The tile bases are made in Italy and Spain to our exact specifications and then hand painted at our studio in Cornwall,” explains Jess. The artists also speak highly of Decorum, proving the businesses level of investment in their employees. One studio painter commented: “Variety really is the spice of life and every day in the studio is different. One day might involve screen printing a geometric tile

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A B OV E The Decorum studio

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design, another could be hand painting traditional tiles with Delft decors. Painting butterflies in vibrant teal and lilac for our well-known and established clients, such as Fired Earth, is a wonderful way to spend your work afternoon.”

“Patience is a virtue when it comes to hand-painting tiles,” adds another of the artists. “You have to wait for the washes of colour to dry in between each stage, so you have to think carefully about the order of your painting. The bees are my favourite to paint, starting with hues of lemon and mustard. Once dry, we paint the round little body, delicate wings and the tiny hairs on their legs. When finished they’re placed

carefully into cranks holding ten painted tiles apiece which are then stacked in the kiln ready for firing.” It’s a lengthy process.

The tiles are fired in the kiln for ten to 12 hours at 800 degrees, before being left for another 12 hours to cool off. One tile takes 24 hours to make, and the care in which they are created is apparent in the finished product. Now selling online nationally and internationally, Decorum has settled into the creative coastline of north Cornwall. By always keeping the hand-painted nature of their tiles, Decorum refuses to step into the ‘fast fashion’ industry, purely creating unique pieces to be loved by future generations. decorumtiles.co.uk

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Helicopter Charter • Aircraft Management • Aircraft Sales • Aerial Filming Pilot Training Academy • Engineering • Aircraft Spares

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Learning

to FLY

WO R D S B Y DA N WA R D E N

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Finding weightlessness in a place that continues to bear the burden of human irresponsibility.

D

ivers often refer to the feeling of suspension underwater as the closest you’ll get on Earth to weightlessness. In other words, it feels like you’re flying, and as somebody who has never experienced the world beneath the waves beyond surface level (with a snorkel and a leaky mask), when the chance arose to undertake PADI’s Open Water qualification with the guidance of the instructors over at Dive Project Cornwall, it was an opportunity too rare to pass up.

PADI, short for ‘Professional Association of Diving Instructors’, is the world’s leading scuba diver training organisation, and the Open Water Diver course is its first level of certification. Taught by a highly trained PADIcertified instructor, it introduces students to safe diving and the techniques required to

enjoy that incredible feeling of weightlessness for themselves. It also welcomes them to explore the enigmatic marine landscape and the myriad species of life that live often just a stone’s throw from the shoreline – species that, if our oceans continue to bear the brunt of human irresponsibility, face an increasingly virulent, existential threat.

As you might expect, PADI is also a firm advocate for any organisation that champions the welfare and protection of the marine environment. No surprise then that it is also a leading sponsor for Dive Project Cornwall – a not-for-profit organisation working to inspire the next generation of Ocean Influencers, who in turn will enact the positive change that our oceans so badly need. To achieve this, and in doing so raise awareness to hundreds of thousands across the UK and beyond about the

INSET Darren Sutton, Head of Diving (left) and Andy Forster, Dive Project Cornwall Founder (right)

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A B OV E Into the blue

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© NCLT © NCLT

A B OV E In the pool, learning the skills needed to hit the open sea!

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importance of our oceans and protecting the life systems they support (including our own!), Dive Project Cornwall ran a competition for schools around the UK, with the ultimate goal of giving 400 children the chance to come to Cornwall and earn their Open Water Diver qualification. The team are now in the throes of delivering on this promise, with a number of schools having already visited the site at Porthkerris Dive Centre on the Lizard.

However, during a recent week when the instructors weren’t gearing up to welcome the next group of children, we were able to steal an opportunity to learn for ourselves.

Having already seen and heard so many great things about the way in which the project was unfolding, we wanted to go and experience it so that we might be able to put into words just how precious an opportunity this is for the schools involved, and honestly, it’s hard to find them.

On the first day of our course, we were told to be ready for a long day in the pool. This is where the key skills required to be able to hit the open ocean are taught and learned, and whilst we were warned that it would be a long, tiring afternoon, I don’t think any of us were prepared for the sheer physicality of the day ahead. This, along with the mentally draining influx of information, from proper kit-assembly and hand signals, to safe water entry, emergency ascent procedures and more, meant that by the end of the day, we were exhausted. But it was exhilarating, and I think we all drove home that evening feeling like we’d learned something. Better still, we left feeling excited (albeit with a touch of trepidation) that we were going to be applying

our new-found knowledge in the ocean the following day!

Our Open Water Diver course was led by Darren Sutton, Head of Diving for Dive Project Cornwall, fountain of underwater knowledge and regaler of exciting (often scary!) scuba stories. Guiding us through the basics on our first day in the pool, reinforcing the many safety procedures and the acronyms designed to help us remember them, when we arrived for our second day’s diving – this time in the sea – we did so reassured that we would be in safe and very capable hands. This was, after all, our first dive away from the safety of the pool! It was also the first of four training dives that we would embark upon, during which we would learn and execute a host of scuba skills, all whilst exploring and enjoying the underwater world.

And enjoy we did! It is absolutely fascinating just how much life there is only yards from the shoreline, from enormous starfish, anemones, shrimp, even lobsters, to colourful species of fish. And whilst it would have been all too easy to lose ourselves in this stunning underwater world, the point of this first dive, and indeed that of every training dive, was to prove that we understood and could demonstrate a number of important and potentially lifesaving skills. On the first dive, for example, we had to demonstrate pre-dive buddy safety checks, how to safely descend from the surface, how to recover our regulators, how to communicate our air supply with hand signals, how to deal with a partially flooded mask, how to switch between our snorkel and regulator at the surface, and

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how to drop our weight-belts in case of an emergency. The following three training dives saw us demonstrate cramp relief with our buddies, inflatable signal tube deployment on the surface, how to ‘tow’ a tired diver to shore, how to clear a fully flooded mask, sharing air with a buddy, and how to ascend whilst doing so. We also demonstrated controlled emergency swimming ascents (CESA!), mask removal and replacement, as well as full kit removal and replacement. We learned and put into practice skills like free descents with and without underwater references with which to orientate; we learned to signal to our buddy that we should turn the dive based on our remaining air supply, and we gained experience in both surface and underwater navigation using a compass. But I think one of the most fundamental lessons we all learned (aside from the most important rule in scuba diving, to never hold your breath!) is how important it is to have buddies.

This may sound twee, but in reality, your buddy is absolutely fundamental to a safe and enjoyable dive. When underwater together, you are potentially one another’s lifeline, and so as we embarked on our second, third and fourth training dives, Darren put the onus increasingly on us, the students, to ensure we stayed within reach of our buddies. I for one found it all too easy to become distracted by a fish winnowing around on the seabed, and there was a moment for my buddy, Rosie, who found herself in awe of the sun shining through the fronds of kelp as they danced in the current. But what we realised is that part

of the joy of diving – of having a buddy there alongside you – is the ability that gives you to tap them on the shoulder and point excitedly at the beautiful forms of life that you are both there to see.

But of course, this relies on there being a healthy marine environment to be able to enjoy in the first place, which is why the work of organisations like Dive Project Cornwall is so important. The opportunity it is providing to all of those schoolchildren – many from UK cities who may never have even seen the sea before – is putting the importance of our oceans front and centre in their minds. It is an experience they’re unlikely to ever forget, and the appreciation they are bound to form over the course of a week in Cornwall, for the beauty of the sea and the life it supports, will stay with them forever.

This is crucial, as it is their generation that we will need to champion the health of the marine environment and influence the decisions that will ultimately govern the fate of our seas. In other words, Dive Project Cornwall is inspiring a generation of Ocean Influencers, to enact the positive change that is now required to save our oceans, which is reassuring. Because if our experience with Darren and the team is anything to go by, we’re certain that each and every child who learns to dive from the shores of Porthkerris will see for themselves just how worthy they are of our protection. diveprojectcornwall.co.uk

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© Kennack Diving

A B OV E An incredible feeling after the first dive

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L A ST

WO R D

Eventide WO R D S B Y DA R R E N S U T TO N

O

ur goals at Dive Project Cornwall – Educate, Environment and Experience – align with my own personal beliefs that we need to educate the next generation about the environment and the importance of the oceans. Most of us by now realise the role our forests play as the ‘lungs’ of the Earth, but did you know that our oceans produce half of the world’s oxygen? It is our belief at Dive Project Cornwall that by experiencing the underwater world and immersing yourself in the beautiful, life-rich waters even just a stone’s throw from Cornish shores, this often-unseen environment suddenly becomes tangible. It becomes part of your world, one that you can love, care for, and ultimately, protect.

As a Marine Biologist, I have a huge passion for the oceans and all the life they support, and as with anybody who has a passion for something, I want to share it and pass it onto the next generation.

For this reason, I feel extremely privileged to have joined Dive Project Cornwall earlier this year as Head of Diving. Working here in Cornwall to teach 400 children from schools around the UK to scuba dive, with a project like Dive Project Cornwall, there will always be unforeseen challenges to overcome.

Since I came on board, I’ve lost count of the lessons I’ve learned, both personally and professionally. Every week brings its own learning curve, its own opportunities for growth, its own need to implement changes. But we have a superb team here at Porthkerris – many of whom are volunteers

– and we’re very fortunate to have a raft of incredible and tirelessly supportive sponsors and partners. From PADI and the Marine Conservation Society, to Falmouth Marine School and Porthkerris Dive Centre (to name just a few!), it’s been wonderful to witness everybody coming together in their shared desire to deliver the ambitious goals of the project. And delivering we are!

In fact, one school that we only recently hosted has already returned home and set up an environmental group to champion the welfare of our seas. As the adage goes, ‘every little helps’, and if we can inspire a generation of Ocean Influencers to respect, love and cherish the ocean, it is our belief that this will drive the passion that’s so desperately needed to protect it.

When I joined Dive Project Cornwall, I had certain expectations of what the role would entail, and to a point, they were right. But it turned into so much more, and I never could have imagined the lessons I would come to learn, not least just how resilient the children are. They surprise me every day, without fail, and that itself is a pleasure to be a part of. From the pool sessions where they learn fundamental diving skills, to the looks on their faces when they enter the sea and watch their first wrasse swim past; I know that Dive Project Cornwall is giving these children the opportunity to venture into a world they would not otherwise get to experience and, to me, that’s priceless. diveprojectcornwall.co.uk INSET Darren Sutton

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