Simon&nbsp;Burvill, managing director of garden furniture company Gaze&nbsp;Burvill, and I are standing outside the company workshop, contemplating the life of an oak tree. Beside us sits a pile of enormous oak boards, the raw material from which the furniture is made. Unlike wild oak, the oak from which these boards were made were nurtured under strict conditions: planted at careful intervals; protected from animals; shorn of their lower branches; and thinned out over decades, to give the strongest ones the space to reach for the sky. By the time they were felled they were aged between 120 and 150 years. &ldquo;For trees that produce this fine timber it can be six or seven&nbsp;metres, before you get to a branch,&rdquo; says Simon, running a hand along the grain. &ldquo;It still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.&rdquo;Over the past 25 years the company Simon founded in 1992 with furniture designer Christian Gaze, has grown to employ 35 people and produce much-admired, award-winning furniture that graces some of the country&rsquo;s finest gardens from&nbsp;Stourhead&nbsp;to Eaton Square. In the summer of 2016 the Queen was photographed sitting on one of the company&rsquo;s benches for the cover of Vanity Fair. But Gaze&nbsp;Burvill&rsquo;s success has not distracted Simon, a founding member of the Woodland Heritage charity, from his passion for timber and forestry. He runs the company in line with these values sourcing wood from sustainably managed forests in the French Pyrenees as well as Belgium and the UK, using the wood waste (including the sawdust) to heat the buildings through a biomass boiler; and keeping woodworking skills alive, by running a three-year apprenticeship scheme.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/8833/252611/5a31073b8d35e/1513162577_loc.jpg"" owidth=753 oheight=779" style="height:600px; width:580px" />A peek inside the workshop reveals how the boards, which come from the strong impermeable heartwood of the tree, are turned into a piece of garden furniture. First trimmed into smaller planks, they are cut into the rough shapes of arms, legs, seat backs and supports, then smoothed and refined on a range of woodworking machines. Where curves are required, planks are steam bent, a traditional process that involves heating them in a box to 100&deg;C, which melts the cellulose, giving the craftsman 30 seconds to bend them into a new shape. They are then clamped, and dried in the kiln, making the transformation permanent. The furniture &ndash; and since 2013 a range of outdoor kitchens &ndash; is hand built from the parts and finally treated with ammonia, an old cabinet-maker&rsquo;s trick that seals and darkens the wood.Gaze&nbsp;Burvill&nbsp;has built its reputation on these tried-and-tested methods, but it is not a place where Simon intends to rest. &ldquo;Sometimes it irks me when people say we are a traditional garden furniture company,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We are known for innovating. We want to be pushing boundaries.&rdquo; To this end the workshop now includes two&nbsp;computerised&nbsp;woodworking machines, that can do the jobs of all the traditional machines in one place. The newest machine, has also introduced exciting design possibilities. &ldquo;Because the head can rotate, we can change the angle of a curve.&rdquo; This allows them to produce parts in a twisting shape, something that could not previously have been achieved. It is an innovation the company has used in its two latest designs,&nbsp;Reedback&nbsp;and Levity, and is something Simon is pushing further in a new project to create 20 benches for&nbsp;RHS&nbsp;Garden&nbsp;Wisley&rsquo;s woodland walk &ndash; a design that will eventually be on general sale.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m impressed by the way chestnut trees at&nbsp;Wisley&nbsp;twist as they grow, and we are incorporating that into the design. We are extending our limits to make this piece, and we are learning in the process. I&rsquo;m excited to weave in what we&rsquo;ve learned and at the same time tell the story of forestry. That makes it a real Gaze&nbsp;Burvill&nbsp;project.&rdquo;

Ahead Of The Curve

English

Spanish(español)

Bengali(বাঙালি)

Gujarati(ગુજરાતી)

Hindi(हिन्दी)

Malayalam(മലയാളം)

Tamil(தமிழ்)

Telugu(తెలుగు)

Gardens Illustrated

In The Kitchen

Potagers

12 Of Helen And Vicky's Favourite Conifers

Nature's Widest Canvas

Juan Grimm

Rich Heritage

In The Garden

Sam Pagett

Golden Glory

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}} best-selling international titles.

Name

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below: