I was pleased to be accepted by the wonderful organisers at Kelburn Garden party to contribute a piece of work for their sister event The Neverending Glen.
I created a new sycamore seed “helicopter” called “On ya’ way” that sits in the tree canopy above the ravine in the stunning setting around Kelburn Castle. The sculpture is hand-carved from local sycamore wood with oak for contrast. It is suspended from a large bough of a tree using taut steel rope and contains bearings in order to allow it to spin in the breeze.
These great big trees go through an incredible process through the year in order to produce these tiny seeds. Throughout the process the seed itself evolves and grows. It even changes shape in order to maximise its efficiency just to do one thing – to travel as far as it can in order to start another new tree. For most of its life it’s firmly attached to its parent and then, if it’s lucky, it becomes firmly embedded in the ground but for a brief, fleeting moment it travels. It catches the breeze and it flies. It occurred to me as I watched my sculpture hover among the trees that I had captured that very short moment in its life.
Now that I have (just about) mastered the inner workings of the design, I’d like to produce more. But I’d also like to include my message about my concerns for our planet in future iterations. I’d like to include hand-carved lettering with statements about climate change. But I’m also considering scorching the stem and underside to illustrate that these seeds, these letters of life that are sent out with a sense of hope, are likely to be falling on scorched earth, if we don’t address the biggest problem facing all of us as a species.
To learn more about the Neverending Glen annual arts festival CLICK HERE
To learn more about Kelburn Castle and Estate CLICK HERE
To book tickets to Kelburn Garden Party 2026 (with free access to the sculptures) CLICK HERE
