Grain and Flame – Recycling Comes of Age
by Keir Hartley
The sustainability movement has achieved great things in the last decade. “Repair”, “recycle” and “reuse” are words that everyone uses now, from businesses and TV shows to repair cafés across the country including the ones run by Sussex Green Living. Dare we hope they’re here to stay? The evidence suggests so, as we discovered when we visited Peter and Kim Beadle and their seven dogs of Grain and Flame in Goring by Sea.
Grain and Flame transforms discarded materials into cherished garden ornaments. Old cutlery is metamorphosed into hovering dragonflies. Chicken wire becomes lifelike owls frozen in flight. Copper is beaten and welded into graceful lilies. Peter got the idea after a lifetime in the building trade. Kim soon joined in. A happy hobby became a business, and the building industry provided the raw materials for one of their star items.
An old floorboard might seem an unlikely source for art. “It’s got all the old muck, it’s got paint, it’s got plaster, even footprints,” explained Kim. Builders used to throw them straight into the skip as renovations sped ahead. But Peter turns them into beautiful five-point stars, one of which hangs on the wall of their home. These stars are now sold at markets across Sussex, while Etsy gives them a broader online reach. But recently things have started to get complicated.
“You can’t get hold of them,” said Peter. “Builders are starting to realise the value of them. Because so many buildings are being renovated now the demand for old materials is rising.”
The couple have adapted. “We use recycled materials wherever possible. But sometimes if they are not available or the cost is prohibitive then we have to purchase brand new materials, or we don’t make that product,” Kim explained. Some companies are even producing faux old materials to meet the demand as genuine items like bricks and sash windows become scarce.
At this point some readers might hear alarm bells. What is the future of the remake and reuse model if its output is undercut by the brand new? But as we examined more of Grain and Flame’s work our optimism returned.
Because recycling is coming of age. It is beginning to follow the same economic patterns of supply and demand, sourcing and diversification that any mature industry does. At Grain and Flame cutlery is all sourced from charity shops. Wood comes from many places. Copper is salvaged from scrap yards including old tanks, sheets and pipes and turned into poppies. However, the wire for bird sculptures must be bought new as used wire does not offer the quality needed.
What matters is the ingenuity and imagination of the crafters who find beauty and potential in materials others might overlook.
This is where the future lies: in a thoughtful mosaic of old and new. The throwaway culture is being challenged one project at a time. Grain and Flame may be just one small example, but it reminds us how creativity and care can breathe new life into what was once discarded and how together we can shape a more sustainable future.
And this is exactly the spirit behind Sussex Green Living’s new Crafternoons in Horsham. Each month people will be able to gather at the Repair Café to bring their knitting, sewing, sketching or whatever they enjoy making, and spend a couple of hours creating together in a relaxed and welcoming space. Like the work of Grain and Flame, Crafternoons celebrate imagination and resourcefulness, turning what we already have into something new. They are as much about community as they are about craft, weaving together time, conversation and skills. A reminder that sustainability is not only about the environment, but also about the connections we make when we choose to share.
