David Savage
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David Binnington Savage, born David Binnington in Bridlington, Yorkshire on 15th May, 1949 is a noted furniture designer and maker.
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[edit] Early Work
Binnington attended Bridlington Grammar School before winning a place to read Fine Art at Ruskin School, Oxford University.
Leaving Oxford in 1971 Binnington won a post graduate place at the Royal Academy in London under Peter Greenham R.A. Here he continued his studies hoping to become a painter. It was at the Royal Academy that Binnington as he was then known met Desmond Rochfort . It was with his help that they established the Public Art Workshops and raised grant Aid from The Arts Council of Great Britain, Westminster Council, The Greater London Arts Association, and Arts Board of The Greater London Council. This formidable funding effort enabled the two artist to create "The Paddington Murals" under the Westway flyover. These large public murals finished in 1977 were on the subject of "Workmanship" a subject that fascinated Binnington all his life and are regarded as important pieces in the development of a public arts movement in Britain.
[edit] Away from London
In 1983 Binnington moved to Bideford, Devon with his partner Janet Savage and took her surname in addition to his own. Binnington had suffered since childhood with a bad stammer saying his own name was a major psychological problem that this action neatly side stepped. Over the coming years this had the effect of reducing the stammer and convincing David Savage that different parts of the brain could be made to function even at a later age given proper stimulus. He is reported as saying "I didn't learn to speak until I was in my late thirties". This later gave rise to Savage's conviction that creative skills are latent in all human beings and can be liberated given the will to do so and the correct encouragement.
With the move to Bideford came the development of David Savage Furnituremakers from premises in Westcombe Lane. This enterprise grew to engage up to twenty-two makers, students, apprentices, and staff. During this time and up to 2005, Savage wrote a monthly two page article in The Woodworker magazine, later in Furniture and Cabinet Making, and finally in Good Woodworking. These articles, more journals of a designer maker than technical pieces, were responsible for inspiring and encouraging a generation of emerging furniture designers. These were articles of daily experience chronicling the making of what were to become later regarded as milestone pieces of Studio Furniture Design. These readers were inhabitants of independent small workshops often with only one or two makers that were struggling to find an identity. These came to form in the early twenty-first century the Studio Furniture Movement of which Savage is such an influential member
[edit] Move to Shebbear
In 1991 Savage's marriage to Jan Savage collapsed after nearly twenty years and in 1995 so did his business, when he declared himself bankrupt. Again rebuilding his life this time with the support of his second wife Carol and young family members Alex and Jenny. In 1996, Savage moved his workshops to Rowden Farm near Shebbear.
It was at Rowden that some of the most admired and influential pieces of David Savage furniture have been made. "Love Chairs" were first created in 1994. "I wanted chairs to be married in, Carol and I are so different, complete human beings quite happy apart we come together we fit inside each other so completely we create another identity a relationship and I wanted these chairs to express this." The first love chairs were repeated for different clients but each time telling a different story. This was furniture at its most intimate and expressive.
More recently, Savage has created playful and witty images around different forms of seating: "The Writers Chair", "Rhubarb", "Whiplash", "The Maggie Rose Couch", "The Black Chair", and "Fireside Chairs." All are personal. Often made for a specific place and specific person, Savage works to develop an intimate relationship with his clients believing that individually created items of furniture have the expressive potential to move us.
David Savage continues to design and, with a small team of skilled craftsmen, make individual pieces of furniture. He also runs a teaching workshop at Rowden Farm Workshops in Shebbear, North Devon where a small group of students from all walks of life can learn to work with wood and develop a part of their creative potential.
