I just found a news, which has excited me a bit, because it reminded me of my childhood: “The potential of palm tree”. He reminded me, because when I was 8 years old, I spent my summer vacation in the house of my maternal grandmother, which had a garden with several palm trees.
That is why today I would like to tell you that there is a Spaniard (Vicente Campos), who has discovered that you can take advantage of the trunk of palm tree, while it was not used until now.
Maybe you do not like to watch a video about it, but I have not found the news --about the process to the manufacture of furniture, by the company PHOENIX--, in text. Moreover, I think that it is better understood with a video.
I have only found one article, which explains how Vicente became interested in the potential of trunk of palmera or palma (palm). By the way, the "palm or date palm", common palm, phoenix or támara --technically called "Phoenix dactylifera" (perhaps the name of the company PHOENIX comes from there)-- is a fruit palm --whose fruit, edible, is date-- , which probably comes from Southwest Asia.
Talking about palms, we know that their thin trunk, green leaves and sweet fruit have seduced, for centuries, many civilizations, which have felt a great attraction towards palm trees.
Vicente Campos had the same feeling, since more than eleven years ago –when he was a pam tree caretaker--. In 2006 and in Elche (Alicante. Eastern Spain), Vicente founded the company ECOPHOENIX, with the premises of working in an ecological way and dignifying palm. So, he began to make all kinds of furniture and other infrastructures, with the wood of the palm tree, in a handmade way. Through ECOPHOENIX, he has elaborated his creations, always following the philosophy of "to offer an alternative to the deforestation system, that prevails in the world, because there are enough local resources to nourish us, and for them we have the palm trees in Elche", said Campos. Although "we must respect it always", that is why in his works he has only used "the specimens that have fallen or those that have to be felled, because they are dangerous or they have dried".
Palm trees in Elche
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A palm tree caretaker
The idea of working with palm tree came up randomly because, as he tells, "I had to fix the roof of my house and it is occured to me that I could do it with palm trees, and that is how it was". He started from square one and he has been learning the trade, little by little. If at first he started creating benches and planters, he was able to make more complicated models such as ceilings, tables, chairs and even water fountains of more than three metres, in height.
A table without varnish and manufactured by ECOPHOENIX
A table with varnish
A table with a bench
But the wood of palm tree is very peculiar, as Campos said, because its growth "is vertical and with curls, which makes it difficult to handle and, in addition, not all the specimens are useful for making furniture". In spite of everything, he ventured into the project of making furniture and quickly, by word of mouth, he was getting orders from individuals. In fact, the public can observe some of his creations as, for example, he has made the chairs and tables of a hamburger located in Altabix.I think that these are the tables and the chairs of that hamburger:
The tables and the chairs at a hamburger
But they can also be seen in parks of the city (Elche), in nurseries, in exhibitions, and at homes, country houses and municipal and private premises, such as the El Margalló Sociocultural Center. Moreover the artist's own house.
gue of the red palm weevil has not harmed his business since 
The plague of the red palm weevil has not harmed his business since"I have worked with adult palm trees and the weevil usually goes to the young", Vicente says. Even so, "sentimentally it has affected me because, if a plague enters, it means that the palm is not 100% and that is a serious problem".
Well, if you want to watch the video, please click below:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/aqui-la-tierra/aqui-tierra-potencial-palmera/4193461/
San Morales (A reporter in the tv program "Here the Earth"): "Hey, Vicente, you take advantage of something from the palm tree, that people do not use, what is it?"
Vicente Campos: "Then the wood of palm"
San Morales: "And what do you do with that?"
Vicente: "Anything that can be obtained with wood ... .We talk about furniture, doors, houses .........., whatever you want"
San: "And why did you decided to use the wood of palm tree?"
Vicente: "Well ... very curious: I was a palmerero (a man who climbs palm trees), I climbed the palm trees, but I had no idea of what the wood of palm tree was"
San: "That is, that you climbed the palm tree, but you had no idea of where you put your foot..."
Vicente: "Exactly ..., but no idea ... the wood ... currently, due to ignorance and lack of interest, it stays on the bench, it burns, it crunches ...... It is a pity"
... ..music .........
Vicente: "You can not cut a palm tree, just like that, because ... .., permission is requested, if it is a dangerous palm or it has dried or simply fell alone"
……music……
Vicente: "We have cut the palm tree and what we have is this palm tree, which is made of cork, because we have left it many years to dry itself"
San: "And then is not it useful?"
Vicente: “Yes, it that would be useful, ….... it is an extraordinary element as insulation”
San: “This is rather hard ..... is not it? ..... and this ....... cork”
Vicente: “Of course ..., this does not serve as a resistance, it does not serve as a way of loading ....; this, precisely yes. Grab this and you will see that it does not weigh ....”
San: “Oops ... but if this is like a toy ....!”
Vicente: “Of course…..Now catch the other one, that you drop…”
San: “It dropped”
Vicente: “It dropped”
San: “Is it shattered?”
Vicente: “No, it is broken a bit, nothing happens”
San: “Well, if it is resistant ... Eh ....?”
Vicente: “Yes, yes”
San: “There you have shown that the palm wood is good”
Vicente: “Of course, it is so resistant”
They laughs………
Vicente: “But this is another thing…”
San: “Does it weigh?”
Vicente: “It weighs a lot, Try to lift it”
San laughs…
Vicente: “It weighs….Eh?”
Vicente laughs…..
San: “What if it weighs ......?, what I do not know is how you have brought it up here ....”
Vicente laughs…..
San: “Take it again, let me see you”
San: “Mother of mine .... well yes you have strength, Vicente”
Vicente: “Well, it is practice….Eh?”
…..music……….
Vicente: “Another peculiar thing of palm tree is that it only grows upwards; then the higher, we are going to have less density”
San: “Of course, another tree grows across the length and the width”
Vicente: “Exactly.....; this is one of the most peculiar things of palm tree: it just only goes up, up, up”.
San: “So, you have to know how to cut palm wood in time, right?”
Vicente: “Of course ...., if we cut it in time, this process does not get made and we will have a wood of quite density”
…………..music…………………………….
Vicente: “Well, this is a bench ..., you are already seeing how the texture has changed ... and this can already be touched and .... we have a good wood”
San: “It has a lot of colored streaks, Eh?!”
Vicente: “The grains are very nice”
San: “Vicente, in the heart, is that the palm wood is a great unknown”
Vicente: “Of course, and when we know it, we have the opportunity to dignify the palm wood and take advantage of it”
…….music……….
Well, I hope that you will like this article, such as I do.
Until my next post, kind regards,
Luis.
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