With a lot of help from our friends
In January 2019, just as the initial idea for PanKind was beginning to form we were introduced to Local Spark Torbay, a small but mighty Community Interest Company that works with members of all communities in our area to start up and support businesses for good, build productive networks of enterprises and non-profit organisations, and engage large anchor institutions to unlock their transformative potential.
Local Spark gave us the opportunity to pitch our idea to a community of 'Dragons' at the first ever Torbay Local Entrepreneurs Forum. We received so much help and support through this and are so grateful for everything that they have done and continue to do for us. Please click on their logo below to visit their website.
One of the extremely helpful things that came out of the Local Entrepreneur Forum was our logo, generously designed for us by Jane Brady of Emergency Design.
We would not be where we are today without PanAmor handpans in Exeter. Lyndon thoroughly enjoyed working with their team for 2 years helping to craft these beautiful instruments, and learned so much during this time. Many thanks to Daryl for his time, help and advice. For more information please have a look at their website
https://www.panamorhandpans.com
We must give a huge shout out to Mark Wilson of PanStream handpans. Mark has given us so much support and has even donated several instruments to Lyndon for using in his work. His instruments are absolutely amazing and he is genuinely one of the nicest people we know.
Huge thanks to Leigh Tolston of Merlin Handpans in Stroud for the lovely set of D Celtic handpans that we use in our Introduction to Handpan Workshops and Retreats. He's a fantastic handpan maker and a great guy.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100054534755837
We are so grateful to Hardcase Technologies. Their incredible Evatek hard cases for handpan are the best protection that you can get for these instruments - Lyndon found this our when he accidentally tripped and dropped his favourite handpan off of a stage from 2 meters high! Luckily it was in an Evatek case and was completely unscathed! Thank you Alessio!
https://www.hardcasetechnologies.com
There are many talented people out there creating all sorts of beautiful accessories for handpans. One of our favourites is Richard Bowring of Sound Inspiring in the Netherlands. Richard is a skilled craftsman and makes, in our opinion, the best handpan stands on the market, plus a variety of other great products. Please visit his website to see more.
Another talented handpan maker and friend that we would also love to recommend is Daniel Comer of Tāla Handpans in Frome. Daniel is a great guy and the handpans that he builds are fantastic.
Although not handpan related we must mention our lovely friend Pete Smith of Woodsmith Instruments. Pete is a really talented musician, instrument maker and astronomer and builder of telescopes... and he's also an exceptionally lovely man! Lyndon has featured on some of Pete's music, which he releases under the name 'Astrorambler', and he even gifted Lyndon one of his beautiful handmade 'Dulzuki's'.
Check out his work at:
https://www.facebook.com/woodsmithinstruments/
and his music at:
https://astrorambler.bandcamp.com
In the summer of 2020 we were introduced by a mutual friend to Belinda Seaward, Jo Frodsham and Jeff Perry, who run a Community Interest Company called Horsemanship for Health UK, based in the Teignbridge area of South Devon. Their primary aim is to promote lifelong learning and healthy personal development for people of all ages and social backgrounds through equine and animal assisted education. Our projects also aim to contribute to the growing body of research into the health and well-being benefits of therapeutic horsemanship and the connection between animals and humans. We have led collaborative sessions with them for patients from a local psychiatric hospital using handpans alongside their horses and ponies with some truly amazing results.
