Essentially Catering Feature

Champagne Trays feature in the news section of Essentially Catering magazine this month.

"As ever, the simple ideas are the best. Designed by Fiona Campbell - who graduated as 'Student of the Year' from the Chippendale International School of Furniture in 2000 - these stackable trays, which are available in a range of colours, allow glasses (champagne, red and white wine) to sit snugly in holes making life as a wine waiter or waitress a whole lot easier."

Channel 4 Wedding House - Champagne Tray

Fiona Campbell Champagne Trays had their television debut on Channel 4s Wedding House tonight. The producers were looking to find a tray that would eliminate the problem of their waiters or the wind toppling glasses of champagne or wine whilst serving drinks in the grounds of the wedding venue, Sundridge Park Manor.

Press Release

No more spilled champagne and broken glasses! Fiona Campbell designs and produces an innovative tray for serving champagne and wine. Fiona Campbell Furniture launches its new website and full range of Perspex and wooden Champagne Trays on 8^th October at Grand Designs LIVE.

About

Fiona Campbell, who graduated as ‘Student of the Year’ at the Chippendale International School of Furniture in 2000, set up her business, Fiona Campbell Furniture, in 2001. She later gained a Master’s degree in Design from Dundee University.

Applying traditional cabinet making to contemporary design techniques, Fiona produces pieces that are innovative and enduring.

Champagne Trays

Fiona’s latest range takes her business in a new direction. She has designed a series of safe drinks trays that eliminate the problem of dropping glasses while serving champagne or wine.

Background

Fiona was commissioned to design and make wooden trays for a local catering company. They asked her to come up with a design that would overcome the problem of spillages and breakages in busy, confined spaces, as they estimated they lost £50 worth of glasses and champagne a week in dropped trays.

Fiona, who has worked as a waitress in the past, developed a unique design that allows glasses to sit snuggly in holes around the tray. The trays provide a high quality, aesthetic accessory for safely serving champagne flutes, and red and white wine glasses.

The trays, which are stackable, are now available in a range of colours of Perspex manufactured in an Edinburgh-based factory. Fiona is particularly proud that the trays are designed and manufactured in Scotland.

She says, ‘The way the glasses are suspended adds to the theatre and beauty of serving. Saving catering companies the embarrassment and expense of broken glasses and wasted champagne also adds real value.’

Website Launch

This year, Fiona’s website has undergone a complete update and revamp, introducing a blog and links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With these additions, the site has become an interactive media. Fiona encourages visitors to the site to comment on her work, recommend it to their friends and give feedback.

Sales

Champagne Trays have become regularly used in some of the country’s most prestigious hotels, catering companies, theatres and restaurants since their soft launch in May 2010. The trays also feature in Channel 4’s newest wedding programme, Wedding House.

Exhibitions

This year, Fiona has exhibited her trays in:

Wych Elm Exhibition, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

Studio D Presents, East Lothian

Method Furnishings, Edinburgh

Taste of London, Regents Park, London

Foodies Festival, Edinburgh

Scotland’s Countryside Festival, Glamis Castle, Scotland

Gulp, North Berwick

Upcoming events:

Grand Designs LIVE, Birmingham NEC, 8 – 10^th October 2010 – launch of Champagne Trays

Taste of Christmas, ExCel, London, 3 – 5^th December 2010

Further information and high-resolution images are available on request.

The Scotsman Article

Fiona Campbell Furniture features on page 3 in the Homes and Interiors section of The Scotsman newspaper today.

An image of Under Stair Unit is included.

Stylish Homes

Article in Daily Record - Stylish Homes

"... This is something Fiona Campbell of Fiona Campbell Furniture has been very aware of over the past year, with many customers looking for style which will last. “ I think it is true that people are investing more in their homes, “ she says

“ Some people will be aware of lovely pieces of furniture in their family which have stood the test of time for generations and decide that they too want something very special which won’t just last a lifetime but will be passed on so I have a lot of requests for items like dining tables which can have timeless styles which won’t go out of fashion. "

Having worked with wood now for ten years, Fiona is very adept at designing specific pieces to fit a home. “ I’m actually working on a really interesting commission at the moment which could well sum up both the current interest in recycling and vintage furnishings, “ she says “I’m making shelving for a customer out of an old oak kitchen worktop and they are determined that I use every last piece, so as well as the main large piece I’m making smaller shelves and then using the leftover pieces to make a chopping board and door stops. Nothing is going to waste and it’s lovely to see something as practical and beautiful as that wood continuing to be both useful and attractive.

That’s as good a description as any for the prevailing trends for this autumn. It’s the perfect summing up for the warmth of the colours, the appeal of lasting style and the sense that your home is the one place you want to be when the long dark evenings draw in."

Art News

A photograph of a Fiona Campbell Loop Leg Planter and an article about 'Studio D Presents' was featured in this months edition of Art News.

Art Mag Feature

artmag

'Wych Elm' Review

Fiona Campbell Furniture featured in a book that was published alongside the Wych Elm Exhibition in October.
Here is British Wildlife magazine's review.

Wych Elm Published

The hardback 'Wych Elm' has been published alongside the opening of the exhibition.

It describes the ecological and cultural history of Ulma glabra, the Wych or Scot's elm. Ravaged by Dutch elm disease but more resistant than field elms and hence still thriving in some of it's preferred cool habitats such as the Highlands and West coast of Scotland.

The second half of the book is a celebration of a 200 year old tree felled in Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. It describes how it has been utilised by some of Scotland's cabinet makers in a series of commissioned pieces for the Wych Elm project and exhibition, and also features work by artists who have incorporated the timber in diverse ways into their work.