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.

Wych Elm Project Exhibition

Fiona Campbell Furniture is currently exhibiting work in the Wych Elm Project which runs for the next five months.

www.wychelmproject.org

The exhibition celebrates the opening of the beautiful new building, The John Hope Gateway, in Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden.

The Wych Elm Project is unique in that all the work has been commissioned. The Botanic Gardens commissioned six champagne trays for them to exhibit and use on opening night to serve drinks.

The Wych Elm Project follows on from two very successful exhibitions seen at the gardens. In 1993 Tim Stead used all of an ash tree from the Botanic Garden to make a huge range of sculpture and furniture. In 2001 the OneTree Exhibition brought a collection of art, sculpture and furniture made from a single English oak. The third in the trilogy is using a much loved elm tree that sadly had to be felled in the Botanic Garden.

The wood was dried out over several years and passed out to Scotlands leading craftspeople and makers to create pieces of art, sculpture, furniture and jewellery.

The exhibition also reports on the wych elm community projects that combine creativity and conservation.

Elms are rapidly disappearing from Edinburgh’s streets and parks due to dutch elm disease and the project aims to highlight the unique value of this tree and the timber it provides.

Back to work

Fiona Campbell Furniture is officially back in business...

All machinery and tooling have been moved back into the workshop and the order book is full for now.

It is great to be back.

Onzo

Onzo Ltd. are a multi award winning product and service design consultancy based in London.

I worked at Onzo for two months on their Graduate Development Programme while I was studying towards a Master of Design in May and June this year. I have just completed another two week stint there as Systems Test Analyst.

The role involved defining, undertaking and documenting test procedures on software systems and their hardware interfaces. Creating and maintaining test data and liaising with members of the technical development team to resolve issues on the Smart Energy Kit domestic energy-monitoring project.

onzo.com