Mikko Hannula

It is notoriously difficult to photograph furniture in an exhibition so I was glad to find Mikko Hanula's furniture represented online. This is his digital reimagining of a Windsor chair  creating a faceted metal chair from a 3D scan, which is currently on display as part of the annual VAS 2016 exhibition Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh as part of until Dec 27th.

"This project started as a thesis research project. I was trying to find out what kind of things people cherish in their homes and for what reasons. More than 50 % of all the respondents I interviewed mentioned memories as a reason for cherishing their special possessions. Although personal memories tend to evolve in time through different occasions and experiences, it is possible to make everyday objects to preserve history. Furniture designs like the Windsor chair are becoming relics in the eyes of the younger generation and they desperately need some updating to become appealing again in our digital age. From a manufacturing point of view this sort of digital translation opens up whole new possibilities and market opportunities for traditional products," Mikko Hannula

Robert Schneider

Robert Schneider trained at Camberwell and Byam Shaw School of Art in sculpture he now lives in Perthshire Scotland and specialises in letter cutting, this tree of words has been exhibited at the VAS:T exhibition in Edinburgh.

Mark Haddon

Mark Haddon is an Edinburgh based artist who works in a variety of materials creating art objects and installations. The piece above is one of three works being exhibited at the 2015 VAS exhibition at the Mound Edinburgh and has been awarded the Richard Coley Award for Sculpture.

"The source of my work is found in conversation and also in walking. I like to walk in woodland where, by being within surroundings that reference a more primordial wilderness occasionally something from that deep human memory rises to become a momentary bodily experience. Its a transitional experience during which the rational conscious world appears simultaneously with other, less definable, but more expansive states. In conversations too I can enter similar states of reverie, in which again I find myself ‘contained’ within a place of limitless possibility. There is a sense of being recharged. And it is here in these transitional gaps in my rational world, where I am open to other forms of perception, that imaginative transformation becomes possible.
While contemporary 'western' society tends to attribute value only to ‘waking’ rational consciousness, earlier Modern Humans were more open to and adept at moving between differing planes. These varying states from dream through to trance were completely integral to their daily experience. We contemporary humans have essentially the same make-up, there is nothing in our neurological or physical being that differs significantly from that of our forefathers. Its simply a question of value. As David Lewis-Williams writes in his book The Mind in the Cave, “The contemporary Western emphasis on the supreme value of intelligence has tended to suppress certain forms of consciousness and to regard them as irrational, marginal, aberrant or even pathological…”. The full spectrum of potential human experience has been diminished to rationality, the form that most effectively operates in the mechanised, urban environments we have created." Mark Haddon

Roland Fraser II

Roland Fraser again composes his furniture and work from harvested reclaimed timber, utilising the marks of its previous incarnation to add to the beauty of his craft. Rolands work is also part of this years VAS exhibition in Edinburgh.

My wooden constructions are a synthesis of assemblage, collage and traditional craftsmanship. Timber is culled from old furniture carcases, farm buildings and skips. I select pieces that have an accumulation of surface markings and general evidence of human traffic. Traces from missing locks, hinges and structural joints also have a particular resonance for me as they refer to previous incarnations. This visceral combination of wear and history imbues the material with an almost totemic quality. Roland Fraser

Isabelle Moore I

Also selected for this years VAS exhibition are these soap finished maple chairs designed for close work at desks by Isabelle Moore . These chairs have a slight rocking action following the movement of the user.

David Watson

David Watson is a Glasgow based furniture maker whose two tone furniture is part of this years VAS exhibition at the mound Edinburgh. These very fine pieces of furniture are made from burr walnut and fiddle-back sycamore for maximum contrast

Thomas Hawson

The craftsmanship, skill and knowledge to create a boat always inspires and amazes me.
It is with wonder that you can look upon the land locked boat 'Lost at Sea' of Thomas Hawson at this years VAS exhibition amongst other great examples of Scottish wood craft. Thomas Hawson runs his own cabinet making company in Jedburgh Scotland. Visual Arts Scotland's annual show is on at the Royal Academy at The Mound, Edinburgh until February 28th.