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Stools

Photography by Shannon Tofts

Skye-based craftsman Ewan Thomson was invited to work in collaboration with the Glasgow-based artist, Martin Campbell, as part of Campbell’s residency at The Admiral’s House. Their brief was to create an ATLAS Edition that responded to their individual skills and their experiences of the environment whilst in Skye.

Working in partnership over the last year Campbell and Thomson explored the coastline of Skye for inspiration – beachcombing and talking about how to combine their skills as woodworkers – Thomson is a trained boatbuilder and Campbell studied product design at Edinburgh College of Art.

The result is three bespoke stools – each unique and inspired by their experiences working together and landscape of the Isle of Skye. Campbell and Thomson hand-made a stool each whilst the third symbolises their collaboration with the legs made by Campbell and the seat by Thomson.

“We walk the shoreline for several miles; dragging logs, picking plastic and making small heaps on the grass and rocks safe above the tidemark; we place vertical sticks of driftwood to guide us back to the spots. This westerly facing shoreline provides a wealth of washed up materials – so much you must be highly selective, carefully considering what might be useful to you and bearing in mind what you can physically carry back! Often there are some tough decisions to be made as you discard one item in order to carry another. Being well-versed in beachcombing, Ewan has a good eye for spotting handy materials and combining them on the beach – fashioning a backpack from found rope woven through a washed up oyster bag. This allows him to carry longer lengths of driftwood on his back, freeing up his arms for other weathered treasures. I find myself drawn towards the surface quality and structural potential of coloured shards of plastic, weather-beaten fish boxes and other textured and unusual bits of board material.”
— Martin Campbell

The stools are named after the islands around were Campbell and Thomson gathered the materials and inspiration.

The stools are available to purchase from our online shop.

January 2013 — ongoing

ATLAS Arts works with a range of artists and makers each year to create a series of limited edition artworks, available for sale in our shop. Sale proceeds support the next round of artist editions, and, from 2021, sales of new editions are shared with a charity or organisation of the artists' choice.

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