While I was in my second year of the furniture design degree course at Edinburgh College of Art I was approached by the Restoration
Committee and asked to produce some concepts for new chancel furniture for St Philips. The request was for a communion table, two lecterns,
a set of three chairs and two flower stands. The committee requested an original forward looking design that would not date and one that
would provide a focal point for the chancel. I was asked to consider the use of natural wood and one suggestion was that I take the Crown
of Thorns as my starting point.
Trying not to take this too literally, I began with the notions of strength and the suggestions of natural and
botanical forms that this
brought to my mind. Working with drawings of plants and trees, one of the concepts I developed was based on the idea of the petals of a
rose and the layering of these delicate petals to create a rounded three-dimensional form.
The concept for the communion table involved several 'petals' or layers forming the base of the table, each layer with a 'slice' taken
from it revealing the layer behind. The colour of each layer gets darker towards the centre of the table, drawing the eye inwards. The
base structure was topped with a large oval of glass so all the layers can be viewed from through the top and from the front and back.
This layering of tones and curved forms was carried into the concepts for the lecterns, chairs and flower stands. The proportions of
the communion table were lengthened and became more slender to produce the lectern forms. The chairs were intended to work as a group as
well as individually and therefore the backrests on the outer two chairs are asymmetrical curving up to meet the symmetrical shape of the
centre chair.
The backrests are made from three panels, each of a differently toned wood, which are effectively 'slipped' past each other revealing
the other tones behind. This detail can be seen at the top of the front of the chair and adds interest at the bottom of the back. The
flower stands again echo the idea of layering with three 'petals' supporting the flower dish.
The next step from initially developing these concepts was to meet with Simon Jones, the furniture maker who was to be constructing
the pieces. With Simon's expert input and hard work and the suggestions of the Restoration Committee and the Artistics Committee at 121
George Street, the concepts have been much refined and moved forward (and sometimes backwards) since then. Although many details needed
attention and a few problems needed to be sorted out, I was determined to stick as much as possible to the original ideas in the initial
concept.