The Gathering Hand Exhibition: Custom Lane
Join us at Custom Lane, as we celebrate The Gathering Hand—the first collection of furniture and objects, following its debut at London Design Festival 2022.
The Gathering Hand is derived from five decades of passionate, hands-on creation—historically in the fields of conservation, architecture and interiors—and from GRAS’s interest in interdisciplinary design. Through The Gathering Hand, the studio celebrates the innate human drive to make. GRAS’s Product Design Engineer, Alistair Byars, explains: “Our intention with the collection was to distil and communicate the value of physical creation: the use of both hand and mind to explore the potential of material and form. This age-old pursuit holds life-affirming benefits that are self-evident to the maker.”
First shown at Blue Mountain School during London Design Festival 2022, the collection offers three product typologies, each made from tactile and evocative materials using a combination of traditional and contemporary techniques including bespoke joinery, mouth-blown glass and bead-blasted stone. The processes celebrate the skills of specialist makers and manufacturers, resulting in sensory yet functional tables, vessels and objects. Forms are carefully-proportioned and decidedly simple to reveal the innate qualities and textures of each singular material.
Four collaborators were selected based on their specific material expertise: local furniture designer Namon Gaston crafted the smoked oak bases of the Carpenter’s Tables, whilst Antwerp-based Studio Corkinho produced the scorched cork tabletops; Cambridge glass artist Edmond Byrne created the unique crackled texture of the Glassblower’s Vessels, while the Stonemason’s Objects were produced in Dorset by Albion Stone then sandblasted by hand in Edinburgh.
Preview March 10, 6-8pm.
Exhibition on view from March 11—April 23, at Custom Lane, 1 Customs Wharf, Edinburgh.
All products are made-to-order. For sales or exhibition enquires please contact practice@gras.co
Edmond Byrne is a glass artist and educator with an experimental approach to process and making that explores tactility, colour psychology, sustainability, and digital craft. He has an MA from the Royal College of Art, Ceramics and Glass and a B.Des in Craft Design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, and holds a Senior Lecturer position at De Montfort University’s multidisciplinary Design Crafts course. His award-winning work is exhibited in galleries and public collections internationally.
Studio Corkinho is a multidisciplinary design practice aiming to elevate stillness in contemplative atmospheres, based in Antwerp, Belgium. The studio designs limited editions within the fields of objects and furniture, as well as interiors and micro-architecture. Their architectural surfaces are created from burnt cork bark for calming, sensorial atmospheres strongly connected to Mother Earth and nourished by the benefits of cork’s versatility, tactility and performance.
Namon Gaston is an Edinburgh-based designer who has been producing beautiful handmade furniture for over 20 years. Inspired by mid-century Scandanavian designers and meticulous about his craft, Namon creates timeless pieces with a focus on materiality, practicality and comfort. He is passionate about timber and utilises both modern production processes alongside traditional techniques to create furniture pieces that will become heirlooms.