The Scotland: Craft & Design pavilion will showcase the work of 22 emerging and established designer/makers from across Scotland at London Design Fair.
Contemporary jewellery designer Melanie Muir is based in the Victorian seaside town of Nairn. She has exhibited and sold her polymer jewellery internationally. With the encouragement of Craft Scotland and Emergents, hosts of the pavilion, Melanie has created a series of four sets of vessel forms - entirely in polymer. As with her jewellery work, the forms are inspired by her surroundings in the Highlands.
Working in this format is something that has interested her for a while; using the unique qualities of polymer in a ceramic-like way, yet creating surface patterns and treatments that could not be done in ceramic. She wants to “intrigue, surprise and ultimately delight the audience at London Design Fair”.
Each set is a unique creation, designed to be totally individual. The four sets of five forms (which range in size from 8cm to 15cm high and 9cm to 12cm wide) have titles based on their inspiration:
Shorelines is redolent of white sand meeting the greens and browns of the land, with the wash of ocean bubbles and seaweed at the water’s edge.
Herons is inspired by the quiet greys and whites of their plumage and the mossy, light-dappled environments in which they fish, plus their orange legs.
Coastal Fields is a summer visit to the Highlands - bright yellow fields of oilseed rape with other crops, in a patchwork pattern, overlaid with the monochromes of Oyster Catchers and Lapwings in flight overhead.
High Pastures leads into autumn, with softer tones of lichened rocks alongside the older run rig (feannagan in Gaelic) layout of crofters’ fields in days gone by. These strips are just visible amidst the landscape and are set against the paler blues and greys of a September sky.
Melanie’s vessel forms are having their first showcase on sale at the Scotland: Craft & Design pavilion at London Design Fair.
You can find out more about Melanie, and our other 21 exhibiting makers over on our dedicated pages or keep up with news from the pavilion on Instagram.
