After the Storm
In January 2012 a tremendous storm with winds of over 100 mph uprooted and damaged over 30 trees in Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens.  Now an exhibition is being held there to explore the theme of regeneration and to celebrate recovery and resilience after a storm, showing furniture which has been made from some of those trees.  It was very difficult to show them so I’ve taken a photo of a jewellery box made by Digby Morrow using sweet chestnut and ebony.
A condemned tree is inlaid on the outside of the ‘After the Storm’ jewellery box, stripped of its leaves as it struggles against the violence of the storm.  The sweet chestnut grain swirls around like the wind in the sky.  The outside of the box betrays little of the re-awakening to come.  On opening the box, the green of spring is here, with an inlaid wren carrying twigs in its beak for nesting and a decorative circle of leaves representing the natural process of self-seeding and regeneration.
The extra shows The Genus Console Table made by Tom Cooper from Common Oak with the Norway Maple in the centre drawer representing a germinating seedpod.