Scott Irvine

Born in Edinburgh in 1970, throughout his childhood Scott could always be found in the garden shed with some blocks of wood and constructing his early creations. He left school at the age of 16 with good qualifications and advice to follow a different career to the one he had already set his heart on. However, he decided to fulfil his passion of working with wood and trained as a carpenter in a local firm in Balerno.

In 1993, following a paralysing illness (Guillain Barre Syndrome) which unfortunately left him with some residual weakness and pain in his feet, he was unable to return to carpentry as his full time profession. Having a great devotion to working with wood, he was determined to carry it on, which led him into the art of woodturning and carving which has been entirely self-taught.

After a few years of selling his work through a small number of galleries, he decided to set up his own business 'Harmonies in Wood' in 1998. Although Scott enjoyed working with wood, he wanted to develop his work in a different direction so he started incorporating metals and stone into his sculptures. However, in 2002, he still wasn't satisfied, so with a long standing interest and desire to incorporate glass into his sculptures, he decided to buy himself a kiln and started experimenting with fusing glass. His joinery and glazing skills came in handy in terms of cutting glass and his technical knowledge of glazing was put to the test. After much trial and error, he developed the desired fused glass disc which he was able to incorporate into his wooden sculptures. Even though the wood that he uses is kiln dried, being a natural product it is unpredictable and prone to movement over time, therefore Scott created a specialised glazing system for incorporating the fused glass element to allow for any expansion and contraction between the wood and glass components. The designs of his fused glass are inspired from the natural landscape of the Pentland hills near to his Balerno home. He has no fear in using a very varied colour palette but likes to complement his designs by incorporating iridescent and dichroic glass to create a dramatic fusion of effects.

The continual and expanding interest in his unique designs and craftsmanship has resulted in Scott's work being exhibited in numerous galleries throughout Scotland and the UK with some European and American exhibitions too. He has been fortunate to exhibit his work in several solo shows in some of Scotland's finest galleries.

The freshness of his designs continues to surprise and delight an ever-growing number of private and corporate collectors of his work. He has recently worked on some very exciting projects including the production of awards for The Jolomo Lloyds TSB Scotland Awards in 2007 and has been commissioned to make the Jolomo Awards for 2009. The 2009 Awards will be presented at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow on 12th June. He has made awards for Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) 2007 and 2008 and the Robert Burns Humanitarian award 2008 and many other awards and sculptures for other corporate events and buildings.

As well as incorporating glass with wood, Scott is continually expanding his collection which now includes fused glass panels and dishes and a range of fused glass jewellery.