Author: Callum Fisken

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The Fisk Rannoch Chaise – wild splendour to relax in.

Great Britain is such a crowded island that it is easy to overlook the many areas of natural beauty that make it such an amazingly varied place to live. With thousands of miles of coastland, woodlands and forests and the peaks of Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Highlands you are never too far from magnificent scenery.

It is easy to forget just how rugged and isolated some of these locations can be. One place where you are under no such illusion, however, is Rannoch Moor. One of Europe’s last remaining true wildernesses, it is a breathtaking landscape of remote, wild splendour. Many times we have lapped up the views from some of the surrounding mountains such as Beinn Dorain, Buachaille Etive Mor and Schiehallion, but its sheer vast empty magnificence was first brought home to me over 30 years ago when I walked the West Highland Way as a schoolboy with a group of friends. Having never before ventured into the Highlands, they were simply awe-struck by Rannoch Moor. Seeing it through their eyes, at turns forbidding as the rain lashed down and other-worldly as the sun came out, really illustrated how stunning a location it is and how fortunate we are to have such spaces where time seems to stand still.

Capturing this rugged beauty was our aim with the Fisk Rannoch Chaise. Fully upholstered in short, curly, dappled sheepskin and with feature antler legs, the result is a unique combination of the wild and the stylish – a chaise that can be the dominant centrepiece to the coolest of apartments or the ideal element in a chalet-chic scheme. As GQ say, it will “add a frisson of highland sophistication to your pad”. As with all our seating we believe that it is also unchallenged in terms of comfort. Whether you are reclining with a page-turner or simply grabbing forty winks, the Rannoch’s gently undulating form cradles. Indeed, close your eyes and you could almost be lying out on the moor itself.

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Aboon them a’ ye tak your place – The Fisk Skye chair

Every great chieftain needs a great family seat, and with 25th January soon upon us what better vantage point from which to enjoy the bacchanalian delights of a Burns supper than our Skye chair.

Skye epitomises so much of the romance of Scotland’s Highlands, from the majestic peaks of the Cuillins to the bonnie boat speeding across the sea to Skye. Having made many trips to this wonderful island, enjoying the hill walking and the hospitality (including Talisker, that wonderful star in the whisky firmament) Jackie and I were determined to try and capture this spirit in a Fisk furniture piece.

The initial bolt of inspiration actually struck over 700 miles away – in Copenhagen. One of my favourite cities, we loved the welcoming generosity displayed by the many pavement cafes and bars who place sheepskins on their chairs (and the fact that the Danes don’t pilfer them!) Why, I wondered, was it so rare to see a chair that is actually fully upholstered in sheepskin? And so the idea of this chair was born.

The very first priority of any chair is that it successfully serves its primary purpose – comfort. So we were very particular in our deliberations over the rake of the Skye chair’s back, the angle of the lugs – in short we wanted a chair that was as much a hug as a seat. It also had to have a presence and personality to do justice to its namesake, so we carefully selected a black long-haired sheepskin to provide the very essence of windswept and interesting. We want all of our Fisk furniture pieces to be as much a talking point in a loft or a croft and so decided on a counterpoint to the sheepskin with a 50’s-inspired cocktail chair-style base, upholstered in feature broad-chalked pinstripe. The finished piece is so striking and definitely one of my favourites.

With a tumbler of whisky lovingly poured from the Fisk Staffa drinks cabinet and rested within reach on a Howard table, you couldn’t have a better environment to contemplate the honest, sonsie face o’ the great chieftain o’ the puddin’-race.

Do make an appointment to view our full range in our showroom.

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From Drawing Board to Finished Piece – Staffa Drinks Cabinet

Who hasn’t been struck by the primeval geometry of Staffa’s basalt columns and the romance of Fingal’s Cave? It has inspired writers, explorers and, most famously, Mendelssohn who composed his Hebrides Overture in homage.

It was certainly an image that had lurked in the back of my mind over the years, reinforced by many a painting and engraving, before forcing its way into our thoughts as a prospective, and unusual, furniture design. I put pen to paper with many initial ideas – some attempting to also reflect the fluid outline of the island or its craggy brow, but we felt these were aping the island and that the sketches of, for example, an occasional table appeared forced.

It is often the ‘art of omission’ which enables a motif to provide substance to a design without overwhelming it – what you leave out being as important as what you include – and the elegant simplicity of Wirkkala’s glassware helped inspire the stylised, irregular columned doors of Fisk’s Staffa cabinet. The irregularity was further amplified by offsetting the doors and we drew the eye to this intriguing asymmetry with a brass finish fore-edge.

Influences come from many directions and it was actually a piece of glassware by Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, in an exhibition of Nordic Modernist Design at the National Museum of Scotland in January 2017, that proved vital in how Fisk would reference this pillared island in a piece of furniture.

Of course, a drinks cabinet should hint at the pleasures within and this brass detailing acts as an invitation to open and explore a glamorous glass and smoked mirror interior.

In sketching out this piece we were as conscious as ever of our desire for Fisk furniture to complement any interior. We are delighted that the Staffa can be the centrepiece to a Cosmopolitan in the country as much as a Manhattan in – well, Manhattan.

Do make an appointment to view the Staffa in our showroom by appointment.