This year’s Wood Awards have attracted a wealth of furniture projects drawn from both one-man-band workshops through to high street retailers and ranging from the simple and elegant to the downright wacky.

Robert Scott’s sinuous hand-carved native ash console table, "Roxanne", has been entered in the Bespoke Furniture category and, he said, was inspired by "the elegant and fluid contours created by the erosive force of wind and water on rock".

Pieces of the table were sculpted using a combination of hand-carved stack lamination and laminate bending and bonded using West System epoxy resin and Titebond wood glue.

Also featuring ash – this time English olive ash from the Stowell Park Estate – the design concept for Jez Partridge’s "Contour" chair emanates from the "back jarring" crew summAry training races in the lead-up to the 2011 Fastnet Race, the objective being to produce a recliner chair on which to recuperate.

"This wood was specifically selected for its distinctive two tone colour characteristics and needed to be carefully cut to incorporate both colours in each laminate component," said Mr Partridge.

Cut into 3mm laminates, the wood has been laminated in longitudinal sections in a custom-made former to attain the required shape. Five of these sections were then bonded together to create the seat section.

The legs were also laminated around a former and have been designed to incorporate conveyor belt roller technology to also make the recliner chair a rocker.

Sealey Furniture opted for materials from across the spectrum of timber products – from 15mm Finnish birch plywood to Macassar ebony – in the "Two by Two" side table, which is also entered in the Bespoke category.

The plywood was chosen for its strength, lightness and dimensional stability, said Keith Sealey, and is used for the structure, both in the table’s curved side panels and inner spacing struts, creating a series of box sections.

Ziricote veneer was vacuum pressed onto the surface of the ply and a small amount of Macassar ebony was used in the detailing at the joint between the table’s glass top and the base and at the points where the curved shapes meet the floor.

"Ebony was chosen because of its match to the ziricote and its density and strength in the small sections used," said Mr Sealey. "It’s from stock that I have held for more than 30 years and is from small billets originally cut for making police truncheons!"

The "Angels Chair", entered in the Production Made Furniture category, also uses birch plywood, although the intention is to produce it in locally sourced hardwoods such as oak, ash and elm, said designer Richard Johnston of RJ Fine Furniture.

"Construction of the chair using plywood gives strength across all axes as well as reducing the overall manufacturing process," said Mr Johnston. "Due to the use of this material and the varying length of the ‘feathers’, the chair can easily be reproduced and waste kept to an absolute minimum during manufacture."

The "Ah-Mwa" can also ring the material changes, according to its designer Troo Heath-Crew from Tree Couture Ltd. The version entered in the Production Made category features FSC American black walnut and European steamed pear but it can be made using FSC American cherry with alternative accents in English bog oak recovered from The Fens, she said.

The Ah-Mwa is a limited edition fine jewellery cabinet inspired by the armoires of the art nouveau and art deco movements but with contemporary styling and functionality.

All seven drawers are individually configured, components are mitred and joints are reinforced and decorated with dovetail mitre keys in a contrasting hardwood.

Furniture Figures
UK furniture and furnishings manufacturing contributes £9.4bn to GDP, according to the British Furniture Confederation (BFC). This equates to 1.7% of manufacturing output.

Furniture manufacturing has remained relatively static since 2010, says the BFC, as have total imports (£4.5bn in 2012). Import growth is primarily driven by China (33%), followed by Italy and Germany (10% and 9% respectively).

The sector employs 116,000 people within 8,180 companies, although only 30 of these employ more than 250 staff.

The industry has a high proportion of micro and small to medium-sized businesses, with only 260 companies reporting turnover of more than £5m, 83% of companies turning over less than £1m and 53% turning over less than £250,000 per year.