Slate trophy for Scottish album awards unveiled
- Published
Franziska and Phil Huber were chosen to create the awards
A Stirling design duo have created trophies from slate for a ceremony celebrating Scottish music talent.
Local makers based around Stirling were invited to submit ideas for The Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award in September.
Phil and Franziska Huber, also known as ART FUTURO, were chosen for their sustainable designs using natural Scottish slate.
The winner will be revealed at Stirling's Albert Halls on Thursday.
The couple created a natural slate veneer trophy, which also functions as a Bluetooth speaker, for the winner of the £20,000 prize.
The nine remaining shortlisted artists, as well as the winners of the Sound of Young Scotland Award and Modern Scottish Classic Award, will also receive bespoke prizes as well as £1,000.
Phil and Franziska are both originally from Switzerland, but Phil has lived in Stirling for more than 20 years and Franziska for 10 years.
After quitting their jobs, a holiday in Llanberis in Wales sparked an idea for a new life.
"Half a mile from where we stayed was the National Slate Museum," said Phil. "It was a gorgeous museum and we absolutely fell in love with slate.
"Scottish slate is often grey and Welsh is more pink, but we found out that you can find it in silver, green, black - you can find it in about 15 or 16 different colours."
The couple experimented with slate veneer, which is semi-translucent and thin enough to bend.
The slate component is less than half a millimetre thick and is placed on an equally thin hessian backing.
The final awards for the musicians
"Our first try looked terrible," Phil said.
"But we back-lit the slate which made it look beautiful - you could see the veins, the structures, and all of the amazing colours.
"That was the moment we knew we wanted to do something with the material."
While the winner's trophy also functions as a speaker, the other cube prizes can be used as lamps due to LED technology embedded within them.
Phil said the pair wanted to differentiate between the winners using different kinds of slate.
Despite the awards appearing heavy, each of them weighs no more than 150g.
The couple said they were thrilled to be chosen as the winning designers.
"It came as a surprise to us, we didn't expect it at all," said Phil. "It's really fabulous, as the awards are based in Stirling and we're proper Stirling folk."
As a result of their design being selected, they have been given one year of free studio space by Stirling Council in The Cowane Centre.
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