THE resilience and beauty of a Scottish species threatened by a killer disease is to be marked in a new exhibition.

Millions of trees across the country have been wiped out by the destructive fungus, prompting fears none would survive.

However, some have withstood the onslaught and Ash Rise showcases the potential of this precious resource.

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New furniture designs of chairs, cabinets and tables join sculptural wall pieces, a handmade kayak, block printed dyed textiles, paper art and a guitar in ash and concrete amongst other work in the exhibition which begins this week in Edinburgh before moving to Inverness and Dumfries.

The pieces have been created from diseased ash trees felled in Stirlingshire, with the aim of both celebrating Scottish creativity and informing people of the environmental and economic impacts of ash dieback.

The exhibition also highlights the sustainability of working with locally sourced native hardwoods, milled and dried in Scotland, connecting each step of the process from “tree to table”.

In addition to the Ash Rise tour, the Scottish Furniture Makers’ Association has commissioned a special documentary to reach wider audiences in Scotland and beyond.

The feature film documents the life of the tree, its place in the environment and the struggles it faces. From forester or landowner, through to tree surgeon, sawmill, maker and buyer, every link in the chain is introduced to show how locally sourced furniture is made.

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Ash Rise will also see groups of young people learning to work with wood through hands-on activities in woodland settings throughout Scotland thanks to Scottish Forestry’s Outdoor Woodland Learning network.

Project co-ordinator and furniture maker Tom Addy said Ash Rise was the culmination of a three-year project which started with highlighting how precious this resource is in Scotland while also showcasing the skills and creativity of the furniture-making and design community.

“We’re excited to share the amazing, beautiful things that can be made from ash, from modern interpretations of traditional Scottish furniture and technically ambitious pieces to designs that use all parts of the tree alongside artworks highlighting the value, life and importance of Scottish Ash,” he said.

Artist and maker Naomi Mcintosh, who is based in the Cairngorms National Park, said she was both “interested and excited” by the number of processes that the different artists and makers had used to tell a story and raise awareness of ash dieback and what can be done.

“It is moving and powerful to be using the timber from a single tree alongside other makers to create and show the importance of both timber in art and design,” she said.

“It is a wonderful connection and has invited me to reflect on the history of ash in design from the handles of the tools that I use in the greenhouse to the hockey stick that I had as a child.”

For Ash Rise, she has created Potential, a suspended spherical sculpture made entirely from steamed bent ash strips.

Ash Rise opens on September 13 at Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden and is supported by Scottish Forestry, the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers and Creative Scotland.