Factory Friday : Old School Fabrications

In our ongoing Factory Friday series, we are delving into the stories behind some of the Scottish Manufacturers that you can find on Make Works.

This week, we've interviewed Scott Laverie and Neville Rae, the double act behind Old School Fabrications. Makers of “almost anything”, Old School Fabrication are bespoke fabricators in East Lothian who make installations, exhibitions, sculpture and artwork for an impressive collection of clients. 

We first met Scott and Neville back on the Make Works tour in 2013. Since exploring their sawdust coated, wonderland of a workshop, it has been a joy to watch the company go from strength to strength; making work, well, for the likes of Toby Paterson, Laura Aldridge and The Gallery of Modern Art.  

How did Old School Fabrications start?


We first met whilst installing an exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. It was 2008, and we were both recent fine art graduates from Edinburgh College of Art (Scott) and Glasgow School of Art (Neville). At the time we were doing what the majority of young art school graduates do, working freelance as art handlers/makers/installers whilst also trying to maintain our own art practices.

Over the coming months, we worked on numerous exhibition installs together and through spending this time together, realised we had very similar ideas about the potential of bespoke fabrication and design within creative and commercial circles of Edinburgh.

Initially we developed the business very organically and grew our skill sets as different projects came our way. After a year or so however we took a deep breath and rented an old Victorian school in East Lothian as our workshop. This is where the name Old School Fabrications originated and from this location the business has been going from strength to strength. As we've improved the workshop and our fabricating capacity has grown so to has our team and we now employ 3 highly skilled staff members. This has enabled us to work extensively all over the country and beyond, offering a wide range of design and fabrication services.

Who is the typical client that gets in touch?


Generally speaking we mostly work with museums, galleries, artists and designers. Our projects for example can range from a precisely milled small aluminium sculpture, to high-end exhibition display cabinets, to a set of giant 6m high concrete golf clubs.

Until recently, about 90% of our work came from word of mouth and predominately Edinburgh based. We've tried to develop a good online presence through marketing, social media and a new website and this has helped us now offer a more national service.

What are projects that you’ve worked on over the years that you really enjoyed?


We really love the intense project - the ones where all the team are working on the same job using a range of varied skills and processes. These tend to be the larger, tight time-scale projects, where we are flat out trying to problem solve as we go along. We have a good close team environment, where we all get on really well and trust each others’ skills and advice.

Why is local manufacturing important?

We like the idea that our workshop is a place where clients can visit and discuss potential work, with possible materials. All of our projects are a collaboration between us and our clients, so the better the understanding is of our processes of making the better the overall outcome will be.

What advice do you have for emerging makers, designers and manufacturers?

This is a bit naff, but someone once said to us that ‘The harder you work, the luckier you get’. This has always stuck and in Old School Fabrications' because it's been true.

We would also encourage people, to do it well and do it properly. When we first started the business we made some mistakes in pricing and were sometimes lucky to break even. However it's important to take it on the chin, knuckle down and carry on through with complete commitment and dedication to the project.

As co-owners we are a 50/50 partnership of Old School Fabrications and the business would only have worked this way. We have been able to share ideas, encourage each other and work together when resolving issues. It's massively important we also completely trust each other and respect each others concerns over everything. If we didn’t have this, the business would not have worked.

To find out more, you can look at the Old School Fabrications listing on Make Works here

You can also see samples of recent work by Old School on their website here

You might also be interested to Read our Guide to getting a prototype made in Scotland.