About the Firm
Laidlaw Fabrications is an “art firm" of designers, art metal fabricators, sculptors, mold makers, and woodworkers.
Since the days of attending The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in the 1980s, we have provided clients a wide variety of services, working closely with their designers and ours to achieve some of the finest and most individual renderings of furniture and art concepts available.
Ever restless and eclectic, we keep busy. We absolutely love the design, fabrication, reproduction, and rendering of graphic, ornamental, sculptural objects, and furniture for architectural, and home decorative applications. The materials we enjoy working with include but are not limited to are wood, terra cotta, porcelain, cast and fabricated bronze, brass, steel, iron, aluminum, plastic, plaster, and cast stone. We do tend to get a little overly enthusiastic at times, but we love what we do. Every project is a new adventure.
Our clients are Interior Designers, the film industry, artists, musicians, collectors, antique stores, art galleries, restaurants, and homeowners. We ship anywhere in the world.
If you believe you may be in need of our services or are just curious about us, we would be pleased to provide you with further information.
About the Family
Miles Laidlaw
As a child raised in a studio housing wondrous art works, antiques, and mystifying objects, it was natural from the beginning that Miles Laidlaw's world would be centered around design. From the farthest reach of his memories his mind had been entranced, lost in the historic weight of each broken artifact waiting to be restored by the hands of his parents, Eric and Aesook. The constant reminder of the significance each object held within its past caused him to maintain perspective of the deep connections each person holds with this world. To him it was almost supernatural, holding these objects, gazing into the past and feeling the importance each piece had on so many individual lives. He soon found himself graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, chasing the dream of exploring the mystic world of design and contributing into it his own creations.
As the designer behind Laidlaw Fabrications, Miles is backed by the family's experience and history of craft to launch iconic products into the world and bring a familiar image to the firm. His skill with new mediums gifts him the ability to manipulate reality through the digital realm, with proficiency in digital modeling, drafting, rendering, and physical realization through CNC, laser cutting, and 3D printing. In combination with classic methods of craft and a passion to experiment and pioneer techniques in design, there is no limit to the creative whim made real by Miles and the firm.
Aesook Laidlaw
From Seoul to Chicago and on to Portland, Maine, Aesook Laidlaw brings the influence of these diverse cultural hubs into her designs and puts her own influence back out into the world through her fabrications. As her family made the move from South Korea to the U.S. during her teenage years, Aesook's intrigue in the arts grew as she explored new lifestyles and cultural frontiers.
Since a very young age she has been adept in a strong range of creative skills, from manipulating clay and stitching together fabric materials into intricate sculpture and product, on to restoring fragile historic paintings to their original glory. Together her artistic intuition and handcrafting abilities lead to the attendance of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The art scene within the School along with the brimming life of Chicago in the eighties brought the social stimulation fitting enough to compliment her creative lifestyle and developing skills. Hard work, some play, and strong connections eventually grew into a full fledged business all while continuing studies at the Art Institute.
Years of experience and utmost respect for quality in fabrication turned Aesook into a master craftsman in restoration, ceramics, fabrics, finishes, and well beyond. A love for nurturing new connections and navigating business networks naturally lead to the creation of a family firm. Laidlaw Fabrications is the medium in which she is able to directly share the accumulation of this knowledge and experience with the world.
Eric Laidlaw
Born in Portland, Maine, Eric Laidlaw spent a majority of his childhood walking the cobblestones of the Old Port area enthralled with the light and shade of the historic architecture and immersed in strong visuals and endless permutations of burnt and distressed saltwater piers. New England’s perfect four seasons provided an ever-changing backdrop for imagination.
The rest of his time was spent disassembling and reassembling almost anything he could lay his fingers on and combining them in unholy ways. Televisions, toys, clocks, wheelchairs, pianos, crystal chandeliers, lawnmowers, and tables, the more unrelated the more vulnerable they were to his obsessive need to tear down, combine, and rebuild, thereby signifying and infusing new purpose.
Fast forward to the eighties, a new waterfront to traverse and The School of The Art Institute of Chicago for a graduate degree. Eric had a small sculpture studio by the rarely inhabited department office with a phone that rang incessantly. Little did he know that his intercepting those calls would lead to the perfect marriage of impulse and career.