A DESIGN student from Addingham has seen her work chosen for a New Designers exhibition in London.

Mary Jenner, 21, who attended Ilkley Grammar School, recently finished her final year at York St John University, where she studied product design.

For her final project she designed and made a modern version of a tradition Yorkshire farming chair. The chair - a lambing chair with the under-seat storage used for children's toy, decorated with laser etched farm animal images - was exhibited in York and was then one of a handful chosen to exhibit her work at the New Designers exhibition in London.

The exhibition, for emerging design talent, was held at the Business Design Centre in London.

Mary said: "I set myself the brief of designing and making a multifunctional item of children's furniture. When looking through existing items of furniture, I found out about the 'lambing chair' - a chair with a pull our drawer or lift up seat where stories say, orphaned lambs were placed to keep warm and safe.

"I liked this idea of a chair used to nurture little lambs and I didn't want this design to disappear. There was no set design for the lambing chair, as each chair was usually built by village joiners or the farmers themselves, so I took inspiration from many of the examples I could find, which led to a very traditional looking chair. I then decided to juxtapose the traditional form with modern laser etched images to create a product that really stands out.

"Throughout the project I have taken brilliant advise and ideas from Lime Kiln Furniture in Addingham, and Mike Enever (from Lime Kiln Furniture) helped me make the final chair. When we were making the chair, there was a lot of carrying materials from Addingham to my university in York and back, as all the cutting and joints were completed at the Lime Kiln workshop and the laser etching at the University workshop.

"Being chosen for New Designers was one of the most nerve-racking yet exciting experiences I have had. It meant a lot of extra work when all my university friends had finished, but when you're in London, with head designers and hundreds of students asking you about your work, it made it all worth it.

"I am now hoping to start as a free lance designer and to also produce CAD images for workshops and furniture companies."

See Mary's portfolio at www.behance.net/maryjenner