Contemporary Heirlooms The Irish Furniture Designers Network (IFDN) is a collective of young, innovative and contemporary designers with a wide product range whose aim is to raise the profile of Irish design at home and abroad. Among them, the work of Niall Galvin, Charles O’Toole, Leo Scarff, Kate Fine, and Simon O’Driscoll shows great gumption and vigour. Leo Scarff, who has opened a new design office in Dublin, is clearly a man with a range of talents: his work, in which a Scandinavian influence is apparent, shows a contrast between minimalist furniture, which is pared down to the core, and lighting products, which carry a dynamic sense of movement. Niall Galvin’s furniture combines minimalism with a strong element of good fun. Galvin, who worked in Finland with Durat, also shows a strong Scandinavian influence in his work, which is both linear and graceful, but the sense of humour behind many of the pieces is particularly Irish. At last we are moving towards innovative and useable design that doesn’t take itself too seriously! Likewise, the inventive Charles O’Toole is renowned for furniture products based on the tennis ball. His pieces range from a tennis ball ‘chaiselawn’—the surprisingly comfortable balls slightly deflate when you sit on them —to a tennis ball beanbag that combines the joys of both bouncing and massage! He also produces a range of furniture products based on the semi-solid material corian, which is durable and stain resistant, comes in a wide range of colours, and can be moulded into a continuous form. We look forward to seeing what O’Toole will be making furniture out of next. In contrast, the furniture of Tadhg and Simon O’Driscoll is more conventional, although equally contemporary. If their pieces lack the exuberance of Galvin and O’Toole, one suspects that they may have a broader client base as a result. Their work shows great attention to detail and uses understated functional design that sits easily in a wide range of interiors and will probably stand the test of time. Although Kate Fine offers a wide range of handcrafted furniture, the artist in her is evident in the three-dimensional leather mirrors on which she has recently focused; the soft colour and surface of the leather contrasting with the hard reflective surface of mirrored glass. Her bar coded mirrors pay homage to that symbol of consumer culture, the bar code; in contrast to the traditional flat plane of a mirror, the overall omposition is broken up into a jigsaw of many pieces.   On their Metal Influence, an exhibition of contemporary metals and jewellery curated by Derek McGarry, runs until September at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks. The exhibition consists of sixty-three pieces created by students, staff and visiting lecturers from around the world. Among them, American metalsmith Helen Shirk shows a subtle but luscious treatment of colour on her two vegetal pieces, while Arline Fisch’s red neckpiece is similarly vibrant, her use of red is echoed in Dave McCaul’s architectural jewellery. In his forms, however, McCaul is more influenced by the prevailing sense of engineering, geometry, and minimalism in German modular design.   Creative Think-tank The balance between business and creativity is always a tricky one. Collaboration, opening later this autumn at the Flowerfield Arts Centre in Derry, is the outcome of an experimental project undertaken by eleven participants working in different media. Despite having different styles, skills and techniques, the makers have one thing in common—they all run successful businesses but felt they were losing the knack of creative thinking. Collaboration was devised to enable the participants to recover the habit of thinking creatively. All eleven took part in a series of intensive workshops, and each was asked to work with a partner from a different discipline and make at least one individual piece. The resultant pieces are inventive, even bizarre and strikingly beautiful.   Zeus FIreplace Design Zeus Fireplace Design, now open in Westport, Co. Mayo offers a wide range of chimneypieces, from reproduction to original period pieces. All Zeus fireplaces are hand-carved and clients may choose from showroom models or commission to specific dimensions. A wide range of grates are stocked to complement these.   ArchItectural Landmark for Dun Laoghaire What does the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza have in common with Carlisle Pier, Dun Laoghaire? They both have the same architect! Dun Laoghaire Harbour (built 1817–1842) is widely recognised as one of the finest artificial harbours in the world. Its development is the responsibility of the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company, which recently announced Urban Capital / Heneghan Peng Architects as the winner of its competition to redevelop the derelict Carlisle Pier. Heneghan Peng, established in New York in 1999 by Roisin Heneghan and Shih-Fu Peng, describe their proposal: ‘Along the pier’s length the buildings form a pedestrian street ensuring that the development on Carlisle Pier no longer forms a wall to the town but rather opens up and invites the town into its space’. It is hoped that their excellent architectural design will integrate the pier into the heart of Dun Laoghaire, creating a new landmark for the town.   National Craft Competition Winners and commended entrants from the National Craft Competition and the Student Art Awards will be on view in the RDS, Dublin, as part of the 2004 Dublin Horse Show (4–8 August). Both exhibitions also tour to a number of venues throughout the country until the end of the year, allowing the work to be seen by a wider audience. This competition is a major event in the Irish Crafts industry calendar, allowing craft designers to compete for prestigious awards with a significant prize fund in nineteen different categories. The exhibition of category winners attracts thousands of national and international visitors each year and is a chance to see some of the most innovative and exciting craft being produced by Irish craft designers. The 2004 Student Art Awards comprise the Taylor Art Award of e12,000; the Lewis Crosby Award for Painting of e3,000; the Henry Higgins Travelling Scholarship of e1,300; the RDS Printmaking Award of e2,700, and the RDS James White Arts Award of e2,700.   Golden Fleece The Golden Fleece Award was set up with the legacy of weaver and painter Lilias Mitchell, who was responsible for setting up the textile department at NCAD, and wanted to help Irish artists develop their vision. This year’s winner, Suzannah Vaughan, works in glass and cement, which she describes as: ‘two simple but very beautiful materials that encapsulate the relationship between internal and external architectural space’. Her work is both sculptural and architectural, and set to move forward in this direction as she plans to invest in a flatbed grinder and diamond polishing discs which will enable her to develop her dream of working on large-scale architectural pieces. The 2004 runners-up were painter Colin Martin, furniture-maker and designer Laura Mays, and painter Mark O’Kelly.   Weaving a Spell in Midleton The forthcoming exhibition, All the Way to Jellibolee, from Weaving Works takes place at the Courtyard Gallery, Midleton Co. Cork until 22 June. The exhibition is themed around childhood and, due to the diversity of the group, can be expected to display the unexpected range of weaving as a medium. Tish Canniffe’s work is rather traditional, exploring both intricate patterns and simple design in the subtle shades of hand-dyed yarn that we have come to associate with Irish weaving, while Charlotte Leeder’s picture tapestries are inspired by nature: landscape, seascape and the human form. Dóri O’Connell’s Hungarian background and knowledge of folk art and crafts is evident in her rug weaving which uses pattern inspired by ancient textiles such as Anatolian Kilims, in a way that is refreshingly non-Irish.   Art Addict Lorna Smyth grew up with the expectation that she would be a painter but became bored of painting once she began to study it in earnest. ‘Overnight I lost my love and addiction and because all I ever wanted to do was to paint, I felt I had lost everything. A friend of mine who specialised in embroidery extended the boundaries of her work. When I saw what my friend was doing with wire and fabric and other concoctions, I realised that it was an area that involved painting, sculpture and a variety of textures. Suddenly the process of creating a piece became more exciting then the end result. Painting was no longer limited to paint and canvas but opened up to involve everything.’ Smyth, who owns her own gallery and allows the public to see the work in progress, now paints onto paper prior to embroidering, which is a method that to the best of her knowledge has not yet been explored.   Irish Silver down South Meanwhile, deep in Louisiana, silversmith Kevin O’Dwyer’s Fine Silver Exhibition made its United States debut at the Slidell Cultural Centre, just north of New Orleans. O’Dwyer who creates sculptural forms in silver, advances the traditional image of silversmithing into the 21st century. His pieces are often a complex mixture of opposites, the straight and crisply defined edges of an almost triangular sauceboat are juxtaposed with a sensuously, curling handle and button-ball feet; a hammered silver teapot with multiple handles that playfully spiral, twist and turn; a polished silver bowl that gracefully balances upon a textured, pyramid-like base. Kevin O’Dwyer also offers a futuristic coffee service, and ‘Rocking Teapots’ that have been described as ‘teapots that are really off their trolley.’   Creative Blacksmithing Iron Art has been in operation since 1995, producing a range of tastefully designed interior accessories, from candleholders to lamp stands. The ultimate emphasis is on quality, resulting in each piece being individually handforged by artistic blacksmith, Raymond Burke. Over the years Raymond has developed his own unique patina, giving each finished piece a shimmering luster, allowing it to be equally at home in either a traditional or contemporary setting.   Future of Design The Craft Council Graduate Show, 21 July–2 August, at the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, displays the work of graduates from the Crafts Council of Ireland’s Pottery Skills and Design Courses. Given the reputation of the courses, the exhibition will most probably showcase some names to watch out for in the future. Exhibitors include Niall Boyle, whose seemingly rather depressed ceramic polar bear with patterned feet, shows much presence.   Model Children Derek A FitzSimons, known as ‘DAF’, is best known for his life-size bronze of a children’s street game Memories of Mount Street sited appropriately enough on Dublin’s Mount Street. DAF is a self-taught sculptor whose work in stone and bronze spans a range of styles from figurative to abstract and does not limit himself to any of the ‘isms’ prevalent in the world of art. ‘I classify myself as a direct carver and modeller. Normally I do without models or sketches but work from the basic idea in my mind. I feel that my work covers all influences in life and therefore I feel I work in opposite moods and styles.’ DAF has six public works in Ireland, including the two-metre high bronze figures Peace for All commissioned by Cavan County Council to commemorate the peace talks. A recent piece, currently for sale, Monument to All Horses is carved in Irish limestone, weighs approximately seven tonnes, and incorporates both the male and female elements of the horse.   Irish Jewellers Sparkle in Manhattan As if to demonstrate just how vibrant Irish jewellery design is at present, thirteen Irish jewellers were invited to exhibit in New York at the Museum of Arts & Design’s prestigious exhibition—LOOT! This is the first time that there has been an Irish presence at the exhibition, which takes place every two years, and has done much to promote contemporary jewellery as an art form. The selected Irish artists were: Alan Ardiff, Seliena Coyle, Frances Davis, Rudolf Heltzel, Nuala Jamieson, Berina Kelly, Sonja Landweer, Kevin O’Dwyer, Angela O’Kelly, Erika Marks, Inga Reed, and Celine Traynor. Among these, the Kilkenny-based Heltzel’s work delights in the value of its materials, his pieces in gold, platinum, silver, and gemstones carrying a sense of resplendence rarely found outside the Celtic collection in the National Museum.   Lounge Life You may spend a third of your life on the sofa, but finding the right one for your room can be quite a challenge! So much depends on the size and shape of the room that it can be difficult to visualise how the piece that you like in the showrooms will look when you bring it home. With styles that vary from traditional and period through to contemporary and retro, the staff at Kilcroney Furniture can steer you in the right direction. They have leather sofas, an excellent corner group selection, and a range of different patterns and fabrics in suites in a variety of sizes and combinations. And if, as so often happens, you like a particular sofa but not the fabric on show, then they can offer you a selection of alternative patterns to choose from. With nationwide delivery, Kilcroney Furniture is the proverbial one-stop-shop, offering kitchen, living room, dining room, office, garden and bedroom furniture in addition to lighting and tableware.   Art on a Plate Students from the NCAD have a lot on their plates this year! Nine students will present a number of plates, on a chosen theme, in contention for the Arnotts Ceramic Design Awards 2004. This year the finished works feature the silk screen-process whereby artwork can be transferred onto the surface of a readymade plate. This is the technique used for designs on industrially produced china, and the plates in the exhibition are all prototypes that can be produced in larger numbers. Ranging from display plates to workaday tablewear, much of the work refers to the history of mass-produced imagery and Pop Art. The plates of the overall winner will become part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks; the awards also include three monetary prizes sponsored by Arnotts who will be keeping an eye out for future suppliers amid the emerging talent. Eleanor Flegg writes regularly for some of Ireland’s leading interiors magazines.