Wood Sculpture
Ben Russell works with concern for the origins of wood as well as the finished product. ‘I try to ensure that the timber I use is not the yield of destructive harvesting, and I’ve used many Irish grown hardwoods, including bog-oak and bog-yew. Sometimes I burn the wood and brush out the charred portion, leaving an eroded surface like black driftwood. Some of my carving is very highly finished, revealing hidden depths and lustre in the grain, and sometimes I leave the surface finished with the marks of the carving gouges to give a taste of the directness and vitality of the making process.’ Russell is drawn to letter carving - more often the preserve of the stone carver and has recently completed a bed for conceptual artist Dorothy Cross with an inscription of 600 letters of Irish script in the slats. ‘For the last two years I’ve taken part in an international public wood sculpture event in Northern Italy, where there is a long-standing tradition of woodcarving. I expected it to be quite traditional, but it’s far from it. I went out feeling I would probably be well out of my depth, but my abstract piece, Le catene sono illusorie, was placed second last year.’
 
New Irish Ceramics
With the influx of inexpensive functional ceramics from China, Irish Craft Pottery is experiencing a change of climate. In response, many potters are turning more towards once-off gallery pieces, for which there is a growing market, rather than traditional tableware. A group of seven potters, selected by the Crafts Council of Ireland, have been encouraged to take this new direction as part of a three-year development partnership, under the title, ‘New Irish Ceramics’. The work of the group (Lucy Dolan, Roger Harly, Geoffrey Healy, Etain Hickey, Michael Jackson, Anthony O’Brien, and Jim Turner), has been exhibited from Limerick to Lithuania.

One member of the group, Jim Turner, has recently produced a series of bottle and trophy sculptural forms constructed from altered extrusions and paper clay sheets. The work is focused on creating textured surfaces, built up of many layers of slips and glazes. The pieces are fired once to 1300¾C; some are fired a second time at a lower temperature with metallic lustres. It’s a technique that he describes as encapsulating some primeval mood in the landscape. ‘All work is a reflection on the ceramic process, the application of heat on materials to recreate a terra forming technique, and the need to be a maker to satisfy the human spirit.’

Turner’s partner, Etain Hickey, has recently opened her own gallery in Clonakilty in Co Cork. She has developed her own way of using different techniques: traditional earthenware slip-trailers on high-fired raw glazed stoneware enhanced with luscious gold and mother of pearl lustres, applied in a further firing process. In a recent development of her work she has perfected her own blend of paper pulp and white clay to create ‘paper-clay’. The flat sheets of paper clay are strong, light and easy to handle in their raw state and can be manipulated to form heads and figures, or used like a canvas. Hickey’s work shows the influence of patterns and tapestries, of Persian carpets and Cretan icons.

Anthony O’Brien, best known for his blue and white handpainted earthenware, has responded to the challenge of embracing new media, particularly paperclay. This is a light-weight, high-fired blend of stoneware clay that lends itself to both sculptural and pictorial formats. He uses traditional wood-ash glazes, high temperature pigments and slips to make his images. Unlike traditional paint media, the stoneware colours will never change or fade, not will the clay deteriorate. After many years of exhibiting figurative work on paper, the challenge of the new media is to find ways to make clay and glaze as responsive as paint or pastel. ‘Although the colours are very difficult to control,’ says O’Brien, ‘ the advantage of using ceramic is that there is a sense of depth, of an inner space underlying the glaze surface, a luminosity that cannot be achieved except through the transforming effects of fire on clay.’

Ceramicist Freda Rupp is primarily concerned with form and the perfection of form. Her decoration consists of lines that emphasise the form and texture of her vessels, which are deliberately non-functional and unglazed. The work is tactile, with an interesting contrast between smoothness and the rough surface of the vessels. Each piece is hand-built by pinching and coiling. The vessels are biscuit fired and decorated using oxides, underglazes, and metals
 
Moveable Feast
West Cork has long proved a fruitful pudding in terms of design and craft, and Feast - the travelling exhibition of the West Cork Craft & Design Guild - is the proof. If you missed the exhibition at Fota House in April, there are second and third sittings at St Fachtna’s Cathedral, Rosscarbery, 3–21 August, and at the West Cork Art Centre, Skibbereen, 26 November–22 December. Feast isn’t just a collection of work by individuals; it’s also a showcase for collaborative projects and an example of how you can create a coherent look by combining the work of very different makers. Contemporary cutlery by Rory Connor combines with ceramics of every hue from Etain Hickey, Patricia McCoy, Sara Flynn, Julian Smith, David Seeger and Jim Turner. Furniture maker Alison Ospina’s greenwood chairs sit comfortably with Steve Pawsey’s contemporary sculptural table. And silver and gold inlaid napkin rings by Sabine Lenz encircle Italian wool napkins by Paula Marten, and luxurious linen serviettes by Eleanor Calnan.
 
Jewellers to watch
The international reputation of the Craft Council’s Jewellery Design and Production Skills Course is well deserved – and this year’s graduate exhibition is no exception. Using their design and acquired skills to an advanced level, the graduates have produced unique, individual, and very special pieces, from the clean lines of the sterling silver boxes to silver spoons. The show will take place in the newly opened Gallery 2, just across the arch from the Craft Gallery. Due to its success over the last four years, the gallery has decided to double its space, allowing the Crafts Council to expand its programme, host larger shows, and run two exhibitions simultaneously. The graduate show will be the inaugural exhibition for the new space – quite appropriately as the space was formerly occupied by the Craft Council’s Jewellery Design School. Graduate Exhibition, National Craft Gallery, Gallery 2, Castle Yard, Kilkenny, 19 July–1 August 2005.
 
New jewellery line from Roger Bennett
Roger Bennett is one of Ireland’s leading craftspeople, well-known for his fine coloured sycamore bowls inlaid with silver or gold. The exciting news is that he has now developed a new line of jewellery. ‘My decision to develop a jewellery range comes partly from the response to my inlaid sycamore bowls: several people remarked on their jewel-like qualities, and wondered if I had ever thought of actually making jewellery. Bennett has been developing prototypes and resolving technical and quality control issues, but the jewellery will be launched in June at Whichcraft in Cow’s Lane, Dublin. The first range of earrings are fine cylinders with sparkling dots of silver and gold—the combination of wood, colour and silver is unique and recognisably Bennett’s work. ‘I enjoy designing and making it’, he says. ‘I have always preferred intricate small-scale work to making large pieces, and there is unlimited scope to experiment with miniature sculptural shapes.’
 
Alchemy of Feltmaking
Helen Stringer first experienced the alchemy of feltmaking in 1990 while working on a community arts project in North Cornwall. ‘It was love at first sight and I have been making felt ever since!’ The craft of felt-making is so ancient that no one knows exactly when it began, but it’s generally accepted as being the first textile used by mankind and certainly predates spinning and weaving. Stringer hopes to challenge the perception of this ancient textile by making functional, accessible objects that have some relevance to life in the 21st century.
 
RDS National Crafts Competition
This year’s Horse Show will show more than tack and turnout – winners and commended entrants from the RDS National Crafts Competition and Student Art Awards will exhibit together as part of the Horse Show in the RDS. It will be an opportunity to view the work of some of Ireland’s best craft designers alongside our latest batch of emerging artists. Both competitions are recognised not only for the prize pool, but also for the recognition and publicity that comes in their wake. The exhibition promises to bring the artwork to an even wider audience. Every art form and craft discipline will have its place, from calligraphy to woodwork and from charcoal to watercolour. The exhibition is open daily during the Show and will travel to various locations in Ireland once the show is over. RDS National Crafts Competition & Student Art Awards Exhibition 3-7 August 2005.
 
Interior Design 2005
Interior Design 2005 launched earlier this month, is a new event on the design calendar. The event, the first of its kind in Ireland, took place in the Main Hall at the RDS. Some of the leading Irish design companies, such as Duff/Tisdall, have supported the event from an early stage, in the hope that their participation will encourage other designers to become involved and establish the show as an annual showcase for excellence in Irish design. Duff/Tisdall displayed their new range of occasional lighting with forms that hark back to a more gracious age. These forms have been updated using metallic and reflective finishes, that are setting the trends in interiors. The distinctive shades have gold and silver reflective interiors. Duff/Tisdall have also engaged with a progressive rug designer to produce a range of sumptuous Rugs, which have been hand-woven especially in India, in a project of sheltered workshops. Also exhibiting at the show were designers such as Michael Bell, Louise Kennedy, Minima, Bushfield Interiors, Shane Holland and The Natural Interior. The show also included a series of special exhibits by professional design bodies such as the Interior Designers & Decorators Institute, the Irish Furniture Designers Network and the Irish Antique Dealers Association, as well as lectures by interior designers and other design professionals.
 
Silverware Design Award
The winner of this year’s Evian National College of Art and Design Student Silverware Design was Claire Murray, a third-year metals student. Purity was the theme of the contest, for which fifteen undergraduates each created a high quality contemporary piece of silverware. Murray’s work, which will become the 11th addition to the NCAD/National Museum of Ireland Permanent Collection of Student Silverware, is a simple, dynamic form which makes use of ambient light and hints at its theme through both surface and form. Murray commented: ‘I began using the simple geometry of circles and spirals to produce early designs which were based on a more formal baptismal font shape. These ideas were then simplified, abstracted and combined with the water imagery to form the final design of etched silver’. The winning piece was chosen by a panel of judges headed up by international artist Slim Barrett, the celebrity jeweller from Athenry. Barrett, who lives in London, designs jewellery for the rich and famous. He created the diamond wedding crown for Victoria Adams for her marriage to David Beckham and has been blamed for starting the tiara craze.
 
Dogs in cow’s lane
Ceramic artist Brid Lyons will unveil her latest collection to the public at the Whichcraft gallery, Cow’s Lane, on Thursday 26 May — a posse of sturdy little bull terriers with a cartoon-like character. ‘Dogs are my latest focus simply because of their great personality. Though I’m constantly inspired by nature, I prefer to instill my sculptural pieces with their own unique character.’ Lyons recognised a niche in the art market for one-off contemporary sculptural pieces four years ago when she first introduced her popular 1920s head collection that reflects the high style of the decade. Lyons’ work demonstrates that high quality doesn’t have to be straight faced; her ceramic art is a refreshing deviation from the traditional norm.
 
Architecture Awards
The traditionally rather staid Architecture Association of Ireland (AAI) Awards have acknowledged the cutting-edge design of a younger generation of Irish architects in this year’s competition, with two awards — including the Downes Medal — scooped by Boyd Cody Architects. The young design-led practice began as a partnership in 1997 when Dermot Boyd and Peter Cody realised that they shared an awareness of the intrinsic value of good design in an urban culture. The Downes Medal winner – a minimalist affair on a mews lane – is simplicity itself. It is a cubic house, one whose design antecedents may well include Lego as well as the Modernists. It is, and this reinforces the Lego associations, made of brick. This choice of material, unusual for the times, ties the house into its surroundings. ‘There was no suburban pattern established on the laneway, no shared form in any of the houses that had been sporadically built over a thirty-year period, only a common material -– brick.’ Internally the design shows a supreme economy of space, with optimum natural lighting provided by a series of large and expertly placed windows. Boyd Cody’s other winner – an ‘architecture as installation’ project – shows a creative refurbishment of a house and garden on Dublin’s Wellington Road.
 
Textile art
Cleo originated in 1936 as a small retail outlet in a basement in Dublin selling only sweaters from the Aran Islands. Nowadays it’s a thriving and colourful business with a shop in Kildare Street in Dublin and another, opened in 1986, in Kenmare, County Kerry. Cleo specialises in Irish clothing made from natural fibres: handknit sweaters in a variety of styles and colours for men, women and children as well as coats, capes, linen blouses and shirts, hats, bags, and socks. With styles that gravitate towards the inventive side of trad, the owners describe the clothing as ‘wearable art’ and space is given to the work of some of Ireland’s foremost textile artists.
 
Yanny Petters at the ashmolean
Wicklow artist Yanny Petters has been painting exquisitely detailed studies of wild plants for the past 20 years — an interest that stemmed from her work as a signwriter where plant themes were common in decorative design. This year she’s participating in ‘Botanical Treasures: A New Flowering’ at the Ashmolean, Oxford (4 May - 11 September). The exhibition will display botanical drawings spanning one thousand years, from the earliest botanical illustrations to remarkable contemporary plant portraits that stand at the interface between science and art.
 
OPW Silversmith Award
‘Art & Design at Farmleigh’ culminated in the announcement of an award to a young silversmith for the design of a precious metals letter opener for use by visiting heads of state at the property. The competition, initiated by the Office of Public Works for students of metalwork at the National College of Art & Design was won by third year student, Lea Dillon from Portmarnock. The panel of five judges included the international expert on the history of silver, Philippa Glanville, former chief curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and Trustee of the Bishopsland Trust for the training of young silversmiths and jewellers in the UK.
 
Abstract Forms at the Courthouse
Jane Jermyn of the Lismore-based Tin Shack Ceramics describes her own work as: ‘Abstract organic forms inspired by the natural world — a celebration of nature through the transformation of clay by fire’. It’s a new enterprise: having been away from Ireland, she only established the studio in the last six months and is not attached to any specific gallery. Jermyn looks forward to exhibiting in a number of shows this year: in June she is putting forward an exhibition ‘Relative Space’ with her daughter, the painter Sarah Browne, in The Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely, County Wicklow. She will also be one of eight past students taking part in the exhibition, ‘Common Ground’ which celebrates twenty five years of Grennan Mill Craft School, during Kilkenny Arts Festival in August.
 
00-04 Review at the NCG
The ‘00–04 Review’ celebrates the best of the last four years at the National Craft Gallery. Since it first opened its doors in December 2000, the National Craft Gallery has been one of the few venues that showcase excellence and innovation in the applied and decorative arts. From graduate shows to international exhibitions, the National Craft Gallery has an impressive track record including: LOOT!, Of Colour in Craft, Irish Basket Making, Collect@NCG and 40 Shades of Green, probably the most significant show yet. The Crafts Council of Ireland has published a beautiful book, NCG Review, to accompany the exhibition.
 
Philosophical Photography
Photographer Pip Sides brings an unusual perspective to his work. A graduate in comparative religions, Pip regards his work as ‘philosophical photography—each image has symbolism inspired by the raw energy of nature, powerful and pure’. Pip has ventured into infra red, as it is sensitive to heat and energy, and captures the wild essence of the natural world—this is particularly prevalent in Pip’s seascapes, his favourite subject. Each photograph is hand printed by Pip, so no two images are exactly the same, and framed in Irish ash. A selection of work are framed in triptychs, a unique design where Pip takes three different images with a unifying theme are triple mounted in a single frame.

Eleanor Flegg writes regularly for some of Ireland’s leading interiors and gardening magazines.