Kevin O'Dwyer Wins 2007 Bursary
The Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary, now in its third year, is intended to release recipients from their usual commitments so they can invest in the creative development of their craft. Applicants must show a clearly developed plan that demonstrates how the award would be used, and this is assessed by a panel of expert judges. The winner of the 2007 Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary, the silversmith Kevin O'Dwyer, was presented with a cheque for €19,500 by the new CEO of the Crafts Council of Ireland, Una Parsons. O'Dwyer is the first metal worker to receive the Bursary which has previously been awarded to the woodturner Liam Flynn in 2005 and, jointly, to the basket maker Joe Hogan and the calligrapher Denis Brown in 2006. O'Dwyer's sculptural silverware is in some of the world's most important permanent collections, including the Racine Museum of Art, USA, National Museum of Ireland, Department of Foreign Affairs and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Bursary will help him develop new concepts in design and material use. He will collaborate with leading US glassmakers, Jon Kuhn and Andy Shea, on a series of silver and glass designs which will lead to both functional and non-functional artworks. In the late 1970s. O'Dwyer studied metal work in Chicago under Bill Frederick, whose Modernist work pushed away from the traditional functionalism of silver, and Heikke Seppa who pioneered anticlastic raising. O'Dwyer returned to Ireland in 1987 and is based in Tullamore, County Offaly
 
Making Changes in Northern Ireland
Craft is unique in the way that it reflects the evolution of both aesthetics and technology and 'Making Changes', the first large exhibition organised by Craft Northern Ireland was the expression of a re-invigorated region presenting its traditions and aspirations to a modern world. 'All the conversations on the North have been dominated by the one subject for thirty years,' said Joe Kelly, the director of Craft Northern Ireland, 'but creativity doesn't recognise borders. Like other areas of the economy, craft is responding to a less isolated environment.' Some of the exhibits took a traditional craft as a starting point, and re-examined it in a contemporary way. 'The Deconstruction of Trade', a series of ceramic pieces by Andrew Livingstone explored the demise of industry and the transition of the urban landscape. The section of the exhibition called 'Re-inventing Linen' reflected the region's complex and evolving relationship with linen. 'Linen is something that people see as heritage, but it could potentially be part of the physical rebuilding of the North,' said Joseph McBrinn of the School of Art and Design, University of Ulster. 'An exhibition like this helps us to connect with what we did quite well in the past- designing and making linen - and ask questions about where we could take it in the future.'
 
Side by Side
'Side by Side', an exhibition that runs from 23 November to 12 January at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, draws the best of Irish contemporary craft into the context of the famous Hunt collection of antiques. Each of the participating applied artists was asked to take a piece from the Hunt collection as a starting point for a new piece of work, so that the contemporary piece springs, in a sense, from the old. Ice Segment, a piece in glass by Michael Ray was inspired by a Byzantine rock-crystal flask from Hunt Museum's permanent collection, while a textile piece by Beth Moran takes its cue from a violet pleated linen evening gown by Sybil Connolly (1921-1998). The participating artists - Sara Flynn, Eleanor Swan, Geraldine Grubb, Margaret Walsh, and Eileen Singleton (ceramics); Anne Mette O'Connor, Kirsten Thomas, Erika Marks, Marika O Sullivan, Debbie Paul, Edward Cook, Sharon Lindsay Ferguson (jewellery/metal); Ray Walsh, Liam Flynn, Erich Fichtner, and Joseph Walsh (wood); Karl Harron, Susanna Vaughan, and Michael Ray (glass); Magdalen Rubalcava, Anne Harrington Rees, Beth Moran, and Caroline Schofield (textiles); Joe Hogan (baskets) - each produced one piece to the exhibition brief, but other examples of their work will also be available for sale at this collectors event.
 
Anthony Scott's Irish Legends series
An exhibition of new work by Anthony Scott shows both continuity and development. While the use of animal forms to capture the spirit of human characters in Irish legend continues, there are new developments in terms of patination. Whereas previous works have mostly been smooth, often to the point of being reflective, a pair of stalwart bulls, Fergus and Naoise, show rough texturing that is quite in keeping with their manly aspect, but a new departure in terms of Scott's work. Each is named for a hero of the Ulster cycle, a saga in which there is considerable overlap, both physical and spiritual, between the warrior and the bull. His magnificent life-size sheep Ram, Emissary of Connacht is a thickset bronze with an aura of influential masculinity. The sculpture does much to reinstate the credibility of an animal that has, except in the work of Nicola Hicks, been too long reduced to wooliness.
 
Fiona Turley
Fiona Turley, who lives and works in Kilworth, County Cork is an artist who paints on silk. In 2007, she launched a collection of prints from her paintings. These images, which encapsulate her style and love of colour and pattern, are available from the Kilkenny shop in Dublin, although Turley's original work is only available from her studio and craft shop in Kilworth, Gallery Crafts, which also retails the work of other designers and makers.
 
West Cork Arts Centre
Curated by the design historian Sarah Foster, 'Making Memories' is based on a series of ongoing conversations about process, materials and design with members of the Guild, which brings together work from twenty-one members, all of whom live and work in West Cork. This diverse group of makers is united by their innovative and imaginative approach to both material and process. The show explores the creative process and how hand, eye and idea interact with natural materials to produce objects which may be functional, or sculptural, or both at the same time. While some pieces are immediately identifiable as useful in the domestic context, others seem to be testing, and stretching, the limits of function.
 
Irish Craft at SOFA 2007
Following on from last year's success, Irish contemporary craft returned to Chicago for the Annual Exposition of Sculptural Objects and Functional Art (SOFA), one of the key international events for contemporary applied art. The show, which bridges the perceived divide between fine art and craft, attracts almost 40,000 visitors over a three-day period. The show offers Irish artists an opportunity to link up with serious collectors and top international galleries. One of the highlights of Ireland's debut at SOFA 2006 was a major sale achieved by the furniture designer/maker Joseph Walsh, whose bespoke, beautifully crafted cabinet was sold on the opening day for $91,000. This year a spectacular large-scale table designed and made by Walsh has been selected as one of the major installations of the show. Suspended from the ceiling in Navy Pier, this floating work of art will take centre stage, signposting the quality and beauty of Irish work. Two Irish experts have been invited to speak in the lecture series that accompanies the show: Audrey Whitty, Curator of Applied Arts at the National Museum, will lecture on the Museum's collection of contemporary applied arts, and the Liam Flynn has been selected as a panellist for a lecture organised by the Collectors of Wood Art. Irish artists exhibiting at SOFA are: Joe Hogan ; Sara Flynn, Jane Jermyn, and Kathleen Moroney); Joseph Walsh; Karl Harron; Berina Kelly, Sonja Landweer, Rachel McKnight, Angela O'Kelly, and Inga Reed; Erika Marks and Kevin O'Dwyer; Nicola Henley; Roger Bennett, Liam Flynn, and Glenn Lucas.
 
London Craft Fairs
Irish exhibitors at Origin: The London Craft Fair, arguably the most prestigious selling event for contemporary craft in the UK, included the jeweller Rachel McKnight who works primarily in plastics. Nuala Jamison, who works with acrylic, sometimes combined with gold, also exhibited, as did the woodturner Roger Bennett. The work of woodturner Liam Flynn, represented by Sarah Myerscough gallery, and the jeweller Angela O'Kelly, represented by Lesley Craze gallery, will be shown at Collect 2008 - Europe's only annual art fair dedicated to contemporary craft at the Victoria and Albert Museum, from 25-29 January.
 
Sculpture in the Parklands
The Irish-American artist Patrick Dougherty will commence a residency at Sculpture in the Parklands, Lough Boora, County Offaly, in June 2008 in partnership with the Crafts Council of Ireland. This will be the largest work to date from this remarkable artist who builds giant temporary structures from tree saplings gathered in the nearby landscape. Snagged together without tools or any supportive hardware, these sculptures respond directly to their surroundings and interact with a particular space to build drama and visual excitement. 'When I turned to sculpture in the early 1980s, it seemed easy to call up the forces of nature and incorporate the sensations of scoring, sheering, and twisting into the surfaces of my sculptures. Using the shafts of a branch one way and the finer top ends in another, I developed a body of work that I have come to think of as Shelters of Transition.'
 
Design Week 2007
Design Week 2007, which took place from 5-11 November 2007, has expanded from a simple retail trail to include an impressive schedule of design-focused seminars, talks, and exhibitions in Cork, Belfast, Kilkenny, Carlow, Limerick, Shannon and Dublin. The Design Tower on Dublin's Grand Canal Quay, once a sugar refinery, hosted a multi-discipline design exhibition, and a street furniture competition, '100 Years of Chairs', took place at the ESB Substation, Caroline Street, Cork. 'Worlds Designed for Everyone', an exhibition by The Central Remedial Clinic at Guinness Storehouse focused on accessibility, the design of devices, and 'design for all'. Craft makers such as Garvan Traynor, Alan Ardiff, Leo Scarff, Celine Traynor and da Capo Goldsmiths formed part of the 'EMBRACE' jewellery exhibition, one of the highlights of Design Week. Working under the common theme of 'EMBRACE', twenty of Ireland's most inventive jewellery designersÊcame together to create either a single piece, or a set of directly or indirectly related pieces for the Design Week exhibition.
 
New Irish Linen
The new Clavin & Brophy Definitive Irish Linen Collection fuses the historical aspect of Ireland's linen with contemporary design. The duvet covers, sheets and pillowcases are made in pure linen in oyster white and trimmed with the Clavin & Brophy signature colours: natural flax, purple dusk, granite pink and marble green. The Cuilt bedspread, throw and cushions are a rich blend of linen, Donegal tweed, lace and wool. The limited edition pieces are made to order in the Clavin & Brophy West Cork Design Studio using linen woven by the last large scale linen weaver in the Irish Republic.
 
Seven Deadly Sins
Peter MacCann, a talented designer from Drogheda who has been working in the UK for the past eight years, has recently returned to Dublin. While based abroad he designed several interesting pieces. In May 2005, MacCann's Tria dining table was presented at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the Heal's Discovers project, an initiative by the design retailer to introduce new design talent. MacCann also sells his own designs from his website - nofixedabode-design.com. These include Good China, Bad China, a dinner service featuring the seven deadly sins and the seven contrary virtues; each white plate has a single central word in flowing blue script. The twelve dinner plates are sold in pairs: Humility and Pride, Kindness and Envy, Chastity and Lust, Temperance and Anger, Charity and Greed, Diligence and Sloth; with serving plates Abstinence and Gluttony. 'The inspiration came from the phrase - the good china,' said MacCann. 'The natural corollary was bad china, and the seven deadly sins fitted nicely.' Reputedly something of a cynic, he also designed the Pessimist Pencil, an all-black pencil bearing the words 'this is pointless'. MacCann has also begun designing lamps for MADE, a new Irish manufacturer.