Eleanor Flegg reports on the new selection of craftspeople for Portfolio, the creative strategy adopted by the Crafts Council of Ireland to introduce designer-makers to collectors
Portfolio, the Crafts Council of Ireland’s digital catalogue of leading designer makers, evolved as a mechanism for identifying those whose work is suitable for the collectors’ market. The directory, which comes in CD format, (free with this edition) is updated annually by an international selection panel. It is a process that examines the new work of those already selected and the mechanism by which new applicants may submit their work. As Portfolio moves into its second year, eleven new artists have been selected to join the thirty-seven members selected for Portfolio in 2005, bringing the total number to forty-eight. (In fact the initial group numbered thirty-eight, however Margarita Pule recently withdrew.)
