CCI-newsletter-1985-51-May-June

MAY/JUNE 1985

Crafts Council of Ireland Thomas Prior House Merrion Road Dublin 4

Telephone 680764 / 603070

R.D.S. CRAFTS COMPETITION Details of the R.D.S. 1985 Crafts Competition have been announced. The closing date for receiving entries is July 12th.

There are 12 main categories with 23 subcategories and the special awards include the Crafts Council of I reland Silver Medal. The ÂŁ4,000 in prizes in sponsored by the E.B.S. Entry forms may be applied for to Royal Dublin Society Crafts Competition, Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Entries must be accompanied by the official form.

"The Large Game"48cm. sculpture

by Ann Warff. Coloured underlay — glass in several layers etched and sandblasted.

ANN WARFF FOR KILKENNY An exhibition of work by the Swedish Artist, Ann Warff will be held during Kilkenny Arts Week (24th August to September 1st, 1985) in the Shee Alms House (Tourist Office), Kilkenny.

Ann Warff is one of Sweden's, and indeed Europe's, most original and exciting workers in glass. She does not make her own glass, any more than the .painter makes her own canvas, but rather she uses glass as a medium. She supervises the making of the glass she is going to use, working mostly with multilayered or mixed colour underlays, while many of her designs call for thin underlays and overlays to be fixed one on top of the other.

In her "cold" studio Ann Warff removes the layers of colour to the desired depth by line etching and subsequent brush etching. The pictorial composition is then

elaborated by sandblasting additional motifs on the glass surface.

The subject matter of Ann Warff's art reveals her as a feminist. Many of her pieces contain images of domestic objects such as milk-cans and teapots, brooms, knives and forks, cups and plates, scissors and chairs. Often the glass itself is in the form of a bowl, a teapot or a milk-can. But the leading motifs of Ann Warff's art are the relations between female and male, culture and nature, creativity and system, divinity and profanity.

Both Ann Warff's experience as a designer of glass ware and her experience as a housewife have influenced her art. By using objects from the kitchen cupboard and the linen shelves she invents symbols which allow her to express women's joy and pride as well astheirworries and exploitation.

IM.CA.D. EXHIBITION The National College of Art and Design Degree/Diploma Exhibition will run at the College from Wednesday 19th June to Friday 28th June from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekends excluded.

Work will be shown from all craft disciplines: ceramic, metal and glass.

Additionally there will be work from departments of fashion and textiles, industrial design, visual communications and of course fine art, sculpture and print making. This latter grouping will be shown at Leinster Lane.

C.T.T. SEMINAR During April C.T.T. ran two seminars, one in Cork, one in Galway under the title The Market for Gifts and Crafts.

The purpose of the seminars was to reach those small producers, some in giftware, some in craft products, others in textiles and clothing who are newly in the export market, or who may be tempted into the export market before they are ready to undertake this serious enterprise.

Some 200 people in all attended both seminars to listen to practical talks in the mornings from speakers from the Crafts Council, from the home market retail sector, from the U.S. retail sector and from a group purchasing agency as well as Bord Failte and C.T.T. In the afternoon all speakers were available for talks with individuals attending the seminars — each speaker dealing with 20 or 30 "clients" whose problems were many and varied.

The main thrust of the seminar was to make sure that everyone was aware of the complexities and difficulties of exporting and that getting into the export market was not something for the inexperienced.

In fact it was seen as essential by all speakers that producers should develop a sound home market base before contemplating getting into exports. It was also seen as important that export potential can be assessed to some degree through visitor purchases on the home market.

The matter of inexperience, of hoping to export after setting up a business as a result of a short training course, was touched on again and again in various ways — not least the danger of giving Irish producers a bad name. What was also stressed was that inexperienced producers were also very unlikely to get into the National Crafts Trade Fair or the Great Crafts Fair. Professionalism was the name of the game in every aspect, and nothing less was considered to be adequate.

It was disquieting to learn from the U.S. retailer that of 28 orders placed at the National Crafts Trade Fair for delivery before May, 12 had not been delivered and no answer had been received-to letters enquiring about delivery sent in early March.

This points up strongly the whole reason for such a seminar. The export market cannot be treated lightly — it is quite unprofessional to take part in a major

trade fair, to accept an order and then not only not to fulfil it on time but not even to advise that there might be a delay, a part delivery or a problem, is unpardonable. And yet the Crafts Council has to put up with a great deal of abuse over refusing participation in the trade fair to those the selection committee judge to be less than adequate in terms of design, ability to perform or other aspects related to professionalism.

VIVIENNE FOLEY IN LONDON In April theCasson Galiery in Marylebone High Street ran an exhibition in which the porcelain work of Vivienne Foley was featured along with ceramists Mary Rogers and Lucie Rie. As part of this trio Vivienne Foley's work is placed in the fore front of the ceramic art world in these islands.

Glass: David Sisk

LACE EXHIBITION IN CLONMEL

THIRD BURREN WORKSHOP

During March there was an interesting exhibition of a collection of Irish lace and designs by Mrs Nellie 0 Cleirigh who has written a booklet on Carrickmacross lace published this year by the Dolmen Press. It is hoped that a second publication on Limerick Lace will come from the same source.

This is a date to be noted: the week of the 15th to the 21st of September. The place is of course Ballyvaughan.

There is talk that the work in this exhibition may be featured at the Edinburgh Festival in August.

Ceramic Clock: Irene Doherty

This is a Burren Workshop with a difference because it has been broadened into a general craft disciplines workshop from one which was concerned mainly with textiles.

There is no craftsworker who, with hand on heart, can say "my designs are so good that my future is not threatened by lack of design input". The fact is that everyones future security is dependent on the strength of the design input. The welldesigned product will sell and dependence

on price becomes less important.

Frank Boyden, U.S. West Coast ceramist, designer, will be a workshop leader.

Alison Wooton the young U.K. textile artist, whose work is based on hand painting and screen printing with acid dyestuffs on various materials including blanket wool and raw silk, will be another leader.

The third leader will be Czechoslovakian Ludmila Kaprasova. She is a master of textile work in all its spectra, knowing even little known techniques both theoretically and practically and using them for new means of expression in lacework and weaving. Her "textile environment" called "Do not let us pull down cathedrals" won first prize at the first Biennale of Lacework in Brussels in 1983.

With this lineup of leaders whose concepts go beyond their own general discipline and encompass all creative work those taking part should find stimulation which can be translated into a fresh approach to design and into new work which will be exhibited later when the full impact of the workshop can be assessed.

TEXTILE SEMINAR Kilkenny Design in cooperation with AnCO and the Textile Industry Training Board Nl has organised a seminar on Design in the Textile Industry which is described as a 24 hour programme for 25 senior managers on the use and control of design for greater profitability in the fashion and textile industries. The Seminar Director is Peter Gorb, Senior Fellow in Design Management at the London Business School. Other contributors include KDW designers Jenny Trigwell, Jim Dunne and Mortimer O'Shea, with Roderick Murphy. Ed Shanahan of the International Wool Secretariat is included in the line up along with Geraldine O'Brien of Primary Prints one of the first group of graduates to pass through the Crafts Council's Kilworth Craft Workshop.

Irish Spinners Ltd. Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo Pure new wool bain in -and coloured hand knitting yarns.

Telephone (094) 81156

A BRIEF LOOK AT IRISH CRAFT HISTORY Amongst the earliest incursors to Ireland were the Tuatha de Danann. According to Lebor Gabala Erenn (The Book of the Taking of Ireland) some said that the Tuatha were demons, but one poem in the Book refutes this saying that the Tuatha "learnt knowledge and poetry and (because of this) every obscurity of art, every clearness of reading, and every subtelety of crafts derive their origin from the Tuatha de Danann. And though the Faith came, those arts were not put away, for they are good".

The mythological Tuatha de Danann are usually equated with the Bronze Age people, the first to use metal in Ireland.

The quality of their products in gold, bronze, pottery, wool and horse-hair, and the standard of their designs all confirm that the Tuatha's craft-work merited respect. Indeed Professor Eoin MacNeill argued that the incoming Celts held the indigenous craft-workers in such esteem that they offered the rank of saoranach (free-person) to any skilled craftworker who supported them.

The Brehon Law later upheld the craftworkers' position in society but distinguished between different grades of workers — the precious metal workers and builders of oratories being of the highest grades. The law also dictated the price to be paid for work, being usually one tenth of the value of the piece. This could be quite expensive as, for example, embroidery "properly done and completely finished" was worth an ounce of silver, "more is to be paid for extraordinary work in proportion".

The artist-craftworker was so appreciated in early Ireland that there were laws outlining the amount of compensation due to him if he suffered any injury to person or tools. P. W. Joyce tells us in A Social History of Ancient Ireland that young people served their apprenticeship to a master of the craft. The apprentice, who lived in the master's home, usually paid a fee for the tuition and also helped with the digging, reaping, feeding pigs, etc. According to Joyce a worker was not allowed to practise on his/her own without sanction from a board of examiners who met at the royal forts of Cruachan or Emhain. Moreover the saire-cerd (sage in handcraft) of the locality had to give permission also.

The introduction of the potter's wheel and the horizontal loom, probably by the Anglo-Normans in the thirteenth century, signalled a break from the

old tradition. Indeed this is emphasised in that The Triads of Ireland, probably dated to the fourteenth century, have only one reference which may refer to craftworkers; "Three hands that are best in the world, the hand of a good carpenter, the hand of a skilled woman, the hand of a good smith".

The establishment of craft-guilds in Ireland and the separation between art and craft which developed in Renaissance Europe, probably quickened the decline in their status and exphasised the growing difference between artistcraftworker and industrial craftworker.

Because of our economic development some of the old crafts survived such as work with rush, willow, wool, iron and tin. These were usually done by people who were of the community and who had no extra status other than that respect from the community for their skills.

The righteous attitude of the industrial era, which encouraged women of means to provide poorly-paid work for the impoverished of their districts, led to the introduction of a number of new crafts to Ireland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. For these professional designers were employed at a distance, but the work itself was done by the hungry, male and female, young, old and infirm, in their own homes or in centres. This work included straw-weaving for bonnets, lace, white embroidery, and horse-hair jewellery.

Dolls House: Made in Ireland and exhibited at The Great Exhibition, London 1851.

The house was owned by the Domville family, Lough linstown, Co. Dublin and acquired by the National Museum in 1905. The museum then commissioned the Cushendall Toy Industry to furnish the house.

The international exhibitions of the midnineteenth century gave encouragement to the manufacturers, artists and sculptors, but gave none to the artistcraftworker. Maybe this was their due as the "models in corkwood of three temples" at the second RDS exhibition (1835) or the "cuffs hand-spun and knitted from the wool of French poodle dogs" exhibited by Deborah Dawson of Bunclody at The Great Exhibition (1851) were little more than hobby crafts.

The thinking of Pugin and Ruskin had effect in Ireland and so the Exhibition of Irish Arts and Manufacturers, 1882 had not only the usual industrial products with cottage and convent industry needlework, but also personally designed hand-carved and inlaid wood furniture, leatherwork, Connemara marble and bogoak jewellery. Further development might be seen in that the organisers of the 1885 exhibition said that they would accept hand-made and machine-made work, "whether completed by one or more Artisans and whether made by them at home or in workshops of employers".

The establishment of The Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland in 1894 brought the

decoration and this principally on the products of England, Germany, Belgium and Italy". O'Donovan showed what could be done through his furnishing of Loughrea Cathedral as for that he commissioned work from Sarah Purser, A.E. Childe, Michael Shortfall, John Hughes and Evelyn Gleeson.

Sadly O'Donovan's challenge to the Irish clergy to play a major part in developing a "proud Irish race" through supporting Irish products and encouraging the development of an individual art style, was not that different from Lord Powerscourt's remarks before the 1865 Dublin International Exhibition.

Powerscourt was quoted then as saying that "refinement and art were the children of education, and education in many countries was not obtained without a certain degree of affluence — if all classes in I reland gave more encouragement to the arts and sciences, it would tend to raise Ireland to the level of other countries".

Fortunately things have changed in the past century!

Mairead Reynolds

Doll: Wood covered with gesso, enamel eyes, wig of human hair. Acquired about 1735 for a Dublin girl Anne Petticrew.

National Museum of Ire/and.

breath of William Morris directly to Ireland. The declared aims of that society were "to improve the Craftsmen and attempt to raise the artistic level of his work.

To make the workman less of a machine producing many objects from one pattern."

That society hoped to be able to develop "much natural talent which is now unused or misdirected and in various ways to aid Irish craftworkers in regaining for their work the high repute it once possessed for excellence of workmanship and artistic taste".

The general excitement of that time must

have been great when people pledged pledges and enthusiastically spoke of ideals. Indeed the euphoria was such that they not only formed work groups, but, for example, commissioned a detailed plan for an Irish Co-operative Pottery Works. This was for about 20/30 potters each of whom would have a cottage workroom of "small" size (15ft x 20ft).

There would be no more than three kilns and living accommodation was within the complex.

But in spite of all this enthusiastic planning it would seem that the Irish artist-craftworker of the period was working for a small market. Father Jeremiah O'Donovan, the-administrator at Loughrea, articulated this in his lecture to the Maynooth College Union in 1901.

Speaking on "Arts and Crafts" he roundly criticised the Irish catholic clergy who spent "hundreds of thousands of pounds annually on churches and church

FOR SALE Electric pottery kiln. K & F (Potclays) Firecraft 120 4.31 cu. ft., 15 months old, little used. Owner leaving country. ÂŁ1,000. Contact: c/o Roger Walker, Connemara West Centre, Letterfrack, Co. Galway. Tel. 27.

Equipment and materials at insane prices. Two-3 phase electric kilns, 15 cu. ft. & 10 cu. ft., auto controls.

Vibrator sifter. 6 Single-phase power points with circuit breakers and shielded cable. Glaze ingredients, etc.

Contact: Fred Williams, Aherla Stoneware, Lodge House, Aherla, Co. Cork. Phone: 021-331136.

POTTERS '85 The mixture much as before but with some full time professional craftsmen missing. Nevertheless the solid professionalism of Michael Jackson's bowl earned him one of the two awards, the other going to Sarah Ryan's set of three pod forms — very delicate work and an advance in the direction in which she is going, but which may need reexamination.

One feels that the same may be true of Lisa Young whose cool well bred work has benefitted from a touch of colour.

The contrast between her two triangular clocks and the bright asymmetrical fun clocks of Irene Doherty beside them could almost have been disadvantageous.

Aileen Barr's black built vase/bottle had overtones of African technique. Paul McCloskey's large tall brick sculptures were well controlled and Peter Watts' various pots, Frog and Moon, Waterfall and Moon were well achieved.

Michael Roche's handling of the large pots is surer each time.

The layout of the exhibition was spacious in effect but there were almost 200 pieces by 62 exhibitors.

Taken all in all a reasonable reflection of the state of pottery here — capable, with no great technical experimentation, which is a pity seeing that so many should have the time to experiment. The student pieces seemed overpriced compared with the work of some established professionals and others.

White Stoneware Gourd — Sarah Ryan

Handled Bowl — Michael Jackson

SCREEN TEST TROPHY It may have passed unnoticed that the very impressive Screen Test Trophy presented to the winner of the Mike Murphy RTE 1 series "Screen Test" a new talent programme, was made by silversmith Brian Clarke. It is good to know that for such programmes those behind their development have the wit and design consciousness to have a good craftsman undertake an original commission rather than pick an off-theshelf looking trophy of no particular distinction. The standard glass trophy is fast becoming almost non visible with familiarity. So, congratulations to Mike Murphy or whoever chose Brian Clarke.

CRAFT INTERNATIONAL Craft International is the craft publication most closely connected with the World Crafts Council and with the whole area of international traditional cultures and crafts as well as being thoroughly in touch with the whole contemporary scene. It is in 48p tabloid format, black and white and comes out quarterly. For those interested the address is 247 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013 and the yearly subscription 16 US dollars. Editor in chief is Rosa Slivka who used to edit Craft Horizons, now defunct and replaced

by American Craft.

ENAMELLER'S NEW STUDIO Paddy McElroy, metal smith and enameller, advises the Newsletter that his new studio at rere 73 Marlborough Road, Dublin 4, is open to visitors any Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Earthenware Tile — Lisa Young

CIARAN FORBES, ACE BOWLER In an illustrated article captioned Ace Bowlers, the work of master wood turner Ciaran Forbes is featured with that of Maria Van Kestern of Holland in the prestigious magazine Crafts (May/ June edition).

It is an interesting juxtaposition of styles and of craft artists. The one as the article suggests "lyrically exposing the material" the other, Maria, "Subjecting it to a progression of formal ideas".

Both, though exhibiting at the British Crafts Centre in London during June, have I rish connections. Maria Van Kestern was of course one of that early group of leading continental craftsmen attached to Kilkenny Design Workshops: Gardberg, Heltzel, Ruuth and others. Her formal style of producing a pure form almost irrespective of whether the material is wood (which it very much is) was seen here in The Bowl exhibition which was

put on by World Craft Council in 1978 and 1979 in many countries.

Ciaran Forbes has been a pioneer in woodturning in this country. The early credit must go to Cecil Hyde whose untimely death cut off an exploration of the possibilities of woodturning and opened up a new world here in that medium. And this world was further explored by Ciaran Forbes from the quiet of the Benedictine Abbey at Glenstal. The encouragement he got from the Crafts Council of Ireland to work with master craftsmen of the calibre of Richard Raffan, and indeed Maria Van Kestern, led to his own mastery of the medium and to a breakthrough of the whole woodturning scene in Ireland into international recognition.

ARE YOU MISSING OUT WHEN YOU'RE NOT IN? An unanswered 'phone means loss of business The telephone is now the most vital link in business Make sure your 'phone is properly manned seven days a week by using a quality telephone answering machine.

For the lowest prices and highest quality Call COMPRO today, at 044-48404 or write to COMPRO LTD., Tullaghan, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.

P.S. We also have cordless 'phones.

VSO WITH UNITED NATIONS VOLUNTEERS We note that a Cottage Industry Field Adviser is sought for Lesotho. Required is an experienced volunteer capable of giving a full range of advice relating to the production and marketing of the items produced who should have good business/marketing experience.

A community development background will be an advantage and training of assistants will be part of the project. The reference number is 10 and applications may be made to VSO 9 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PX. Posts of interest to craftworkers are advised in their latest bulletin as follows.

Handicraft Adviser, Sarawak Ref 57 Handicraft Designer, Sri Lanka Ref 57 Potter, Sierra Leone Ref 57 Pottery Instructor, Uganda Ref 57.

O'ROURKES Glenasmole Crafts Restaurant Dublin (Mountains) 24 For Reservations: Phone Esme at 513620

Kieran Behan

Glass: Evelyn Trundle

FOR SALE Lover spinning wheel and accessories.

Natural dye stuffs and wool fleeces.

Supplied by: Mary O'Rourke, Glenasmole, Dublin 24.

Bergere Table Loom including lease sticks, 2 warp holders, 2 flat shuttles -£45.

Boat shuttle with bobbins - £8 Inkle Loom - £ 1 8 "Inkle Weaving" 212 pages. Full weaving information by Helene Bress -£16o.n.o.

Contact: Phil Murray, Studio, 8 Malpas Place, The Liberties, Dublin 8.

Tel: (01)712393.