CCI-newsletter-1985-52-July-August

JULY/AUGUST 1985

Crafts Council of Ireland Thomas Prior House Merrion Road Dublin 4

Telephone 680764 / 603070

"The increasing strength of Irish craftsmanship in recent years has been marked by a new professionalism. This is due in no small measure to organisations such as the Crafts Council of Ireland. The Council plays a crucial role in creating an environment in which various State agencies can bring their specialist services to bear on the craft sector, to the advantage of the craftsman. I know for example that while the nine month training programme here in Kilworth is an outstanding success, the Crafts Council and AnCo are seeking to improve it further through an interesting link-up with post-graduate students in the Roya College of Art in London.

KILWORTH 4 EXHIBITION The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Peter Barry TD., expressed his delight to be present to mark the completion of the fourth year of this very successful training initiative which, as he said, "we have come to know simply as 'Kilworth' ", which he described as unique. "It is funded jointly by the Crafts Council of Ireland and by AnCo. Its training approach is a totally practical one which enables young talented craftspeople to develop their enterpreneurial skills to a stage when they can confidently set up their own workshops.

"Enormous credit for the whole Kilworth initiative must go to the people of Kilworth themselves and their Community Council.

Kilworth is an outstanding example of community co-operation. It is also a clear answer to the cynics and the sceptics and to those who are always poised to snipe at success that we have the imagination and initiative to adapt our resources to their best advantage.

"It is a feature of the Kilworth programme that the participants are drawn from various crafts. Their record

"The establishment of this international dimension highlights the potential of the craft industry beyond these shores.

I have instructed officials in my own Mr. Peter Barry TD., Minister for Foreign Department of Foreign Affairs to take every opportunity to facilitate the Affairs with Alison Erridge, Vice Chairman of the Crafts Council studying showing of Irish craftsmanship abroad.

I have also asked them to assist in the work of textile printer Mel Bradley whatever way we can in informing at the opening of the Kilworth 4 people abroad of the way in which the exhibition. rich heritage of our country is today being translated by the young craftspeople of Ireland." of achievement is impressive. Of the twenty six participants who have completed the Kilworth programme The exhibition consists of over 70 twenty one are currently employed in individual pieces by most of those who their own workshops which in turn are have worked in Kilworth since the providing a spin-off in additional employworkshops were started in 1981, and was ment. Their workshops are located not chosen by jury. only here in Kilworth but in many parts of County Cork as well as in Dublin, Belfast and Donegal.

Ceramics and textiles both woven and printed dominate, though there is a fair selection of jewellery. The work "I am honoured to have been asked to is not chosen from the craftsmen's open here today an exhibition of the normal production work but concentrates work carried out by twenty two past more on one-off pieces. participants. The items on display give us an idea of the excellence of Among those whose work was selected design and the quality of workmanship are potters Anna Kee, Michael Byrne, that is being produced by our own young Romy Gray, Marianne O'Connell, craftspeople. The Crafts Council and Iza Corcoran, Maxine Mearns, AnCo are to be congratulated for Bernard Kavanagh, John Butler and providing the stimulus and facilitating the careers of such creative and talented Continued on back page young people.

KILWORTH DATES CHANGE The Kilworth Craft Workshops year has up to this year started in April, ending in December, with a certain amount of free time for "graduate" participants to undertake work of their own for a month or two afterwards.

It has been generally conceded that a September beginning would be to the best advantage of the workshops in that the intake is more likely to include college graduates who have plans for their own futures which won't want and who often go elsewhere in the months after graduating; also it is to the advantage of those wanting to come to Kilworth for all the right reasons but who do not want to have to either wait to February in the hope of selection or pass up some other oppportunity by so waiting.

A transition year is in progress. Chosen already and working in Kilworth are weavers Jane Sorenson and Julia Cooke, metalsmith Cecelia Moore and ceramists John Butler and Trisha Casey. They are to be joined in September by musical instrument maker Peadar O'Loughlin, ceramists Martina Ni Shuilleabhain and Eithne Twomey as well as Northern Ireland textile printers Fiona Turley and John Shields with textile weaver Rosemary Kelleher.

For a few short months Kilworth is going to be crowded because of the overlap and the more so because of an exciting new project being developed in conjunction with the Royal College of Art in London (details will be included in the next issue of the Newsletter).

Cork Potters, and Pat Dolan of Wexford Craftworkers Association. Both put themselves forward again along with Miss O'Brien of the Irish Society for Design and Craftwork and weaver, spinner and knitter Mary O'Rourke.

Elected to the Management Committee for a period of three years were Mary O'Rourke, Leslie Reed and Pat Dolan.

After the meeting and lunch there was an interesting tour of the Royal Hospital, Kilrnainham.

L E T T E R TO THE EDITOR Sir In the May/June 1985 edition of the Crafts Council of Ireland's "Newsletter" it was reported that a number of Irish companies had failed to deliver orders placed by US Buyers at the National Crafts Trade Fair in January. Whilst I have no wish to defend these companies who irresponsibly fail to meet promised delivery dates, the failure to meet promises is not one-sided. I am referring to payment by US buyers.

On the 1st July, we had received only 30% of the monies due to us for orders taken at the Craft Fair, with two major buyers looking to delay payment until September. Are we manufacturers or bankers? Yours etc.

Frank Kinsella Managing Director Laverty Design Workshops Limited

As is a feature of the Crafts Council A.G.M. s representatives of the various guilds and associations which comprise the membership of the Council made brief reports on their organisations activities.

Editorial comment The home market, too, has its fair share of retailers expecting the craftsman to solve their cash flow problems by holding payment as long as possible — often by using every legitimate means, to which not a few craftsmen contribute by not dotting the i's and crossing the t's with sufficient attention to detail.

After all, if your delivery and your invoice do not quite match up, or the original order is not fulfilled to the letter, or you have made only a part delivery but not advised, then there is a perfect excuse to hold payment while all this is being sorted out. A number of the larger craft based industries allow no such factors to intrude and can generally ensure a balanced number of weeks (months) before payment.

John Verling, who had represented the Cork Craftworkers Guild since 1978 did not go forward again for membership of the Management Committee, since the Guild no longer exists. He was one of the three statutory retirements, the other two being Leslie Reed of the Society of

Mr. Kinsella's point is very valid and the smaller studios cannot be expected to act as bankers to the trade, but by the same token, their product is not such a necessity that they can use muscle by refusing to deal with the retailer, even the bad payers.

A.G.M. The 8th Annual General Meeting of the Crafts Council of Ireland was held at Thomas Prior House, Dublin on 26th June. The main business concerned the Report of the Management Committee for the year 1984 and the passing of the audited accounts.

2

I.S.D.C. EXHIBITION What was astonishing about the Thirty Second Exhibition of the Irish Society for Design and Craftwork held in the Bank of Ireland Exhibition Hall from 25th June to 5th July was not what was good about the 95 exhibits, and there were good pieces, but what was at best pedestrian and tired.

An injection of fresh young blood into the whole exhibition would be to its advantage. There has always been an implied suggestion that the Society would encourage Art College work at its annual exhibiton, but there was little evidence of this at all this year.

Mairead Reynolds of the National Museum of Ireland, who opened the exhibition with a well balanced speech contrasted the meagre funding available to the crafts with that of the arts and the fact that our neighbouring isle gives, twelve times as much to its craft agency, exclusive of Scotland. In alluding to these facts she made the point that we have become brain-washed into regarding the applied arts as somehow inferior to, for instance, painting, which if one examines the intellectual effort which goes into one as against the other, the crafts must at least deserve equal recognition.

WOOD TURNING EXHIBITION Gerry Roche one of Ireland's foremost innovators in the crafts of both wood carving and wood turning had a unique exhibition of wood turned bowls, platters and lamp bases at Kelly Green, Heytesbury Street, Dublin which closed at the end of June.

By using the technique of turning the wood when it is wet, Gerry achieves pieces that are simultaneously functional and sculptural in impact. Sales were reasonably good and it should augur well for the future if appreciation of wood turning at this level can be widened.

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areas also similar criticism was made.

In fashion despite the "outstanding energy and standard of presentation" there were a number of entries which were vague and "accompanied by rather irrelevent background material".

In industrial design some showed "ingenuity or skill in presentation, but not the more substantial skills of the industrial designer" and "many considered the use of plastics without a full understanding of the material's limitations" .... "disappointing was the lack of imagination and enterprise shown in the travel proposals."

N.C.A.D. DIPLOMA SHOW What a heartening change in the general area of crafts. It seems strange to see an N.C.A.D. show in which all the potters had done work on their own style with no two styles the same.

Paul McCtuskey's well executed and strong brick sculptures came over very well (and the Newsletter's apologies for wrong attribution to the photograph of this work in the last edition). The clocks were less successful and that may have been because no clocks will quite survive proximity with those of Irene Doherty. These exhuberant pieces of candy striped, yet still retaining their origin in the Dublin railings and street furniture, were refreshingly different from the drab terracotta glazed classical pottery one has come almost to expect with dread.

Kieran Behan's work is also worth noting.

David Sisk's glass was interesting, especially for the degree of carving involved which was an innovation one hopes rather than a resort, because of the limitations to the possibilities of blowing — a reflection of economics at the college. Has Evelyn Trundles work been consciously chosen or forced by similar circumstamces? One wonders.

Angela Higgins is a young craftswoman whose development is worth watching.

Her initial essays in mokume, the Japanese technique of working with laminated metal, were pleasing and her raised, etched and patinated beakers were very well executed.

In the textile area Rosemary Kelleher, Lucy Hamilton-Turley, Niamh Butler and Fiona Duggan all produced memorable work.

Teapots by Kieran Behan. NCAD Diploma Show. (A caption in the May/ June issue wrongly attributed to Kieran Behan work by Paul McCluskey — brick forms).

CRITICAL OF CRAFTS The jury for the Kilkenny Design Awards '85 was sharply critical of the craft product entries and their comment should be noted and taken to heart especially as the jury included some of the leading craftsmen in the country, themselves noted for their attention to detail, their clear sense of direction and successful businesses: Helena Ruuth, Carmen Chesneau and Louis Mulcahy.

The jury report on craft products stated that, "There were 43 entries, but with a tew exceptions the standard of originality and design was surprisingly low..Many entrants did not submit samples or prototypes, where these might have been reasonably expected. Again with a few exceptions the standard of presentation was poor, perhaps because crafts people do not feel the need to make such presentations as part of their normal work, although ability in this is commercially desirable. Many of the proposals for travel in the event of an award seemed ill-defined or irrelevant; where the entry indicated one definite line of self-development, the proposed travel often did not match it or was tangential. Only two entries were considered good enough to merit further investigation."

An indictment of their education and training is how this might be summed up.

It is fair to relate that in the other

Again, under the heading of textile design there is a similar criticism: "Many ignored the brief... over decorated their portfolios with irrelevant material some of which even obscured the designs".

While the criticism is relevant to those entrants to the awards it must be accepted also by the various educational establishments which patently have not given much thought to training their output to present themselves and their work, whether this is for competition, awards or even job or further training interviews. There is as much skill needed in this area as in any other area of design.

In welcoming the Minister of State, Mr. Michael Moynihan who presented the awards, the Chairman or K.D.W. Mrs. Margaret Downes made the point "that the difference between success and failure in many businesses may depend or the way that professional design standards are applied right through an organisation — from product and product presentation, to marketing and printed matter right through to the environment in which we do business."

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BURREN III Ludmilla Kaprasova, who will be one of the leaders in the AnCo Design and Product Development Programme — Burren III, being held in Ballyvaughan in September, was born in Novy Bydzov in Czechoslovakia. Her education as an artist and craftswoman began in the secondary school of the House of Creation in Prague where she concentrated on woodcarving and architectural mural painting. She left in 1959 to study for a further six years at the Academy of Applied Art in Prague under Professor Antonin Kybal.

From 1965 to 1980 she worked as the creative artist for the Central Office of Folk Art in Prague concentrating on the field of hand embrodiery, lace and textiles. During this period also she carried out research and conducted workshops in France, Romania, Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Belgium, both Germanies, Holland, Denmark and Austria, spending a year at the Faculte des Lettres et Sciences Humaines at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Her work (and she has a deep theoretical and practical knowledge of weaving, embroidery and lace technology) is always to draw from the material its essential character, whatever the piece may be. Her work is on two lines, plandry and three-dimensional. Tapestries and laces represent the one and jewellery (mainly in plastic) miniature textiles and textile environments represent the other.

Ludmilla Kaprasova has had 8 one-man exhibitions since 1967, one a year in, the past four years, and has taken part in 17 group exhibitions not only in Czechoslovakia but in Montreal, Moscow Paris, Frankfort, Vienna, Munich, Chicago, Tokyo, and other major cities.

She has won many prizes, the most recent being the Gold Bobbin — the supreme award — at the International Biennale of Lace in Brussels in 1983.

The interaction between an artist/ craftswoman of this major calibre and a ceramist of the experience of Frank Boyden who is nearly a generation younger should be of enormous impact to the Burren III programme. Frank Boy'den's experience in Oregon after attaining a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from Yale, majoring in painting, includes organising and building the Sitka Centre for Art and Ecology on the Salmon River Estuary and this same area figures largely in his work which varies from lithography to the design of heat storage systems ("Water Cooled Flue Heat Exchanger" Ceramics Monthly 1980) and the whole

'Don t Destroy the Cathedrals" — linen, hemp, cotton and gold, woven and bobbin lace. Ludmilla Kaprasova's Golden Bobbin award winner 1983, Lace Biennale, Belgium.

Photo: Jiri Lapacek

range of ceramics, architectural ceramics, painting and coastal ecology.

Since 1976 he has taken part in 31 one man shows and 51 group shows, and has conducted workshops and tutorials in the Universities of Washington, Seattle, and New Mexico, at Pearson College, at Victoria B.C., the Community College of Nassau, on Long Island and Clackamas in Oregon City as well as the famous Haystack Mountain School.

Burren 111, an AnCo Design and Product Development Programme undertaken in conjunction with the Crafts Council of

Ireland and the Clare Craftworkers Association, should be a major contributor to design in this country and to the development of new product directions which is so essential if we are to keep abreast of the international scene and the buying philosopy of oversea buyers who more and more are regarding quality factors as prime determining factors in purchasing decisions.

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being totally contemporary. Alison's hanging was perhaps less than her best work which is sometimes that in which she seems to strive less.

Allie Kay's hanging was well crafted, well designed, but it is her clothing which was the real mark of her professionalism as a weaver and a user of weaving.

Michele Hughes' patchwork was, as ever, well designed and impeccably made.

Mary Gray's jewellery was boldly dominant compared to the spare line of the silver of Brian Gleeson.

The pottery was, perhaps, of less than top exhibition standard, but pleasing.

Maria Hannon's handling of glazes continues to improve.

Craft Gallery The Clare Craftworkers Association would be happy to rent out the Craft Gallery to other associations and individuals for a nominal sum, provided the exhibitions are of the highest calibre and either selected or approved in total by the Crafts Council of Ireland.

Relevant information is as follows: Premises approximately 20' x 20'.

Breeze Block Walls - White painted with two hanging rails at 5 ft. and 8 ft. high.

Adjustable spotlights (nine) and fluorescent lights.

Additional three point plugs.

Carpeted.

Wood burning stove.

Above: THE BEST OF CLARE Ludmilla Kaprasova, Czech lace, tapestry, The Clare Craftworkers Association's embroidery artist with one of her hemp Craft Gallery at Ballycasey opened in the miniatures. last week of June with a mixed media Photo: Czech News Agency. exhibition by craftsmen from the country.

Below: "Homage to Gothic", woven and bobbin face, linen and hemp — 1985 Ludmilla Kaprasova.

Photo: Jaroslav Jerabek.

While not representive of all the craft artists of quality in Clare even among its own members, this very active Association is to be congratulated on its initiative in opening a craft gallery and in mounting as a first exhibition work from closest to home as it were.

No exhibition from that part of the world should be without its fair share of Erridges and the edge this time must go to Lucy's framed textile pieces, mixing painted fabric with knitting with consumate skill and producing works which have an almost last century-foundin-a-cabinet quality about them while

Chipboard units (white) and two 6" high plinths (36" x 36").

Six softboard screens (approximately 2 ' 6 " x 70" high).

One jewellery display case — glass.

Premises are insured. Exhibitors must insure their own work.

Minimum rental period — two weeks.

For first 12 months, rent for Crafts Council affiliated associations is at I R£25 per week. No commission taken.

Exhibition organisers must arrange their own steward ing — remembering that the centre is open 5 days per week with optional Saturday opening. A rota of local stewards may be available for employment but all arrangements must be made between the stewards and organisers.

Local invitation lists are available.

Reception facilities if required.

"A TURNER'S TURNER" The Irish Woodturners Guild have announced details of their annual seminar to be held in Letterfrack in October. (Saturday and Sunday 26th/27th).

The star attraction this year (participants will remember David Ellsworth, Ray Keay, Richard Raff an, Mick O'Donnell and past stars who have done so much to transform Irish woodturning from its rather heavy, ill designed table leg base to today's sophisticated products) is Del Stubbsfrom Chico. California. David Ellsworth had termed him a turner's turner and is considered one of the three or four top woodturners in the world.

"He has a wide range of abilities from spindle turner, through spinning tops to boxes, not to mention his leaf-like sculptural pieces which are quite breathtaking" according to Michael Dickson of the Guild.

Not content with a star like that, they follow the pop concert line of having "backing groups".

The theme for this will be from tree to finished object and will be a highwire circus act with Ciaran Forbes selecting and cutting bowl blanks from the log using chainsaws, bandsaws and mounting them on the lathe to be turned both natural edged and flat top, thin and normal thickness wet and dry

by Niall Fitzduff. Liam O'Neill will finish bowls wet and dry turned, concentrating on the different techniques and materials.

Spindle turning will be demonstrated

by William Stedmond, both delicate aspects of this art and also chairlegs and bannisters.

To add the dream topping Ciaran Forbes will make scoops, Niall Fitzduff boxes and Liam O'Neill will deal with the selection and care of tools.

We understand that bookings will be limited to 75 on a first come first served basis and as the details are already out we would not be surprised if the limit is not close to being reached.

Members are charged IRÂŁ65.00 and non-members IRE80.00.

Details from W. D. Scott, 62 Landscape Road, Dublin 14.

To anyone not already in the expert league, this seminar should be a must in their education.

ONE STOP SHOPS Much has been written in recent weeks about the One Stop Shop system developed by the I .D.A. as part of their regionalisation programme. The regionalisation programme itself is an effort to, among other things, speed the decision making, help the entrepreneur or small businessman by having more of the responsibility and decisions regarding grants done by local management.

Offices now in Dublin, Cork, Letterkenny, Sligo, Galway, Waterford, Dundalk and Athlone will carry One Stop Shop signs which indicate that all the information that somebody hoping to set up their own business requires may be found under one roof and where appointments can be made with whatever other agencies relevant to the problem may be necessary.

Alison Wooten - painted textiles commissioned work.

CORK WEAVERS A tapestry, based on an early map of Cork, is being woven by six members of the Handweavers Guild of Cork to mark the 800th anniversary of Cork as a city and it will be presented by the Guild to the Cork Civic Museum.

This is a fine and original gesture by this enthusiastic guild for which they deserve congratulation.

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

QUILT A R T WORKSHOP The first in a series of textile work­ shops to be held at The Hill House, Naas, Co. Kildare, will feature American fabric artist, Joen Wolfrom.

A native of Seattle, Washington, Joen began her quilting career in 1975. Since then, she had devoted most of her time to the construction of abstract and representational textile art commissioned by private and corporate clients. Joen's quilted textile art is currently on display in the National Craft Showroom, New York. Quilters Newsletter Magazine has featured her innovative quilts on a number of occasions.

Joen is widely recognised in her field for both technical application and creative use of colour has emphasised the importance of the understanding and use of colour in quiltmaking. Her teaching abilities are very highly regarded and those attending her workshops on colour and design should find them both absorbing and stimulating.

Due to the excessive demand for comprehensive workshops, these have now been structured as two two-day workshops. "The use of Colour in Textile A r t " has been slotted in between to allow all students the option of participating in this important workshop.

Workshop No. 1 Wednesday 2nd, Thursday 3rd October Creating Pictorial Stripped Pieced Fabric Art For quiltmakers who wish to create pictorial fabric art through the technique of stripped piecing. Depth perception, specific technical aspects of construction and design effects created by quilting are studied. The student is led through the various stages of planning, designing and constructing a fabric art picture using stripped piecing methods.

Workshop No. 2 Friday 4th October The Use of Colour in Textile Art This workshop is to help quiltmakers and textile artists become more familiar with colour and its many uses within the textile medium. Exercises and discussions will cover the following: perception, use of colour to show lustre, iridescence and lumination, transparency, texture, solidity, highlights and shadows. All work in this workshop is done with coloured papers, and pencils.

Workshop No. 3 Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th October

J I L L CROWLEY MICKCASSON

Creating Abstract Designs for Contemporary Quilts This workshop is for quiltmakers who wish to expand and stimulate their creativity. Subject matter included covers contemporary two-dimensional design concepts, design expansion and development, textile effects of quilting designs, secondary designs with quilting and the basic techniques of construction.

This workshop is ideal for any quiltmaker wishing to make an abstract quilt.

The Society of Cork Potters has organised an important seminar for November which will be led by potters Jill Crowley and Mick Casson. There will only be 100 places available, and with the closing date for applications being 1st September time is short if anyone wishes to make sure of a place.

Contact Grania McElligott, The Hill House, Naas, Co. Kildare. Tel: (045) 76121, or Fiona Denham, 133 Beech Park, Lucan, Co. Dublin. Tel: (01) 282640 for further details regarding these workshops.

The cost will be £30 (£25 to students) and includes lunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday. The catering by Adele Connor who catered so successfully for the International Symposium in Carrigaline in 1982.

Joen will also cover the marketing of quilts in a one-day workshop to be held in Drogheda on Saturday 21st September.

Applications should be made with a S.A.E. to Leslie Reed, 1 Hill Terrace, Bandon, Co. Cork.

Planning for Success as a Professional Quiltmaker/Fabric Artist This is an intensive workshop devoted to the business of marketing quilts, fabric art, clothing and other related works. Promotion, marketing, planning, pricing, contracts, record keeping, taxes, organisation, time management and other relevant subject matter will be discussed throughout a combination of lectures, demonstrations and group discussions.

The workshop is designed to help the professional (or soon to be) business woman to have a successful, productive business plan.

Contact Mary McDonnell, Townley Hall Road, Tullyallen, Co. Louth. Tel: (041) 37664, for further details.

In conjunction with a short trip around the West of Ireland, Joen will also give a slide lecture in Galway on Monday evening, 23rd September. Contact Ann Fahy, Tonlegea, Ballagh, Bushy Park, Galway. Tel: (091) 24675.

The seminar will include demonstrations, slides and films and will be held on Saturday and Sunday, 16 and 17 November.

POTTERY IN A U S T R A L I A The Potters Society of Australia publish their own magazine called Pottery in Australia which comes courtesy of that Society to the Crafts Council on a regular basis. This magazine is published four times a year and, along with Crafts Australia, the magazine of the Crafts Council of Australia, shows what a very vibrant and highly developed craft pottery is in Australia (and not only pottery — every other craft as well is alive, exploring and would put much of what is here in the shade. However, and this should not be forgotten, when it comes to upmarket production pottery, Ireland can hold its own with many places and is ahead of quite a few of them).

Pottery in Australia is published from 48 Burton Street, Darlington, Sydney 2010, New South Wales, and costs 25 Australian dollars.

Copies can be seen at the Crafts Council.

FOR S A L E The Newsletter has received a copy of the quilt Art Accessories Catalogue from Grania McElligott. Included among the many useful and almost es­ sential goods are quilt art rulers, seam markers, polygrid template sheets and the like. Details from Quilt Art Accessories, The Hill House, Tipper Road, Naas, Co. Kildare.

FOR S A L E Shelving for sale, suitable for shop or display. Also cash register. Best offers.

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for the front of the Mansion House is being designed to attract a larger proportion of the buying public from the Grafton Street area. A new central stand system will offer greater variety of stand sizes and price increases will be kept to a minimum.

The entrance fee will be reduced and greater emphasis placed on increasing the throughput of the buying public.

Obviously this expansion of the Fair requires many more participants than previously. The C.A.D.F. has always been oversubscribed and filling the stands should be no problem. However, this year greater emphasis will be placed on new, interesting and exciting departures in the art and craft field.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Peter Barry, TD., at the exhibition opening and parchment presentation held recently at Kilworth. With him are Kilworth past participants Shirley Smyth, Lynne Glasscoe (Training Manager), Marie McCleen, Maxine Mearns, Marianne O'Connell, Liz McCabe, Pat Whelan and Bernard Kavanagh.

Trisha Casey and Brenda O'Brien and textile artists Mel Bradley, Angela Forte, Shirley Smyth, Jane Sorenson, Liz McCabe, Julia Cooke, Sheila McCarten, Marie McClean and Deirdre Campion. Of the metal workers, Rose McGonagle, Cecelia Moore and Heather McFadden are represented.

The exhibition moves to the Ballycasey Craft Gallery in September, opening there on 23rd and remaining until the 11th of October.

It will be seen in Dublin on 6th-10th November as one of the exhibitions at the Crafts Council's Great Crafts Fair 11 at the R.D.S. Main Hall.

Finally the exhibition moves to the Crawford Municipal Gallery in Cork at the end of October.

PARCHMENTS PRESENTATION The Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr. Peter Barry T.D., presented parchments to the eight participants in the Kilworth Craft Workshops who completed their full course at the end of 1984. These were ceramists Maxine Mearns, Marianne O'Connell and Bernard Kavanagh, and textile weavers and printers Sheila McCarten, Marie McClean, Shirley Smyth, Pat Whelan and Liz McCabe. The parchments were handmade by calligrapher Beverly Courtney.

FIFTH CHRISTMAS FAIR This year's Christmas Art and Design Fair to be held in the Mansion House from 10th to 15th December inclusive, promises to be a much bigger, more colourful and attractive family affair than in previous years. The Fair has now been put on a sounder financial footing.

I f you feel that your creative work qualifies in that way, contact us without delay. Application forms are now available and should be returned immediately to: Christmas Art and Design Fair, 50 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

Tel: (01) 680734/612105.

This has been achieved by: 1. Many previous exhibitors sending in their ÂŁ100 booking fee at an early date, thereby securing a space in the Fair.

2. Through the generosity of the Crafts Council of Ireland.the Fair has been offered a free stand at the Great Crafts Fair. This will have the effect of bringing a greater awareness of the Fair to a wider public as well as demonstrating the complimentarity of two shows.

3. Generous offers of support from the Irish Goods Council, especially the commitment that the Fair will receive equal treatment with other Christmas shows.

This year both the Round Room and the Supper Room in the Mansion House will be fully utilised with additional space for new family attractions:

CRAFTS COUNCIL SILVER MEDAL The Crafts Council Silver Medal for a work of outstanding merit was awarded at the RDS National Craft Competition 1985 to Martin Doyle, 1 St. Michael's Villas, Bray for a wooden flute. It was appropriate that the award should go to a craftsman in musical instruments in the European Music Year.

GOLD MEDAL FOR MARION YOUNG The RDS California Gold Medal was this year awarded to Marion Young of Maghera. It was long overdue recognition for this outstanding craftswoman whose work in decorative embroidery and weaving has been consistently excellent now for a number of years, and has shown exploration and development in a steady progression.

1. A free creche facility to allow parents to shop at their leisure.

2. A new visually attractive centrepiece is planned for the stage area which will 3. In addition to the popular Dempsey's Bar and Monica's Food Kitchen a new Oyster and Seafood Bar will be available.

4. A totally new sign and lighting system

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