RDS Irish Craft Bursary

The RDS supports the RDS Irish Craft Bursary which is a €10,000 bursary managed by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI) and open to makers in its Portfolio programme. The RDS Irish Craft Bursary is part of the restructured RDS Craft Awards announced in 2018.

Laura Quinn, Tacit Light.

2023 RDS Irish Craft Bursary Winner

Stevan Hartung, recipient of the RDS Irish Craft Bursary, intends to continue his work with humble wood such as hawthorn, rowan and blackthorn, to create finely crafted cabinets, and help to instil in others an appreciation of the value and beauty of native Irish hedge trees. Currently, Stevan is finalising his work on three small cabinets using this type of timber, which forms part of a commission for the National Museum of Ireland/DCCI permanent collection of craft and design. To date, Stevan has completed two of the three cabinets. The first in holly and the second in wild cherry. The third cabinet will be made from hawthorn and hazel, which is currently seasoning for use in 2024. By winning the RDS Irish Craft Bursary, Stevan can now add an additional two cabinets to his series as well as completing a book on his work by the end of 2024.

RDS Irish Craft Bursary recipient Stevan Hartung said, “Receiving the RDS Craft Bursary will be a  considerable support to me in the continuation and completion of my project creating a series of small wall cabinets using the wood from native Irish hedgerows. It will allow me to expand on the original comission for the NMI permanent collection of craft and design, and to record and illustrate my work with the publication of a book. I feel that this project is the culmination of many years of experience which bring together my love of cabinet making and my interest in, and concern for, our natural environment.”

2022 RDS Irish Craft Bursary Winner

The Winner of the 2022 Irish Craft Bursary was glass maker and designer Laura Quinn. With the funding, Laura will undertake a year long, ambitious project to develop and publicly document a new series of work.  Commencing in late Autumn 2022, this project will involve the development of a new series of blown and lampworked sculptural glass pieces that further explores her research into audience interactive glass art.  The bursary will also fund Laura’s attendance at a master class in the world renowned Pilchuck Glass School in Washington, USA, under master glass blowers Boyd Sugiki and Lisa Zerkowitz.   Attending this masterclass will allow her to hone her skills, both for her own practice, but also to be able to pass onto the next generation, in Ireland and Internationally. 

Speaking about the Award, Laura commented:

"The RDS Irish Craft Bursary has come at a very important point in my career, having graduated from my MA in 2019, I am now turning towards becoming an established, be it early career maker.  Being awarded the bursary not only allows me to undertake a project that I know will advance my practice and career, but it is the boost of confidence that comes with it.  Receiving it has shown that people do believe in the work that I create, and the importance to continue to do so.  This time 7 years ago, in 2015, when the RDS Craft Awards were under a different structure, I was awarded the Emerging Glass Artist Award, and the Innovation in Glass Award.  Winning these awards at that time, when finishing my BA in Glass from NCAD in Dublin, was a huge encouragement to head into my glass career with the support and belief of the RDS foundation.  With the award fund I undertook an internship in Olustvere Glass Blowing Studio in Estonia, which allowed me to gain my first full time paid glass position in LoCo Glass studio in the UK.  This lead onto me undertaking my Masters degree in Plymouth College of Art, and finally bringing me to where I am now, working as the Glass Technical Tutor in the University for the Creative Arts where I can continue to develop my practice, and pass my skills onto the next generation.  I hope that the foundation can now see that their belief in my work from an early stage has helped me to develop me into the artist I am today.  I can't thank the RDS Foundation enough for their support at these pivotal moments.  I hope that as the years go on The RDS Foundation will continue to see how my practice grows and develops, and know that it has played a significant role in that."

2021 RDS Irish Craft Bursary Winner

The 2021 winner of the RDS Irish Craft Bursary was silversmith, Cara Murphy. Hers was an ambitious and unusual project that saw her creating new work directly in the Irish landscape through ‘outdoor silversmithing’. Cara wanted to explore potential forms which could be created at the intersection of where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Irish coastline. The bursary supported a period of outdoor experimentation with hammering, and the creation of a number of silver hollow-ware forms and extensive documentation of the process.

Speaking about the Award, Cara commented, "A huge thank you to the RDS and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland for awarding me this bursary and allowing me to engage so many people in the possibilities of silversmithing with very little other than a hammer, thermal socks and enthusiasm for Donegal's rugged coastline."

2019 RDS Irish Craft Bursary Winner

The winner of the 2019 RDS Irish Craft Bursary, worth €10,000, was jewellery designer Seliena Coyle. Seliena Coyle’s project saw the production of 100 contemporary icons inspired by and dedicated to women. The RDS bursary supported a period of research in addition to the production of this work. This body of wall-based work explored the narrative format while utilising skills and techniques familiar to the jeweller, thereby allowing each vignette to retain the intimacy more acquainted with the brooch. Assemblage and symbolic references combined to construct a micro cosmos unique to each protagonist. They served to honour and eulogise the individual.

Speaking about the award, Coyle commented, “I am so delighted to have been awarded this year's RDS Irish Craft Award. It will enable me to undertake the most ambitious project of my career to date and marks a radical shift in my practice. I would like to thank the RDS and Design & Crafts Council Ireland for this support.”

Seliena Coyle is jewellery designer, curator and educator based in Derry. After receiving a Bachelor of Design in Jewellery and Silversmithing at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, Scotland in 1993, she went on to complete the Jewellery Production Skills course at the Design & Crafts Council Ireland in 1994. She subsequently achieved a Master of Fine Art in Metalsmithing and Jewellery Design from Indiana University, USA in 1998.

2018 RDS Irish Craft Bursary Winner

The winner of the inaugural RDS Irish Craft Bursary, worth €10,000, was contemporary glass artist Edmond Byrne. The proposal was an ambitious and innovative collaboration with award-winning metal artist Adi Toch. The aim was to explore the meeting point of metal and glass, stretching and challenging specialist knowledge and skills to make a new original body of work. Through the cross-pollination of processes, skills and materials, the meaning and various approaches to collaborative craft-based practices were examined. Metal and glass share a rich and colourful history and the project was also informed by this. Their aim was to create a series of five fully resolved sculptural vessels as well as establish the working relationship, knowledge and multidisciplinary practice to create more work in future.

Speaking about the award, Edmond Byrne commented, “I had reached a crossroads in my career where I had the desire to expand my material language and redefine my practice. We were both eager to work collaboratively and start a new experimental journey that would open up new ways of making. This bursary enabled us to take the creative risk to follow an ambitious multi-material approach, discovering new territories, audiences and a visual vocabulary that would otherwise have been impossible.”

Byrne graduated with a Bachelor of Design in Craft from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2000 and completed a Higher Diploma in Art and Design Education in 2007. In 2008, Byrne went on to study for an MA at the Royal College of Art in London, finishing in 2010. He is part of the wider PORTFOLIO programme and was selected for PORTFOLIO: Critical Selection 2017-18 and 2015-16 editions. His most recent exhibitions were in the Joanna Bird Gallery, London; Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; and London Glassblowing, London. He is currently based in Surrey and teaches at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. He showed the newly created work made as a result of the RDS Bursary at COLLECT in London in March 2020 and works were purchased by both the V&A and the Ulster Museum for their public collections.

Edmond commented, "COLLECT Open was an ideal launchpad to introduce our collaborative work allowing us to present it to international collectors, galleries and museums. After this success we are planning new exhibitions and work."