RDS Craft Awards Past Winners
2022 Winners
Amy Kerr - Textiles & Surface Design
Amy Kerr graduated from NCAD in 2021 with a First Class Honours Degree in Textile & Surface Design. She was the winner of the first ever Future Makers Sustainable Design Award in 2021 and won the Textiles Category at the IDI Graduate Design Awards in the same year. Amy’s work appreciates the importance of traditional craft while also working along side the newest and emerging technology including 3D printing, in order to work towards a more sustainable future. She plans to undertake a Masters in Innovative Textile Development and Engineering in the Netherlands and plans to use her €10,000 RDS Craft Awards money to purchase a new weaving loom which will allow her to explore a huge variety of woven structures and new design possibilities.
Síofra Caherty - Fashion & Accessory Design
Síofra Chaerty is a Belfast-based designer, maker & educator with an MFA in Multidisciplinary Design from the Belfast School of Art. She has won several awards including a prestigious Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow in 2018 - ‘Building a Zero Waste Community’ and in 2021 a Future Makers Award, Training Support. Síofra is relentless in her pursuit of creating beautiful and valuable objects from what others would consider 'waste' material. A life-long commitment to sustainability has resulted in the founding of her studio, Jump The Hedges. She create bags from waste materials & leads workshops on sustainable design & activism. Síofra will use her RDS Craft Awards prize money to further develop her bag making and leather working skills by attending a 3 month course in the leading school for bag making internationally; Scuola del Cuoio in Florence, Italy.
www.jumpthehedges.com
Fintan Mulholland - Knitwear
Fintan Mulholland produces uniquely constructed knitwear using only natural yarns from his studio in Co. Monaghan. He completed a Masters in Fashion Knitwear Design at Nottingham Trent University in 2015, following on from a Bachelor’s Degree in Textile Art Design with Fashion from Belfast School of Art in 2014. His undergraduate knitwear collection won a number of prestigious awards including the Inis Meáin Creative Knitwear Award and the Institute of Designers in Ireland Graduate Fashion Design Award. His work was selected to sell in Brown Thomas, as part of its ‘Create’ programme in 2016 and 2018. Fintan won a Future Makers Studio Support in 2021. He will use his RDS Craft Award money to upgrade his manufacturing and processing equipment, and will focus on the development of his brand by working closely with agencies on PR, marketing and promotion.
www.fintanmulholland.com
Katharina Treml - Ceramics
Katharina Treml is an Austrian-born potter based in Co. Waterford. She makes beautiful wheel thrown functional tableware and one-off decorative pieces in stoneware and porcelain. She graduated from the Design & Crafts Council Ireland’s renowned Ceramics Skills & Design course in 2020 and was the Overall Student Winner in the 2021 Future Maker Awards. She has exhibited her work widely and was included in the recent Made in Ireland Exhibition at the National Design & Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. Katharina will use her bursary money to to gain a deeper knowledge about rock glazing and woodfiring and will attend courses in both. She will also invest in some new equipment for her studio and invest time in testing new wood fired glazes from local materials.
www.katharinatreml.com
Laura Matikaite - Ceramics
Laura Matikaite is a ceramic artist based in Co. Laois of Lithuanian heritage. She has a degree in Ceramic Design from Limerick School of Art & Design and graduated from the Design & Crafts Council Ireland’s Ceramic Skills & Design Course in 2020. Laura makes contemporary ceramic forms that are a combination of design and intuition using both functional and decorative forms. She uses stoneware and porcelain and makes her own glazes and has exhibited her work widely. In 2021 she was awarded a Future Makers Professional Development Award. Laura will use her RDS Craft Awards money to purchase a gas reduction kiln for her studio which will enable her to achieve different glazes and to create work of larger scale and quantity.
www.lauramatikaite.com
2021 Winners
Sam Gleeson - Bladesmithing
Sam Gleeson is a bladesmith based in Co Clare. Using both metal and woodworking techniques, and often incorporating reclaimed materials and ocean plastics, he creates exceptionally beautiful and functional knives for culinary use. Sam who is also a chef, is motivated by materials and the story they hold, he gives new life to found and recycled steels using centuries old forge-welding techniques. He plans to open a bladesmithing teaching facility where he will share his craft skills with others. Sam used the bursary money to attend a high-level forge-welding course in the United States, to undertake the research and development of new work, to purchase new equipment and to create new promotional content.
Jenny Mulligan - Glass
NCAD graduate, Jenny Mulligan is an Irish glass artist who has recently completed her studies in Riksglasskolan, the National School of Glass in Sweden with a focus on both hot and cold glass. Her artistic practise focuses on traditional techniques of glassblowing, cutting and engraving, and applying those techniques in contemporary ways to challenge traditional customs. Her finished forms are exquisite. Her high-polish and deep-cut series ‘Confluence’ explores the movement and essence of line. Jenny wants to build a workshop for coldworking and engraving, ultimately creating a facility which can be a resource for others too. Jenny used the RDS bursary money to purchase new equipment and to rent facilities to make new work.
Paul O’Brien - Furniture
Paul O’Brien is a furniture designer and maker based in Kinsale, Co. Cork. With a background in visual art, he trained as a furniture maker in London before returning home to Ireland to work with Joseph Walsh Studio for two years before establishing his own business, Modet, in 2017. His approach to design is contemporary, minimal and elegant. Paul creates beautifully crafted furniture with a lightness of touch incorporating subtle details such as shadow lines and organic curves. He plans to grow his business, create new work and move into the international export market. Paul used the bursary money to purchase new equipment which would allow him to increase the scope of what he could make in a more efficient manner.
Katie Spiers - Glass
Katie Spiers graduated from NCAD in 2019 with a degree in ceramics and glass. She specialises in lampworking and painting on glass. Katie draws with glass to create beautiful sculptural birds which she incorporates into dramatic installations with sound and lighting. The fragility of the sculptures speaks to the pressures the modern world has exerted on the dwindling numbers of birds in Ireland. Her work specifically looks at endangered bird species in Ireland such as the Curlew and Corncrake. Katie was awarded the Bursary to train with master lampworker Ferran Collado in Barcelona. She also planned to invest in new equipment, a better studio space where people can see her work and, on a new website and promotional video.
www.instagram.com/katiespiersart/
Ciara Allen – Fashion Design
Ciara is a recent graduate from NCAD and has established a strong sustainable brand creating and selling her bright and bold unisex fashion pieces. With a focus on ‘slow’ fashion, she creates her own unique digital prints and silhouettes which culminate in contemporary and confident fashion for people of all genders and body sizes. Currently undertaking a business course, Ciara wants to grow her brand and create new collections. Ciara used her bursary money on new equipment, fabric research, materials for her new collection as well as branding and packaging.
2020 Winners
Lucy Cushley – Collar, Harness & Saddle Maker
Lucy is dedicated to the craft of saddlery and plans to complete her City & Guilds Bridle, Saddle and Harness making exams before setting her up own workshop with a small shop front area to display and sell products and discuss bespoke orders with clients. Lucy used her bursary money on the purchase of industrial quality new machinery and the purchase of essential leather and metal accessory materials. Lucy continues to develop her skills in the endangered craft of horse collar making, helping to preserve it for future generations.
Éilís Murphy – Bookbinding
Éilís has a BA in Fine Art (Print) from the National College of Art & Design. In 2003 since an American bookbinder came to the college and taught a module in bookbinding she was hooked and has been binding books ever since. Along the way she trained with the Society of Bookbinders (UK), Frauke Schroeder (Berlin) and West Dean College (UK), and has volunteered with the Paper Conservation Department in the National Gallery of Ireland. Bookbinding involves the use of traditional techniques that have remained unchanged for centuries combined with contemporary design and her own artistic innovation. Éilís used the Bursary money to research and develop a ready-made range of handmade books as well as to undertake a course in book design and production. In the future she hopes to concentrate more on limited-edition art books.
Mark Newman – Jewellery
Following a degree in Craft Design: Jewellery & Metalwork in NCAD, Mark Newman completed the Higher Diploma in Goldsmithing & Jewellery Design with the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland in 2019. He is currently completing a BA in the Birmingham School of Jewellery specialising in Design for Industry. As well as making by hand, he also uses CAD and 3D printing to push the boundaries of his work. Mark draws inspiration from man-made systems and civil engineering. Mark used the bursary to invest in new equipment and precious materials to create new work as well as branded packaging and display materials.
Izzy O’Reilly – Fashion
Izzy graduated from the National College of Art & Design with a BA in Fashion Design in 2019. She was the Overall Student Future Makers Winner last year. She aspires to provide tactile contemporary design which challenges the traditional concepts of fashion design, craft and tailoring in Ireland. Her pieces are individually hand-made using materials sourced in recycling centres. Izzy plans to use the bursary money towards paying the tuition fees to complete her Masters in Fashion Design.
Róisín Pierce - Fashion
Drawing on Irish historical references and traditional hand textile techniques, Róisín’s method of making clothes is far from traditional. Each piece of work is individually hand-crafted, manipulated and finished and constructed through zero waste cutting. She won the Overall Emerging Maker Award in Future Makers 2019 and has collaborated with three Chanel metiers on Haute Couture pieces. Working alongside Priscilla Royer of Maison Michel, Paul Voisin of Les Ateliers de Verneuil and Regina Weber from Paloma has given Róisín a unique insight into how their studios operate. This work will be showcased in spring 2020. Róisín is working on a ready to wear collection. Her end goal is to sustain her own brand, bringing her modernised craft (smocking) to an international level and working alongside other Irish craft-makers. Róisín used the Bursary to purchase sustainable fabrics, for graphic design and to complete an online fashion management course.
2019 Winners
Alla Sinkevich – Textiles/Fashion
Alla’s work is motivated and inspired by nature and biology, contemporary art, photography, architecture, archival garments and vintage design objects. In striving for the work to be as sustainable as possible, she only uses natural fabrics and materials when creating her work: specifically, linen, wool and recycled leather. Hand quilting, stitching, felting and dyeing techniques have been used in the process of making garments and a strong focus is placed on the rediscovery and application of various craft techniques.
The collection ‘Existential Nomad’ combines traditional tailoring, underappreciated craft techniques and innovative zero waste patterns, use of local sustainable materials backed up with a strong concept while considering social, cultural and ecological aspects. The collection is based on the nesting dolls principle. Inspired by archetypes of nomadic cultures from around the world, timeless garments executed in sustainable materials using heritage techniques reflect on personal multicultural experience and self-discovery.
Edward Coveney – Furniture
Elements of action is a design firm who design and make handmade, high-end furniture in Rathmines, Dublin. Ed Coveney is the designer and maker who uses traditional techniques to create unique hand-crafted bespoke objects in local stone, marble, indigenous timbers combined with brass or steel. A range of mirrors, lights, dining, console and occasional tables with local elements and clever details. The furniture challenges how people live, use materials and everyday objects and see their homes.
The work is landscape led. Knowing the vernacular materials and having been able to read landscape from his previous vocations as a dry-stone walling/stonemason and subsequently as a landscape architect, there is therefore a direct link to his craft making.
His motivation is to create original and contemporary furniture which pushes the boundaries of contemporary design. He is inspired by the materiality, interesting combinations and how the elements of action of time, weather, light, shadow and its original place in our landscape can affect that material and ultimately the end piece.
Egle Bante - Jewellery
Winner of the Future Makers Award the previous year, the aim of jewellery maker Egle’s work is to create jewellery which from the outside looks like a simple geometrical form but when opened, moves, lifts, and transforms. Her pieces aim to reveal themselves slowly, confounding expectation by offering simple, geometrical satisfaction, and only then to offer new possibilities through the mobility and adaptability of the object.
Her work confronts the predictable symmetrical form, disrupting it by the addition of small details like hinges, and in turn breaking up the austerity of the shape.
She is interested in exploring the circle in her work with her aim to reduce the circle to its constituent parts in order to reinterpret it by deconstructing it. She is interested in creating three-dimensional construction by repeating, joining, and mis-joining equal curved elements.
In her own words ‘the jewellery I create relies on the wearer. The pieces change in response to what the wearer does with them; how the hinged pieces sit or are placed on a body imports the quality of the wearer.
Genevieve Howard - Jewellery
Genevieve’s work combines traditional craft, technology and music and having grown up on a musical family this is what inspires her creativity. Since graduating from NCAD in 2015 she has developed her own unique process of visualising music in a three-dimensional wearable form.
Her work is made using a combination of technology and traditional hand skills. She creates her own drawings from the architecture of various musical scores. The resulting shapes, which are counterpoints to their notational representations are then redrawn on CAD and laser cut from Japanese linen paper or hand cut from metal. She then layers hundreds of these thin slices by hand and assembles them into sculptural neckpieces and bracelets.
Her choice of source music has ranged widely from Irish traditional tunes to classical and contemporary operatic works. As the form of each suite of jewellery is directly dictated by the structure of the musical score from which it was drawn, the result is a unique and wearable visualisation of that particular work.
Sinéad Brennan - Glass
Sinead’s work is inspired by her research into how women’s positions in Western society have been constructed through concepts of female empowerment, objectification and suppression. She then contextualises these ideas with the use of iconography, symbolism and textual materials, each denoting specific male and female societal roles. This material both amalgamates and juxtaposes the traditionally gendered elements of weaponry and cosmetics, thereby creating a metaphor equalising male and female power.Each piece’s title is a quote found in early twentieth century advertisements for women’s cosmetics and fashion products. The titles are engraved features on each piece and are a means of highlighting a female issue or injustice. Inspired by the 2018 repeal referendum campaign and the Belfast rape trial, she has also begun collecting quotes found in recent newspaper articles, news broadcasts and documentaries and incorporating them into her work.Each of her sculptures comprises many individually crafted pieces. She employs a range of glass making processes such as blowing, hot sculpting and various cold-working techniques.She also has a range of tableware products, designed in partnership with Róisín de Buitléar, at Glint Glass Studio. Using up-cycle waste bottles to make all the products with the aim of creating sustainable products, developing a sustainable studio practice and promoting glass as a sustainable craft.
2018 RDS Craft Award Winners
Alan Meredith – Furniture Maker / Woodturning
Alan’s work crosses the boundaries of contemporary craft, sculpture and architecture and has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Graduating with a master’s in architecture from University College Dublin in September 2015, he currently works from a studio in County Laois, imagining and creating one of a kind and speculative piece for both public and private clients. Completed projects include; one of a kind furniture, public space design, and collections of sculptural wood-turned vessels.
Within his work, there is focus on wood as a material, its traditional use and future potential. It is hoped that the resulting work will have a sense of material presence, wholesomeness, depth and perhaps purity.
He uses steam to bend the wood and has developed this method in his studio over the past two years, particularly in the making of tables shelves and vessels. This ancient steaming method has allowed new and elaborate forms to be generated while still working within the constraints of solid wood. The material depth and textures possible to achieve with solid wood are significant.
His primary motivation is a desire to see a simple piece emerge from the material into something meaningful. Essentially the work is about the expression of his own values and the striving to refine and achieve those values on an ongoing basis.
Chloe Dowds - Ceramics
Chloe is a graduate with a BA (Hons.) in Fine Art Ceramics, her work involves the use of clay to make pottery and ceramics. For her the many shapes and possibilities of working with this material are what motivate and excite her.
During her second year of the DCCI’s Pottery Skills Course she started experimenting with porcelain where she found she really connected with the material. Her inspiration is rooted in the material itself. The tableware range she produces is designed to be as tactile as possible. Craftsmanship and attention to detail are paramount in her work.
Every element of design has been considered to stimulate and heighten the user’s experience of the piece. The work is wheel-thrown and then altered. She adds a spiral in the soft porcelain, then makes an indent where the handle will go. This allows for stimulation of the sense of touch and makes the mugs very comfortable to hold. The glossy glaze mixed by hand compliments the curves and echoes the use of liquid.
Laoise Carey – Fashion Design
Utilising a tactile approach to fashion design, Laoise incorporates traditional hand crafts, knitting, basket weaving, rush work and crochet into her Eidolon collection. Vintage fabrics and antique garments provide inspiration for her pieces, which sit on the border between works of design and craft.
Eidolon is a collection of garments which convey a narrative about dress history and the emotional value of textiles and crafts. Old curtains, crochet doilies and vintage lace pieces comprise the fabrics of the collection. Original dress patterns from various points in history form a basis for each individual garment. The aim is to portray the message that there is value in the past that is worth bringing forward.
To compliment this narrative, traditional basketry and weaving techniques combined with old textiles, found and collected, create pieces which hang in the balance between fashion and craft. These items are repurposed as an appreciation of the skill and proficiency required to manufacture such pieces by hand. This collection is a celebration of works of female virtuosity and domestic skill in a rapidly industrialised landscape. Reminding people of the past and the traditions of previous generations. Reviving traditional crafts, placing value back on intricately crafted wearables.
Pearl Reddington – Knitwear
Pearl is a contemporary Irish knitwear designer based in Dublin. Her designs bridge the gap between the traditional and the modern, combining luxury Irish wools with cutting-edge knit techniques. Each bespoke garment is crafted individually by hand to ensure a meticulous attention to detail and high-end finish. She uses heritage yarns mainly sourced from Donegal where they spin a traditional merino wool that forms the bulk of her collections. This ensures not only the wonderful quality, but also the essential sustainability of her designs.
Accessible to all, her target market is design conscious individuals who appreciate hand craft and ethical fashion and want to invest in an authentic one-off piece of Irish design.
A key design inspiration for her is the incursion of the industrial into the natural environment. The continual consideration of these elements has culminated into her distinctive collections to date. Through subtly coloured, natural fibres contrasted with urban shots of neon, she investigates the clash between the industrial and the native Irish landscape. Fusing innovation with the luxury of natural materials to create edgy contemporary but warm and comfortable designs.
Pierce Healy – Jewellery / Objects
Pierce is a craftsperson with a passion for illustrative mark making, and he believes his work is a continuum of this idea, often manifested as intricate and complex engravings and the interplay of texture and light.
He is intrigued by the synergy between the hands, head and heart while making. Within his practice he harnesses intaglio mark making textures, reflecting both natural landscapes and the landscape of the everyday. He likes to experiment with each piece and is driven by a curiosity, a study that informs the next piece in perpetuity.
He is fascinated by the capacity of jewellery to embody people’s stories and to facilitate storytelling and often seeks to harness subversive humour as a communication device in his work. In addition, he is interested in the notion that jewellery serves as a second skin, everyday armour. When worn, it takes on additional meaning and becomes something other worldly, as it takes on the scratches, dings and stories of the wearer’s adventures.
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For further information:
arts@rds.ie
