Mary is a multidisciplinary artist based in Clonakilty, West Cork. The rugged sea vistas serve as a source of inspiration, particularly in her print work. Between September 2016 and May 2017, Mary lived on Dursey island, which is accessible only by a cable car which connects to the mainland. This residency resulted in a series of 12 lino cut prints of the scenes and views from the island. We asked Mary to tell us a little more about her work and in particular her time on Dursey...

• Tell us a little bit about what you make:

I’m currently making lino-cut prints. My work is inspired by nature, and the
landscape of my surroundings, especially the sea, so most of my work is
a representation of that in some form or other.

• Could you describe your studio to us?

My studio was called the ‘good sitting room’ of the house I’m living in. The
house is a 200yr old farmhouse in West Cork. The ground floor is made up of
three rooms - the kitchen, the middle room and the sitting room. At some
stage, the sitting room was converted into an ensuite bedroom. The walls are
very thick and the window is low, so the sunlight never fills the room, but it is
warm and spacious. Half the room is my studio, the other half is a bit of a
dumping ground with three armchairs, musical instruments and lots of other
bits and pieces.

• What is your favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

My favourite thing is an old chest that was converted into a cupboard by
being turned on its side and having two shelves put in. It’s lined with old
wallpaper and is very deep, which is great for storing big sheets of paper.
To get into the mindset of making I need coffee and time! Once I know I don’t
need to be anywhere, I can relax and start creating. A steady flow of good
coffee helps too.

• What is your favourite tool and why?

My favourite tool is a printing baren my dad made. He’s a great man for
creative solutions! I explained what a baren was, and using a large plastic lid,
a block of wood, wall brackets and the handle of a brush he created a
wonderful tool that has saved my wrists!

• Can you tell us more about your Dursey Collection?

The Dursey Collection was the culmination of work from a nine-month stay on
Dursey Island off the South West Coast. There are 12 pieces in the
collection, all inspired by the island. Some are representative pieces - the
cable car (the only public access to the island), the signal tower and the
ruins. Other pieces are more abstract, of the sea, particularly the Dursey
Sound, the treacherous stretch of water between Dursey and the mainland,
which is why the cable car was built.

• What inspired you to relocate there for a nine-month period?

I have always loved Islands and dreamed of living on a remote island
someday. I had been living locally in Beara for a few years, and had visited
Dursey many times and was struck by its beauty, the remoteness, the cliffs
and the history. I tried a few times to find a place to rent there -
(un)fortunately there aren’t many habitable houses there but I kept trying and
eventually found a wonderful lady who let me rent her house for a winter,
from September 2016 to May 2017.

• How would you describe the experience? 

It was incredible. Not at all isolating or lonely, like most people assume, with
only two other full-time residents, and only accessible in the winter by limited
operating hours of the cable car. Being such a unique place, everyone
wanted to come and stay. I eventually had to put a visitor ban in place to get
some work done! Most days I went out exploring the island, as it was a very
mild winter, and only got stranded due to high winds, when the cable car
can’t operate on a few occasions. There was always some excitement on the
island - trouble with the cable car, cattle being moved, or one of the holiday
home owners were in for a few days. There was an open-door policy with the
neighbours and it was always useful to have some cake made!

• What led you to choose this craft as a profession? What do you love most about it?

I think living in Beara for several years really inspired me to take art up as a
profession. There are so many outstanding artists tucked away in the folds of
hills, and something in the landscape that inspires creativity. I was living with
another artist and we had converted our sunroom into a studio, looking
across the fields and out to sea - it was almost impossible to not start
creating. Living in that community gave me the confidence I needed to start
putting my work out there. The lino-cut printing happened quite naturally on
Dursey. The strong lines of the print represented the landscape so well.
What I love most about lino-cut printing is a more general feeling I get from
being creative, especially at the beginning of a project when I may not be
entirely sure how it will turn out, but the excitement and possibility is very
energising. There is a lovely sense of achievement at the end of a lino-print
cut that is a little bit more immediate than some other forms of art, and an
element of surprise as you peel the paper back from the first print. There is
also the flip-side of one cut too many or a slip of the blade and you need to
start over again, at which point I’d make another cup of coffee.

 A selection of Mary's prints from the Dursey collection are available to purchase here.  

Tell us a little bit about what you make:

I make a variety of tableware using both stoneware clay and more recently, local clay from the Dublin mountains. Each piece is hand thrown in my studio in Shankill and glazed using a variety of bought glazes and again, more recently, my own glaze recipes. The glaze tones I generally use are quite earthy and minimal.

Could you describe your studio to us? What is your favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

My studio is an 8foot by 8foot lean-to shed in my garden which I bought last Summer. I built the internal worktops etc. myself. This was an upgrade from the ……shed I was squeezing into prior to that. My favourite thing about the space is the light, I added an extra window just before the Summer of this year and having the brightness and view of the sky as I sit at my wheel helps my creativity. To get into the mindset of making I think that the music I listen to really helps me to focus, listening to music while staring at a spinning wheel is hypnotic and really pulls me into my craft. The ever-growing number of shelves which I have built in my studio gives me that added burst of motivation to fill them with new creations.

What is your favourite tool and why?

When I started pottery last April I made all of my tools from items around my house, and since I have progressed further, some of these tools have been upgraded to bought pottery tools created for the craft, however my favourite tool to use is still an old kitchen steak knife which, having tried and tested many other tools at this stage, never fails and just feels right in my hand.

Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your local clay bowls?

I dug the local clay from the Dublin mountains, about 20 minutes’ drive from where I live in Shankill. It’s quite a labour-intensive process which includes breaking it down, sieving it several times, washing it twice, drying it, and finally wedging it (kneading it), from there it can finally be thrown, dried, trimmed, bisque’d in the kiln for 19 hours, waxed, glazed, and fired again for 19 hours!

The inspiration behind my clay bowls was to firstly keep it local, to have handmade Irish ceramics made from hand-dug Irish clay! I think that these products are really beautiful in that they let the natural surface speak for themselves, the minerals in the clay also cause a change in the glazes used as the natural compounds  seep into the glazes which is something I find really exciting!

What led you to choose this craft as a profession? What do you love most about it? What do you dislike?

I’ve been making ceramics for little over a year now. I was a chef for 12 years and I have always had an interest and passion for ceramics, after returning from traveling for 2 years around South America and Australia I decided to buy some clay one day and have a go, from there I decided I liked it and to take a break from cooking professionally and focus on making pottery and it all has kicked off since then.  

What I love most about what I do is that I’m making something that can last forever, we all have a favourite mug or a something that reminds us of a time or a person who gave it to us, I like the idea that something I make could be passed down and looked after “remember when we got those mugs in Ireland”, I think that’s kind of special.

What I dislike about this craft, at the moment, is that I’m used to working as part of a team and at the moment I spend a lot of time by myself, which is not necessarily a bad thing but it’s quite different for me, I could see myself possibly working in a collective studio of some variety in the future.

-Images by Alex Louviers

You can purchase a selection of Daniel's work here. 

Tell us a little bit about what you make

We make bags and leather accessories inspired by cycling using waxed cotton/canvas and leather. 

Could you describe your studio to us? What is your favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

The studio is our front room which has granny net curtains and a fireplace. The room overlooks fields of cows and sheep. It also has a huge workbench which dominates it and where all the magic happens. What we love most about the space you ask? Well, that's simple. It’s having space! Previously our home/studio in London was so small, we could barely fit both of us in, we had to cut fabric on the floor etc. So the fact that we have a dedicated studio space that can accommodate all the equipment is simply awesome. This also helps with the headspace, once you’re in there you’re at ‘work’ even though this room is a few steps from the kitchen and cupboards full of treats. Once we’re there, we turn on the sewing machine, the lights and the music there’s no stopping us unless we get an exciting delivery or the sun is shining too bright and we must go out cycling.

What is your favourite tool and why?

This requires two answers. For Greta, the favorite has to be Pfaff, the sewing machine. I mean it’s like magic, once the flat pieces of fabric and leather meet Pfaff, they become 3D, they become a thing, an object, a design. For Zulfi it’s the metal ruler and the scalpel, it’s the hole punch, it’s the mallet and all the masculine things that come in the process of making a bag.

Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your nip out bags?

The Nip Outs were inspired by the cycling bag ‘musette’ you’d see people using out and about on the weekends stuffing it with snacks etc. It’s the equivalent of a cotton tote bag but for cyclists. We loved the simple concept, but we wanted a cool, stylish one that would close properly and would adjust in height, so we just had to make one! The colours just sort of came to us, there is so little sun in UK & Ireland that once we saw the blue waxed cotton we just had to have it and create our own little sunshine you could carry with you. As for the making process.. Well, we start by cutting the fabric, leather, lining, and webbing. We then treat the leather edges, smoothing them over, then pairing them with the fabric using sam brownes, we move on to the lining, attach the metalwork onto the webbing and finally combine it all together! Voila! We have a little Instagram video in the ‘highlights’ if anyone is interested in seeing it rather than reading it.

What led you to choosing this craft as a profession? What do you love most about it? Dislike most? 

So we came from two different backgrounds, Interiors/furniture (Greta) and Fashion (Zulfi). Vel-Oh slowly started to become a thing once we started to cycle to work on a daily basis and quickly realised none of our bags suited this new daily way of commuting. We wanted a bag that wouldn’t look out of place at work, yet was comfortable and could deal with any weather whilst we’re out on the bikes so one day we decided to just make one! 24hours of non-stop sewing we had a prototype and we were really impressed with ourselves (haha) so much so that this project which was only meant for ourselves started to look more of a business opportunity. We loved being creative and didn’t want to stop doing it! that’s definitely our biggest motivation, having an outlet for our creative minds. As much fun as all this sounds it came with so SO many challenges, of course, being a two people business we constantly battle suppliers who would only deal with big companies that were buying 1000000s of meters or materials, we were unable to find a manufacturer willing to work with us on small-scale etc. But we took all this with a pinch of salt and didn’t give up. We finally found a few awesome suppliers and Pfaff the sewing machine just sort of happen to come to our attention so we started making it all ourselves! I guess you could say that our biggest dislike is that we have to rely on others in providing the material on time, and having it in stock when we need it etc. But no job comes without its cons, right?

We stock a selection of Vel-Oh bags, including the classic Blackpack and super handy Nip-Out bags.

Tell us a little bit about your business

Mungo Murphy's Seaweed Co. is a producer of all things seaweed. We produce very simple, natural seaweed bath, seaweed soap, and seaweed face mask products using sustainably hand-harvested seaweed from the Connemara region of Co. Galway. In addition to the seaweed skincare products, we also sell fresh and dry edible seaweed and seaweed-fed abalone. In 2015, I was awarded a Eurotoque award for the Mungo Murphy range of fresh hand-harvested seaweed in recognition for reviving what was once a traditional food source, particularly in Irish coastal life - it is strange to think that seaweed was at one time associated with poverty and today is seen on fine dining restaurant menus and in fancy spa treatments.  It is a bit unusual for a brand to bridge both skincare and food categories, but I made the decision to do so as in each category we are dealing with seaweed in its purest, least processed form. As a business owner, I wanted to be able to offer all of the natural benefits of seaweed in its simplest form, for people to use in whichever way is of most interest/relevance to them in their lives.

Could you describe your studio/place of work to us? What is your favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of working?

I wish I could call my workspace a studio! In reality I don't have one exclusive workspace as it changes day to day, depending on what tasks need to be carried out. Generally speaking my workspace is at the aquaculture farm in Rossaveel, Co. Galway. My time there is divided between the farm kitchen/packing area; the greenhouse tunnel which is where the abalone live in land based seawater filled tanks and which is where I store the fresh seaweeds and air dry the seaweed for the bath on elevated nets; my third and favourite place of work is down on the shore behind the farm which is where we hand harvest some of the smaller and more delicate seaweeds for the restaurant market and some of the brown seaweeds for the seaweed baths. It is down by the shore that I tend to check and respond to emails and texts in the morning which helps me to get into the mindset of working at the start of the day... because it doesn't really feel like work in such a pleasant open environment! The other motivating factor that gets me in the mindset of working is the pressure of making sure orders get out in time. Due to the farm's rural location, courier pick up times can be a bit constraining, but it does discipline me to get things packed up and ready to go early in the day which then frees me up in the afternoon to deal with paperwork.

What is a typical working day for you?

A typical working day by necessity starts with a black americano in a travel mug which is slowly finished on my commute along the coast road to the farm in Rossaveel. Once at the farm, I check what orders need to go out that day and start getting those orders ready to go. Over the summer months, we have a number of aquaculture students working on the farm getting ready for the abalone spawning season and working on their own research projects. Depending on the day and what the weather is like, I would give them some direction on what tasks need to be carried out that day. Once orders are packed up and couriers booked I am then freed up to do a stock take and check what might need to be ordered in - whether that be packaging, labels, fresh or dried seaweed from some of our local suppliers etc. and proceed to order whatever I can see is going to be needed. If we are running low on some of the smaller seaweeds that we harvest ourselves, I would check the tide tables to see when the next low tide will be and make an appointment for myself to go down to the shore at the next feasible low tide. Throughout the day I am inevitably dealing with various phone calls and emails. As a small relative newcomer business, I do spend most days of the week dealing with new customers. That can include initial product specification and pricelist requests, filling out paperwork to get listed, figuring out logistical shipping arrangements and pricing and of course follow-up communications post shipment. As I also do seaweed foraging and abalone tasting tours on the farm, I am typically communicating with potential, forthcoming and past visitors (who like to keep in touch) and either preparing for an upcoming tour or giving a tour. I love the mornings or afternoons that I have a tour, as I find that anyone who takes the time to come and visit our farm in the depths of Connemara to look at and taste seaweed and abalone are my kind of people and I find that the tours always come with really stimulating conversation!

Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your beauty range?

To describe the process and inspiration behind the beauty range is best summed up by the phrases 'less is more' and 'keep it simple'. The light-bulb moment story is kind of long, but the short answer is that I was inspired to create the sea-bag first of all after living in Amsterdam for a year and feeling totally landlocked even though there were beaches nearby. In that year I discovered that I was missing proper seaweed - which I admit is a strange thing to miss - but as I grew up collecting fresh seaweed to feed to the abalone on my mother's aquaculture farm, my post-seaweed harvesting treat was always a bag of fresh seaweed for the bath. Because the beaches near Amsterdam were sandy beaches on the North Sea and not the rocky, seaweed covered coastline along the so-called 'Wild Atlantic Way' (it is has been so hot and calm out here these days!), I found myself really missing my DIY seaweed baths. As a consumer, I also felt that businesses could do more to create natural, clean and environmentally friendly skincare and food products and I figured if I couldn't find what I was looking for on the market, then I should create it. When it came to designing what packaging to use, I was very conscious of plastic pollution on land and particularly in the sea and wanted to limit my contribution to that as much as possible. It was thinking along those lines that led me to develop the seaweed face mask as I became more aware of the amount of skincare products that use micro-plastics to create exfoliating beads. I found that the milled seaweed powder had this effect naturally and makes use of an ingredient that I could also eat if I really wanted to.

What led you to choosing this unusual profession? What do you love most about it?

Becoming the founder of a seaweed brand happened totally by accident.  I had completed my studies in Law at University College Dublin and at the University of Amsterdam which I really enjoyed. There were a few things that stuck with me from that time; one, that it is pretty simple to create a company; and two, that the system in which companies/corporations operate in and have influence in, is so fixated on creating shareholder value that very often (if not always) the interests and concerns of employees, the community, and the environment get overlooked. It isn't a ground-breaking realisation, but once that idea clicked with me and settled in my mind, I caught the entrepreneurial bug and perhaps naively, set out to join the small pool of businesses and companies that operate sustainably with social and environmental concerns in mind. Also, creating the Mungo Murphy brand filled the creative gap in my life as I always wanted to be an artist of some description but never had the necessary talent, so entrepreneurship was the next best thing! The thing I most love about being an entrepreneur in general is the creativity involved in developing and building a business. And the thing I most love about being an entrepreneur working with seaweed specifically is the environment that I get to work in,   being right up close to the Atlantic and all of its proper seaweed! 

We stock a selection of the Mungo Murphy skincare products, including seaweed soap and face mask which you can check out here

Tell us a little bit about what you make

I make ceramic sculptures using a hand-building and coiling technique. I make them using a white or red earthenware clay and I decorate them with different colours and designs depending on there shape and form.

Could you describe your studio to us? What is your favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

My studio is in the Castlcomer Discovery Park.  The stables and buildings here have been renovated and turned into studios, so I share a studio/shop space with my wife Rosemarie Durr who is also a ceramicist.  My space isn't very large so I try and use my space wisely, and have my workbench and a sink and my tools all in order. I also have books and pictures of art and objects that I like and are influences on my art.  I like to listen to music while I work, mostly jazz and classical, and traditional music from around the world.

What is your favourite tool and why?

I have a scraping tool that was made from a bicycle spoke that I purchased off an Asian fellow.  Also, I made a scoring tool from part of a comb and a stick.  I like tools that are remade from something else.  I also have a bunch of needle tools that are made from old mechanical pencils.

Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your work?

I like to communicate visually and I have always loved to draw and paint since I was young.  I had originally studied in fine arts and painting and drawing in college and slowly moved towards ceramics.  I like making with ceramics because I have lots of options both two dimensionally and three dimensionally.  I can make pieces very plain like a straight-sided vase and drawing a complex picture or pattern on them or I can make something very sculpturally complex and have no design on it at all, maybe just a solid colour.  So I can express myself in many ways depending on my feelings and mood.

Andrew makes a collection of brooches exclusively for Irish Design Shop which you can purchase here