What do you make?

I make a variety of objects e.g.

• Bowls
• Lamps
• Nest of tables
• Pepper & Salt Mills and Shakers
• Key Rings
• Tea Lights
• Ornaments (Mushrooms Apples, Pears)

Could you tell us a little bit about your studio? Favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

When I set up my studio I thought long and hard about the products I was going to produce and with that in mind, I positioned my machinery to create an efficient workflow.

What is your favourite tool and why?

I have many different tools suitable for creating the different pieces; my favourite would be a bowl gouge. It is a strong stable tool made of quality steel and I find it a pleasure to use.

Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your raw edge bowls?

Raw edge bowls can be quite challenging to make, as the bark can be quite brittle on the seasoned timber. During the shaping process, it is necessary to add stability to the bark in order to give a satisfactory finish. Inspiration comes from the texture of a piece of wood and my vision of what I can create from it taking into consideration the size and shape of a particular piece of raw material.

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

I am fortunate to be part of a family who have been working in the timber business for several generations and this has led me to appreciate and value the importance of caring for our many home-grown timbers. I am the only one of my family involved in craft work. I love to create different shapes and produce a quality finish which is pleasing to see and touch. I aim to give individuality to the home décor.

We have a small selection of Roys's hand turned bowls available through our online shop and our Drury Street shop. 

What do you make?

I make Hand screen printed framed drawings/designs on Irish linen.

Could you tell us a little bit about your studio? Favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

I am in the process of building a studio, up until now I've been working in a conservatory-style space surrounded by windows light and plants both inside and out. The warm woody natural tones around me make me feel grounded and never far from the nature that inspires me.

What is your favourite tool and why?

My pencil is, and my Steadtler fine black pen and notebook because these are the first marks that are made as I work through ideas, I find it meditative and relaxing.

Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your print collection?

Screen printing is a messy medium, which requires plenty of newspaper, pinnys and cloths. I develop my own screens and take great care to recreate the fine lines made by my pen. When printing I need to wipe my screens a lot to keep the line fine and clear. The colours I choose need to stand out against the natural Irish linen so I pick strong hues that in some way add to the image I created.

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

I love to draw, I get excited about drawings, preliminary sketches, anything that show the skeleton of the finished idea, I wanted to reproduce this and found screen printing fulfilled my desire to do this. I have found I like the variety of drawing and messy printmaking, I'm evolving and moving along within the medium, therefore my art is changing within this process.

We have a small selection of Martina's prints available through our online shop and wider selection along with some large framed prints available from our Drury Street shop. 

What do you make?

I am an artist and basket maker. I make baskets, lamps and lampshades and sculptures from willow I grow and harvest from our land in the hills in Tipperary.

Could you tell us a little bit about your studio? Favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

Could you believe I do not have a studio yet? I still use the house, the kitchen table, when the kids are in school. I just push furniture to the side and take up the whole space. My family is quite used to it and has learned to carefully step around me when I am making. In summertime (and school holidays) I tend to move into the polytunnel where I do have a workbench. I love sitting in there between all the plants and food. The light in there is great! It does get a bit cold though in winter, that’s when I move back inside.

I am quite lucky that I don’t need much for making my work. Just a bench, my hand tools, and a chair. I am quite portable!Working from the kitchen table was ideal when the kids were small. They have grown a bit now though so we are making the plans for the studio. We would like to build it ourselves from wattle and daub (willow and mud) and it will have plenty of windows for natural light and lots of space to make and display my work. It is not hard to get into the mindset of making. I am surrounded by a beautiful landscape and lush vegetation. When I am creating I feel I somehow tap into that and let the willow express itself. This is especially true for the sculptures.

What is your favourite tool and why?

I love my small bodkin. A bodkin is a tool only used for making baskets. I love it because is seems to fit my hand very well, it is small and very useful. A bodkin is used at the start of the basket to split the base sticks and also to finish off the border at the end as shown in the picture attached.

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

Joe Hogan, basket maker in Galway, introduced me to the skib in his book ‘basket making in Ireland’. Joe did a lot of research about the history of Irish baskets. The skib has such a long story behind it. It would have had slight variations in design from county to county and has only been found to be made in Ireland.

The skib, or potato basket was used for straining the potatoes once cooked. It was then placed on the cooking pot (or sometimes on the floor) and the family would sit around it to eat. Most families had no furniture. This basket served as a table. After use it would have been rinsed and hung on the outside wall to dry. Baskets would have had different dimensions according to the family size.

I love using strong and contrasting colours in the skib. All the colours are natural, they are just different varieties of willow, grown for their bark colour.

The entire process would start in winter when the willow is harvested. We grow about ¾ acre of willow of about 20 different varieties. After harvesting willow is graded by size and left to dry out completely for a few months. I would start my skib by selecting my willow bundles. I would select for size and colour. The willow is then soaked in water for a few days to make it soft and workable. Once I am happy with it I can start weaving.

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

For a long time basket making was just a hobby. I got fascinated by it from watching Patsy Cahill, basket maker in Mullinahone, Tipperary. I loved watching him, the rhythm of weaving, the pattern and I loved that he grew his own willow. Even though I did not know this would become my profession, I still felt I wanted to try out a lot of different possibilities for using willow. I love the material. Love how I can grow it, harvest and use it and be fully immersed in it. Another thing I love about it is that it is very sustainable.

For a long time it was just perseverance that kept me going. The itch to learn more and to get better. I don’t think there is another craft that takes such a long time to learn properly. For the first 5 years my baskets would always turn out different than what I would envisage at the start. I would give them away. Once I got better I could sell some. And it pretty much grew from there….!

We have a selection of Hanna's work available through our online shop, and larger pieces available from our Drury Street shop. 

• What do you make?

I create a range of functional and decorative products made from my own handwoven woollen cloth. At the moment, this is mainly cushions and small zipped bags, but I'm currently working on a couple of scarf designs for winter. I'm really excited about these because I love the idea of creating something that people can wrap themselves up in and use to keep warm! I also sometimes weave larger pieces like wall hangings and rugs for exhibitions.

• Could you tell us a little bit about your studio? Favourite thing about the space and how do you get into the mindset of making?

My studio is in north Belfast, in an area nick-named 'Little America' because of the many American street names. It's a part of the city that I didn't know at all before, but I love it now - there's a gorgeous park called the Waterworks very close to our building with so many birds, and we have a lovely view of Cavehill.

I share the building with the architectural practice Oscar & Oscar, who saw its potential a few years ago and as well as using it as their own base, decided to let the other spaces out to artists and makers. It's a lovely light-filled office building from the 60's, and I don't think much has been changed since then, which gives it lots of character! We also have a couple of bakers who make sourdough bread and other delights for sale in the local area.

I do most of my computer-based work at home, so when I get into the studio I have few distractions to take away from designing and making time. That definitely helps! Of course, smartphones can ruin this a little so I keep my phone on silent a lot of the time and try only to check it for a few minutes at break-times - easier said than done.

• What is your favourite tool and why?

Hm, that's tricky as I have quite a few but I'd have to say the warping board that my brother made for me when I first started to weave at home many years ago. It's basically a long piece of MDF with short dowelling pegs, mounted on the wall. I wrap long lengths of yarn around it to make my warps - this is the first practical step (after the technical design) to weaving cloth so it always feels very positive. It could be quite a monotonous task (depending on the width of the cloth and structure I might have to wrap up to 800 ends), but I often listen to music at the same time so that it becomes a repetitive rhythmic movement.

You can get much more sophisticated equipment for warping but it's expensive, and I love the simplicity of my warping board. I travelled to Peru and Bolivia many years ago to see their woven textiles and one of my most vivid memories is seeing an indigenous lady warping outdoors on top of a hill in Cuzco - she had two sticks stuck in the ground and was wrapping her yarn around them. They can weave amazing cloth, using the most basic tools and keeping everything in their head, so it made me realise that you don't need complex equipment to create.

• Can you describe the making process and inspiration behind your Newgrange clutch?

I actually first came up with the idea for the cloth way back when I was at college in NCAD, probably 2004! I had visited the passage grave at Newgrange in Co. Meath for a project and was intrigued by the geometric stone carvings and the mystery of their significance. Perhaps they contained messages, or maybe they were purely decorative like doodles on a page. One of the carvings had a design with interlocking diamonds and zig-zags. I played around with this a little and realised that it worked perfectly with the symmetry of simple reflective threading techniques in weaving. When I started up Olla Nua in 2015 after several years working in other fields, it was the first design I wanted to weave, so it had really stayed with me.

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

Sometimes I'm not sure if I chose it or it chose me! I've always been a very indecisive person, and tend to think too much before making decisions, so I had many different ideas of what I should do for a living...but somehow I kept thinking about textiles. My mum taught me to sew and knit from a very young age, and we had an attic full of fabric - I'm sure that had something to do with it!
I love being hands-on with natural materials, right through from initial design to finished cloth, and I enjoy finding satisfaction in the process and repetitive tasks. Weaving is quite a structured craft and I think that suits my personality. I'm also very thankful for the support of my family - it simply would have been impossible for me to get my business started without their support and encouragement.

The photographs featured in this maker story are by Simon Mills. The Olla Nua clutch bag is available to purchase here. 

Visitors to our shop love to hear the story behind the item they are purchasing. In an age of mass production, the handmade is still, thankfully, cherished by many. Over the Summer, we will be highlighting a selection of our favourite stockists who are masters of their chosen craft from wood turning to weaving. Every week, we will add a new story which will give an insight into a specific making process and the life of a craftsperson, from their favourite process and studio set up, to what led them to pursue a career in craft and design. 

Our first maker story featuring Nicola Gates of Olla Nua will be posted early next week.