Building a community of craftworkers

The life of an artist may be a lonely one, but some diverse craftworkers in Cork are banding together to ensure creative and economic survival. Anne Dempsey visits their first trade fair

There are 150 professional craftworkers in west Cork - everything from potters and painters to weavers and woodturners - labouring in studios, workshops, converted sheds and purpose-built spaces between Cork city and the Beara Peninsula. Twenty-two of them came together this month in Inchydoney to hold their own two-day trade fair, Crafted, presented by the West Cork Leader Co-op.

Traditionally, the annual Dublin craft fair, Showcase, organised on behalf of the Crafts Council of Ireland, has been the marketing mecca for craftworkers round the country. But times are changing.

"Coming to Dublin for a week to Showcase is very expensive," says potter Etain Hickey. "It used to be worth our while, and 10 years ago we could close our order book in two days. Now many small craft shops have closed. Very many craft items are imported, and department stores which would not have sold crafts are now doing so under a general lifestyle label. It's tougher to make a living today," she says.

Last year Hickey opened a gallery and craft shop in Clonakilty, Etain Hickey Collections. Well supported by local people, the shop is a main street outlet for her own work and fellow craftworkers in the region.

Like many other Irish gift fairs, Crafted featured a lot of potters, but buyers also had an opportunity to meet designers in furniture, fashion, leather, metalwork, jewellery, wood carving, cutlery, stained glass and painting. Some exhibitors took sufficient first day orders to cover their costs, with contacts made on day two regarded as a bonus. It was obvious, too, with the amount of inter-stand fraternising, that people who normally work alone were taking full advantage of the opportunity to network with one another.

Some of the visitors were other craftworkers who hadn't participated, coming to see what they were missing.

"As a first, it went very well, and I think you can almost certainly say we will be doing the same again next year," said Ivan McCutcheon, Leader Co-op's development officer, who is clear about the contribution craftworkers make to the area. "They help us to present ourselves visually, they add hugely in tourism terms, to shopping, to a sense of place," he says.

"According to research published recently by the Crafts Council [of Ireland], many craftspeople in rural Ireland don't have the access they used to have to urban outlets. We would love if it were different. We have attracted buyers down from Dublin, but also from Galway, Sligo and other important markets. And above all, we have our local markets, and there seems to be something about selling local craft in the local place which has the potential for growth. That is what we are hoping to achieve."

Crafted exhibitor Anke Herman lives in relatively remote Goleen, and sells her exquisite necklaces in local craft fairs under the brand Delise Handcrafted Jewellery. German-born, she came to west Cork six years ago and fell in love with the place.

She works in lava stone, coral and fresh water pearls, choosing different colour themes. "When I sit to create something, I don't know in advance what will happen. Out of the colour and textures comes the design."

Her necklaces sell from €75 to €150 and she is currently developing a pale and pretty wedding range.

Rory O'Connor, from Bantry, is one of the few professional cutlers in Ireland. Self-taught, he perfected his skills in the US, and now makes a variety of knives, from table cutlery to sporting knives, as well as custom-made knives responding to client needs. He chose to exhibit a selection of handmade cheese knives in their box, part of a new commercial range he will produce in tandem with designer pieces.

"I've got a lot of feedback about my packaging, not all of it favourable, but all of it helpful. When you're alone in a dusty shed, completely absorbed in your work, labelling is the last thing on your mind. I've learnt a lot through being here," he says.

Ceramicist Robert Lee (29) has already had a 10-year apprenticeship culminating in a master's degree in medieval Japanese ceramics at Crawford Art College. He is a member of Portfolio 2005, the Craft's Council of Ireland's promotion of 38 collectible designers selected for creativity and excellence.

All of which seems a long way from his small whitewashed studio in Ballydehob where he discusses the difficulty of making a living from his art and extols the qualities of porcelain clay. His work is deceptively simple. He brings up a bowl on the wheel, then when it reaches uniform perfection and continues to turn, he suddenly hits the sides with a tool dipped in liquid slip. The effect is something once off, distinctive, beautiful. He glazes in cream, jade green or black, the glaze interacting with the porcelain to both reflect and absorb light.

Lee is also a member of the newly formed Hands On, a group of seven artists and craftworkers who offer summer holiday courses to the public. Hands On members organise courses in bronze casting, art, glass fusing, mosaics, photography, printmaking, woodcarving and more.

"If you can peel an apple you can make a chair," says Alison Ospina, chair maker and woodwork teacher. Eight years ago she established Green Wood Chairs to design and create chairs in freshly cut and locally coppiced hazel wood. A member of Hands On, she takes two pupils at a time into her Wooden House workshop outside Skibbereen. "No two people make the same chair, and it is wonderful to see it taking shape and the pleasure they get," she says.

Students begin by choosing their own hazel branches from the collection on the workshop deck, and design their chair, combining barked hazel with sanded and polished wood.

"Hazel is perfect because, whether straight or curved, it's in the shape of chair parts - back post, spindle and cross pieces," she says. Her secret weapon is a tenoning device which makes mortise and tenon joints quickly and cleanly. Chair seats can be made with elm, leather straps, or upholstered.

With all this craftwork, one wonders if there is something in the air in west Cork which seems to have attracted more than its fair share of creative souls from Ireland and beyond. Hickey and her husband, potter Jim Turner, opened Rossmore Pottery in Clonakilty in 1982, producing their signature colourful functional pottery while continuing to develop exhibition and designer pieces over the years. "When we came, a lot of old farms were standing empty, prices were very reasonable, and also people were very friendly, there was a welcome and an openness to us," she recalls.

Ospina, who has lived in Skibbereen for 10 years, is convinced there is a bit of magic in the west Cork ether. Her home overlooks the River Elen and its low-flying swans.

"We look out on a lot of beauty. Sometimes when I'm stuck for inspiration, I go for a walk, and can be filled with a kind of creative energy that you just pick up. It may sound a bit American, but it is so true. You come back and see the pile of sticks that seem to speak to you in a whole new way."