Irish unite to take a stand at London fair

Nine designers and manufacturers have joined forces to create the Cream of Irish Design group at this year's 100% Design exhibition, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER

IRISH DESIGNERS are promoting their creations on a group platform at an Irish pavilion in this year’s 100% Design exhibition in London next week.

The Cream of Irish Design is an ensemble of nine Irish designers and manufacturers who first showed together at this year’s Interior Design Show in Dublin’s RDS. The group, which includes lighting man Shane Holland, furniture designers Ben Gabriel, Garvan de Bruir and Duff Tisdall, Bushy Park Ironworks, designer Sasha Sykes, textile artist Patricia Murphy and glass artist Michelle O’Donnell of Glasshammer, have found that there is strength in numbers. United they stand hoping to generate orders at the London-based show, which is one of the essential dates on the interiors calendar.

“What knits us together is a passion for design and looking out for each other, this is all for one and one for all,” says Arthur Duff, of Duff Tisdall, a company whose work includes commissions for the Hugh Lane and RHA galleries. He is showing a new take on their classic quarter moon table. “We’re doing an oak and a macassar ebony version: refined, stylishly different yet utterly the same,” says Duff.

Shane Holland is credited with instigating the idea of a group showing. “It’s about creating export opportunities,” he says. “People are putting their own money up to do this. It’s an ambitious project to take on.”

Holland is showing his Borscht chandelier, a homage to recycling made from red cabbage jars and water bottles.

“The focus of the group is people who are serious about business as well as design, people who can deliver to order, who’ve already invested time developing their companies,” he says.

Rising furniture star Garvan de Bruir will also be in attendance. His leather-clad chairs and soft elliptical table show how far design in this country has come.“Going as a group reduces the price and allows us to complement each other,” he says. “It offers support. Everyone brings their contacts and clients to the mix. The whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts.”

Edward Bisgood, one half of blacksmith partnership Bushy Park Ironworks, says: “This is about taking the product to the end users. Architects and interior designers need to touch, feel and look at the work.”

It’s been a difficult 12 months for the industry, admits Holland. “Some of the business growth potential is not in Ireland. An obvious route to market is London, which is on our doorstep.” Financially, the Cream of Irish Design are on their own: they are getting no State money apart from some seed money from the Crafts Council.

Could this be green shoots? Greg Kinsella is opening a showroom at London’s Chelsea Harbour and Jeffrey Aird of Clive Christiansen is launching a Paris showroom in November.

Glasshammer’s Michelle O’Donnell is showing three glass Barack Obama pieces each 2.2m in height. These, she says, are not political statements but they are designed to be downright provocative. “Here’s hoping the provocative, ‘Yes we can,’ stance of this design community pays dividends.”

The Cream of Irish Design can be previewed at Duff Tisdall’s showrooms at Taney Road, Goatstown, Dublin 14 until this Saturday.

100% Design runs in London from September 24th to 27th; open to the public on the 26th and 27th. www.100percentdesign.co.uk