A New LifeFormer Eircom instructor carves a name for himself as professional woodturner When Kieran Higgins was offered a good severance package, he decided it was time to change his life, as well as his career, writes Michelle McDonagh
As he surveys the stunning scenery of rugged West Cork spread out before him through his front window, Kieran Higgins's only regret is that he did not decide to change his life years earlier.
The professional woodturner spends his days in the workshop beside his house where he creates his unique pieces from ancient bog woods and native oaks.
It's a far cry from the life he left behind when he decided to give up his job as an Eircom instructor after 26 years and moved from his native Naas to Skibbereen in West Cork.
Higgins joined Telecom Éireann in Naas in 1974 as a cable jointer, splicing telecommunication cables together on the road.
In 1985 he switched over to the training section in Dublin where he taught cable jointing to new technicians.
By 2001 the training section was being downsized, he was offered a good severance package from Eircom and, more importantly, he couldn't stick the traffic in Dublin any longer.
The commute had got so bad that he had started cycling from Naas to Dublin and back each day.
"I looked further down the road and asked myself if this was what I wanted to do day in, day out until I retired."
Higgins had been going to West Cork regularly since he first visited the area for sea angling in 1983. He had always planned to retire there, so when the opportunity came for him to take advantage of Eircom's share option scheme and go back on the roads doing sub-contracting work for the company in West Cork in 2001, he didn't have to mull over it for long.
In fact, he says, he made the biggest decision of his life over a cup of tea.
Having been interested in DIY from a young age, Higgins first saw a woodturner in action at a DIY Homeshow in the early 1980s. He spent hours at the stand mesmerised by the craftsman's skill and ability to turn a piece of wood into a thing of beauty.
"Every year, I kept saying I must take it up but in 1996, my girlfriend of the time gave me a present of two woodturning chisels for Christmas.
"I went and bought a little lathe and it took off from there. I loved it from the start even though I had been emotionally pushed into it," he laughs.
When he decided to move to West Cork in 2001, he went to view five houses but as soon as he saw the white dormer bungalow a mile and a half outside the town of Skibbereen with its purpose-built workshop right beside it, he knew he had found his new home.
He continued doing sub-contract work for Eircom until May 2004 when his severance package came through and the first item he bought was a professional lathe.
"I tend to stick to large one-off, non-functional pieces at the artistic rather than the functional end of the market.
"I work with bog oak a lot, you could say I've been seduced by the bog oaks. The youngest bog oaks in Ireland would be 3,000 years old and the oldest about 10,000 years. These timbers were growing before man settled in this country which is what drew me to them," he remarks.
Higgins selects timber to display as much of its natural characteristics and to celebrate nature's quirks. This, he achieves, by incorporating the wood's natural imperfections such as splits, knots and insect and fungal attack into his work.
He set up in business officially on January 1st last year, and sold his pieces to local galleries in West Cork before getting a larger order in September from The Cat and Moon Gallery in Sligo.
In January, he brought some of his pieces to Showcase in the RDS, Ireland's top crafts and fashion fair, where he received a special mention in the Index 50 Best Overall New Product category.
He also got an order from the Kilkenny shop in Nassau Street, where a window will be devoted to his work in May.
Every morning, Higgins is forced out of bed at 7.30am by his "furry alarm clock", Barney, his Welsh terrier.
He tries to discipline himself to work regular nine-to-five hours and has had to force himself to take Saturdays and Sundays off.
Although it would be easy to become isolated living alone where he does, Higgins is actively involved in a number of woodturning and arts clubs and guilds, and finds it invigorating meeting other artisans and craftspeople to discuss their work.
During the summer, he spends most weekends fishing and his family come down from Naas to visit for their holidays.
His nieces and nephews in particular enjoy the freedom that West Cork offers.
"To some degree, I regret not going into woodturning full-time years ago, but I don't know if the influences would have been there 20 years ago," he says.
"Woodturning was always there as a function for making bowls, plates, newel posts, etc but it was not done for art or aesthetics until a few pioneers started it in the mid-80s and developed the tools.
"It's a huge market now that has mushroomed worldwide in the past 15 years," he says.