Melody in patchwork hits the high note in national crafts competition

“NEEDLEWORK!” WAS the triumphant female cry that erupted yesterday in the RDS Concert Hall when Mary Palmer from Innishannon, Co Cork, was announced overall winner of this year’s National Crafts Competition.

Ms Palmer won both the RDS Award of Excellence and the California Gold Medal worth €7,000 for her entry The Long Notein the Contemporary Patchwork and Quilting category.

A colourful and bravura silk wall-hanging pierced by holes representing musical notes, it is one of a series of pieces inspired by the traditional Irish tune, effectively a melody in patchwork.

“I’m just stunned,” said Ms Palmer who is originally from the US, but has lived in Ireland for 20 years and is an active member of the Cork Textiles Network. “Patchwork is my great passion, it is what I love to do.”

The RDS Reserve Prize, worth €3,500 went to Stephen Ó Briain from Borris, Co Carlow, for his furniture entry entitled Bone Chair.Made in American walnut with a woven cane seat, it was constructed using a stack-laminating technique and hand-finished with spokeshaves, scrapers and planes.

Mr Ó Briain whose family have been involved in furniture-making for three generations has a degree in fine art, but only started making furniture in 1992, inspired by his mother Iseult, a chemist, who took a sabbatical from UCD at 54 to learn the craft.

The chair has been purchased by the Crafts Council of Ireland and according to chief executive Una Parsons, a recent delegation from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, “were fighting over buying his chairs to bring back to America”.

These crafts together with winners in the 20 categories, a total of 122 entries in all, will be on show in the RDS as part of the 2010 Fáilte Ireland Dublin Horse Show from August 4th to 8th and continue until August 12th.

After that they will travel to the Museum of Country Life in Mayo from September 2nd to October 15th, then to the Courtyard Gallery, Midleton, Co Cork from October 21st to November 10th, before returning to the RDS in Dublin in December.