ARTS Gathering together for Mayo crafts

Gathering together for Mayo crafts


Ciara Moynihan

Craftworks Mayo, a network of local craft makers championing quality craft and design from Co Mayo, is launching a new collection of handmade craft pieces for The Gathering – perfect gifts for loved ones near and afar. The Gathering Collection will be officially launched by Mayo football manager James Horan in the Claremorris Gallery this Thursday evening, July 11.  
Speaking to The Mayo News, the chairperson of Craftwork Mayo, Roger Harley, explains that Crafworks Mayo started up in March 2012 with 28 members, and has since grown to a group of 33 crafters. “It’s craft makers from all different disciplines, all around the county, including crafters that work with glass, jewellery, pottery, stone, wood, welding, print and textiles,” says the Westport-based potter, adding that all the craft makers live and work in Mayo, and use locally sourced materials as much as they can. 

The Gathering Collection
The group’s new Gathering Collection is hugely varied, but all its specially made items carry echoes of Mayo. A treasure trove of creativity and beauty, lovingly made by hand here in the county.
Paul Walsh, who designs bespoke wooden canoes and paddles and more ‘on the banks of the Moy’, has created beautiful Moy landing nets, made from Sapele or Western red cedar and recycled timber salvaged from old Foxford Woollen Mill beams – a net fit for any princely salmon or trout.
Clare Island weaver Beth Moran is offering one-off hand-woven silk scarves ‘inspired by the ever-changing colours and patterns of Clare Island’s environment’, with clients invited to get involved in the design process.
Liam Kelly has created a beautiful bogwood sculpture inspired by starlings circling and swirling, a familiar sight on a Mayo winter’s night, gracefully rendered in bog yew from Achill.
Noelene Cashin-Cafolla has created an enticing collection of scents, lotions and potions using essential oils and Fioruisce water bottled at source in Tourmakeady. She also used vintage Foxford blankets to create a pouch for her eau de toilette, and to make a gorgeous eye mask infused with aromas to enhance relaxation and sleep. (Want!)           
A glass ‘Echoes Bowl’, designed by Westport-based maker Sheila Moran, contains a spiral signifying how ‘a return journey will always bring you back to where you started from’ – poignant for members of the diaspora.
Other items include adorable Old Irish Goat puppets made in Mulranny, beautiful jewellery inspired by nature and history, handsome prints and stunning photography, a cheerful range of tea cosies (is there anything more Irish than a pot of tea?), stylish hand-crocheted hats and scarves, incense burners hewn from stone, family crests printed on metal and mounted on wood, engraved wooden wine racks, light-catching stained-glass St Brigid’s Crosses,  intricate felt work and wood carving, hand-knitted bags made from home-spun and home-dyed wool, and enchanting embroidery drawings. Roger Harley himself has created a stunning Gathering bowl, bold and vibrant but also delicate as the doilies from which he drew inspiration.       
“The most unusual thing in the collection, for me, is Stuart Foster’s shaving kit,” says Harley – evidently a big fan. “He makes his own shaving soap in Achill, and he sells the old traditional bristle brushes. They’re really good – I used mine this morning!” Presented in local artisan ceramics with a currach motif, the shaving kit contains a crackle-glazed shaving pot and lid, and a ceramic-handle bristle brush. The shaving soap is made with Achill Island spring water, organic oatmeal and a blend of essential oils, silk and clays.  

Strength in numbers
For crafters, the benefits of Craftworks Mayo membership are manifold. Craft makers traditionally work alone or as part of a small collective, and as such, they can often find it difficult to fund promotional events and activities. This means it can be hard for them to get their name and work out to a wider audience.
“We’ve found that we’re better off working as a group than individually. We have people in the group who might have just started up business, and others who have been in the business for a good few years. So there’s a lot of knowledge, resources and contacts within the group that we can pool together to help each other out,” says Harley.
The benefits don’t stop there, though. Craft making can be a solitary enterprise, but coming together to form a network means more human contact with like-minded people. “Most workers work on their own, and it’s nice to have the contact with other people, so the group is important socially as well as for business. We’re all in the same boat, as they say, so it’s good to get to know one another,” Harley explains.  
After The Gathering Collection launch, the group’s members are not settling back on their haunches. This August, they’ll be taking part in a ‘Meet The Maker’ event in Turlough House. The crafters will be demonstrating their trades and holding workshops in which members of the public can take part and learn a range of craft techniques. Then, they’ll  be busy gearing up for the second Craftworks Mayo Christmas Show in The Wyatt Hotel in Westport in November. Hopefully, they’ll squeeze in enough time to raise a glass (undoubtedly handmade) to toast their part in securing the future of homespun creativity in the county.

Craftworks Mayo’s Gathering Collection will be launched at 7pm in Claremorris Gallery this Thursday evening, July 11, and it will remain on show there until Saturday. Brochures containing details about the various products and craft makers are widely available throughout the county. For more information, visit www.craftworksmayo.ie or www.facebook.com/craftworksmayo.