available craft Alan Boyle
Below you can browse through a selection of craftspeople whose work is regularly on display in the gallery.
Price range 75 - 450
Alan Boyle makes collectable art pieces which combine his graphic design background with influences from ancient Irish art, the Irish landscape along with influences from Japan, Egypt and other ancient cultures. His work is constantly evolving as he experiments with new techniques. Other influences include Dali, Klimt, Durer and Patrick Scott.
This fresh approach to stoneware has attracted many commissions from architects and interior designers. Alan's philosophy is that ceramics are not just visual but also tactile and he encourages people to feel the form and texture of his work.
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Martha Cashman
Price range 65 - 330
Martha's most recent work is in glazed paper porcelain. Very fine kitchen utensils (non functional), some pieces interspersed with woven wire, carved birch and ash wood to accentuate and enhance the delicate white porcelain. The pieces are either box framed using limed ash or hung simply from rusted nails. Pieces from this body of work have been bought by the UCC Art Archive Collection, CIT Art Collection and the Crawford Student Collection.
Martha's work pays homage to the teachers of her past. "The farm helpers and local women who visited and helped my mother in the house. Their understanding of the daily running of a small farm holding impacted on me greatly and led me to appreciate and respect the land we took from daily."
The ceramic pieces on the right have been exhibited in a travelling show titled Womanagh, inspired by irish rural teachings and a disappearing traditional style of living.
Helen Doherty
Price range 90 - 110
My work is driven by the narrative element which is informed by my interest in literature, media stories, myth and religious texts. I am interested in recurrent themes which are translated into ceramic narratives through imagery and text. I draw on the long tradition of storytelling through ceramics, but i present narratives from a womans perspective, and focus on things men would find trvial, such as what happened to Eve before Adam found her eating the apple, how much knowledge in apples did she accrue before he arrived?
Sara Flynn
Price range 30 - 250
Sara Flynn attended Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork where she received a degree in Ceramic Design - Product Design in 1998. She established her own studio and gallery in 2000. Group exhibitions include September 2002 Irish Designers at Habitat , Habitat, Stephens Green , Dublin, August 2002 "Of Colour in Craft" CCOI, Kilkenny and April 2001 "Irish Craft in Japan" Tokyo, Japan.
Sara Flynn works exclusively with porcelain. All pieces are hand thrown and high fired in an electric kiln. She uses strong, clean lines to communicate her sense of form together with subtle use of colour and glaze - finishes
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Peter Fulop
Price range 80 - 180
My work in clay is heavily influenced by the Japanese traditions. After twenty years working and experimenting with clay I find Raku reduction and wood firing techniques the most effective way to express myself.
My latest body of work is a culmination of my experience and time spent with traditional artists in China and Japan and studies of the martial arts and calligraphic painting. Through my working processes I explore the transference of motion in space onto two or three-dimensional surface. Historically there is on the action itself. The artist begins with the strokes and theoretically empties his mind through the continues flow of motion. These motions or emotions are recorded as marks upon the clay surface using a micron layer of glaze providing a holographic effect to brushstrokes.
Recently my work has transitioned from functional object making to reflective containers. The container in the human consciousness is a very primal and universal symbol. In the early times the first "containers" were created for ceremonial purposes to represent the human body. Today we mainly use vases and containers for functional purposes in our everyday life. In my new work I aspire to connect and reawaken the consciousness to those primal feelings toward the objects and objects making.
Geoffrey Healy
Price range 20 - 200
Geoffrey studied his craft in the UK and Japan, before setting up his studio in his home county of Wicklow in 1992. He has exhibited at the Common Earth Ceramics Exhibition, The Museum Of Modern Art and is a regular exhibitor at Showcase ~ Ireland's premier craft industry exhibition. Each collection of pottery reflects a deep felt pool of inspiration from which Geoffrey draws his designs, shapes and creativity.
Ellen Horan
Price range 30 - 185
My work at present is very much inspired by the reflective quality of the Atlantic ocean and the changing surfaces of water and sand with each tide, The sunlight on the water surface, clouds passing over causing deep blues and greens against a turquoise background. The barium glazes I use capture a little of the ever changing mood in the Atlantic seascape. So far my work has gained a very positive response with galleries and customers.
Andrew Ludick
Price range 200 - 300
Andrew Ludick graduated with a major in illustration from the Columbus College of Art in 2000. He has worked in many graphic arts fields from editorial illustrator, to mural painting as well as fine arts painting. He is originally from the U. S. but has been a resident in Ireland for the past 3 years. In Ireland he has pursued painting and drawing and has had several exhibitions of his work in Kilkenny and Dublin. For the past two years he has been focussing his craftsmanship on ceramics, mainly working from extruded and slab built vessels he applies his illustrative techniques to create one of a kind artistic pieces. Many of the flat pieces can be displayed and hung on walls like paintings. All pieces are made from stoneware clay and decorated in coloured slips. Designs and illustration are carved into the slip and fired with a coating of clear glaze.
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Neil McGrath
Price range 45 - 90
Things that are old, crafted by nameless artists in ancient times, this is what inspires me. Whether it's an illustration from a Byzantine manuscript or perhaps a Sumerian cylinder seal from the Near East, these are fragments of stories which remind us of what has always been important to people.
These Vessels were inspired by the small pilgrim flasks that were used by early European travelers to carry sacred oil and water home from the holy sites in the East. These 21st century 'pilgrim flasks' were built with this in mind.
A number of my pieces also refer to ancient Egyptian vessels which were hand carved from stone such as alabaster and marble.
A variation of the ancient Japanese technique known as Raku was used to fire each vessel. Using my Raku kiln, I heat the work to a very high temperature. When glowing hot, the individual pieces are quickly removed from the kiln. Single strands of horsehair are then placed against the burnished vessel. The carbon from the horsehair produces the distinct markings. The vessels are then polished with beeswax.
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Lucia Parle
Price range 10 - 75
As a ceramicist it is my aim to produce innovative and individual handmade objects of the highest quality and design. From domestic embellishment to decorative jewellery. I aim to provide something for every member of society. My signature ranges cater for a wide market, including the perfectly original gift for a newborn to luxury seasonal adornments for the tree. Through private commission I also provide artwork for interiors, working closely with the client to reflect a personal twist and to suit individual requirement.
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Shelly Pots
Price range 45 - 200
Shelagh worked at home and abroad with various potters to develop her skills and in 1999 opened her own studio to further develop the sculptural based products of people and dogs that began when she was in college.
All the works are hand thrown on the pottery wheel then assembled by hand to give each piece an individual character and charm. They are then decorated in bright and colourful slips and oxides which add a great sense of humour and mischief. They are then fired in an electric kiln.
Joanne Robey
Price range 75 - 220
Her inspiration comes from the animals and birds of the Irish countryside She has exhibited her work in galleries and craft shops around West Cork, Dublin and Belfast. Her wildlife sculptures are in collections throughout Ireland.
Sara Roberts
Price range 35 - 98
Land, sea and sky and nature's constantly changing patterns and hues are what inspire me. I use photography to record such images as reference for my wall pieces. I enjoy the challenge of trying to capture the mood of a natural scape in clay, through texture and colour. In my efforts to do this I use red earthenware and porcelain because of their inherently different qualities and I constantly experiment with ceramic colours and glazes and firing ranges to create new palettes. The subject of my work is fundamentally connected to the materials that make my work possible. In order to create I not only need those images to inspire but need the materials found within them. The earth (clay), the sand (silica/glaze) and the rocks (colouring pigments). It is a very satisfying relationship."
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Eileen Singleton
Price range 140 - 330
Eileen makes clay monoprints using plants and animal life as subject matter. She is fascinated by the amount of detail the clay captures when impressed by texture and how these tactile attributes are revealed when color is introduced to the clay surface. She also uses mosaic as a technique to create garden sculpture and to adorn interior walls and floors.
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Julian Smith
Price range 25 - 375
Julian Smith has been working with clay for well over 20 years. After training in Scotland and Wales, he moved to Ireland in 1995. Initially he lived in Galway but soon discovered Kinsale, and established his own studio there in 1996.
Julian has established himself as one of Ireland's foremost Raku artists. Raku is a technique originating in Japan in the sixteenth century, in which work is rapidly fired and removed from the kiln when glowing red-hot. The piece is then placed in a container with combustible materials creating striking colours using metallic oxides. The charm of Raku lies in its use of primitive materials which nevertheless can produce highly sophisticated results.
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Lesley Stothers
Price range 150 - 1000
Family celebrations always seemed to involve a special meal using the best crockery, polished cutlery, folded linen napkins and carefully laid out place settings for mealtimes. I began to explore representations of these memories.
Initially it was the objects themselves that interested me, first spoons, then other utensils and subsequently the whole idea of place setting. I became progressively more concerned with the whole ritual of setting the table and laying objects out in a prescribed way. I use my sewing machine as a tool to 'draw' with and my hands to manipulate wire, just as painters and sculptors use pencil, paper, clay and stone.
I see myself as an artist maker, combining fine art tradition with craft based techniques while working in the medium of textiles. I knit and crochet but use wire instead of wool or cotton and I stitch, appliquÎ and embroider with plastic, paper and wire. Using wire allows me to add another dimension to otherwise flat images.
I create wall pieces on stretched fabric canvases, combining low relief elements produced using craft based methods with the fine art tradition of drawing and collage. In all the work I do, whether creative practice or teaching, my aim is to raise the profile of textiles in art - it is important to me that my craft-based production techniques are regarded in a fine art context.
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Grainne Watts
Price range 90 - 300
I have been a thrower of mainly functional ware throughout my ceramic career and over the last couple of years have started to use this method of making in conjunction with hand building to produce two distinct bodies of work. I am currently known for the decorative beasts I make. These started off as knobs on lidded vessels. An interest in the various ways animals are adorned for festival parades and rituals inspired the current pieces. Each on is hand thrown and assembled using a blow torch to help capture poise and expression. I use coloured slips to decorate the surface. Italian glass discs and silver washers are added later. I also smoke fire the beasts sometimes to get a totally different range of surface makings.
My new body of work has developed over the last year. The mechanics and process of throwing lends a certain rhythmical quality to the forms I am making. A rhythm is also found in nature.
The Connemara coastline has coughed up a collection of found treasures over a lifetime of holidays there. Rusted metals, bleached bones, bog oak, claws and shells have all inspired the forms and surfaces I am currently making. Surface texture and marks are influenced by the effects of the elements . . . Erosion, burnishing, water marks. This new body of work has led me to learn and experiment with new firing techniques and more recently, raku firing.
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Maura Whelan
Price range 350 - 450
Maura Whelan is a self taught artist in glass and has been working in the medium for over 20 years in her studio in Cill na Martra, in the hills of West Cork. Her glasswork is fired in kilns, each piece fired up to three times as the layers are built up and formed.
Maura works with light as the second element to her work. Her unique Lighted Glass Pieces challenge the boundaries between art and function and remain the distinctive hallmark of her work. Maura has become well established as a contemporary glassmaker in Ireland and she has also exhibited her glasswork in Europe, North America and China.
Thomas Wollen
Price range 75 - 280
Thomas Wollen set up business and has been making ceramic art from his renovated 'cow shed' studio in the Slieve Felim Hills of eastern Limerick near Doon, since 1998. With no formal art and design training Thomas has developed his own distinctive style of carving and decorating the surface of the clay. Together with his fascination and expertise in the Raku firing process, unique and individual pieces of work are created for both the art and craft market.
Thomas says 'My work has progressed towards the collector and gallery ceramic art market where ideas are explored and then developed into a series of work. The inspirations for my recent work have been based on contemporary political events as well as my personal experiences. However, the local environment and my childhood experiences living in Africa will always influence the work that I produce. My aspirations are generally simple ones - to produce beautiful work that stimulates debate as well as gives enjoyment. If I see someone stopping to touch one of my pieces then I have succeeded.'
