Arts & Crafts

There are galleries for paintings, statues and sculptures, and crafts people with a variety of skills to exhibit. Some crafts people have viewing areas where you can watch them work. It can give an insight into the age-old traditions and manufacturing styles used by potters, weavers and other crafts people. As with any community, at any one time, our Artists provide us with an alternate view of the area. Contemporary painters capture landscapes and wildlife. Photographers and other visual artists produce great snapshots of our area from a different perspective.

Niamh Utsch

Making jewellery that will interact and delight the wearer using just three components: gold, silver and gemstones, is a task that demands total knowledge of the important elements: the design aspect and precision craftsmanship.

I describe my style as contemporary, yet timeless, bold modern perhaps, often asymmetrical but always balanced. Take my combination of materials. While most goldsmiths would set diamonds and precious gems in gold or platinum, I use sterling silver with 18ct gold as detail, but what the eye sees first is the brilliant faceted Jewel in silver. There is something startling and contemporary about the juxtaposition of the precious stone and the less formal metal.

I incorporate large (some weigh 20-30cts) gemstones in most of my designs: Aquamarine, Tanzanite, Amethyst, Peridot, Topaz, Citrine, Tourmaline, Moonstone and such rare and most valued stones such as: Boulder Opals and Green and Mandarin Garnets. I'm always fascinated by natural inclusions, internal crevices and bubbles that you can detect in some of the gem cabochons. I personally like them, it seals their authenticity. Their shape is inspiration to create a sculptural piece and the translucency and vibrant colour enhance the metal. Faceted, these stones display and array of colour-play and adorn the skin.

Each piece is completely handmade by me, using few and simple tools and a lot of time. I never start with a drawing of the finished piece, it's too limited. I start with the stone and see where it leads me, changing the composition as I go along. A distinct finish is applied to the metal surface which is unmistakably recognisable and exclusive to my designs. The melting and hammering of the silver is another technique that I use to achieve reflection, movement and texture... Niamh Utsch

Zac Phelan

Based in his workshop and studio in the village of Annascaul on the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry, Zac Phelan designs, hand makes and hand decorates his range of individually crafted ceramics.The pottery is hand thrown and each piece is individually glazed and decorated using unique colours and designs. The work compliments the modern home while holding on to the traditional virtues of elegance and functionality.

All Annascaul Pottery products are exclusively made by hand. The decoration is applied by brush to each piece. Pieces are made on the potters wheel; no molding methods or other shortcuts are used. After forming, every item is dried carefully and fired in the kiln after a few weeks. Next the wax design is painted on, followed by glazing by hand. Then the colour is applied, again by brush. The object is now fired a second time.

Annascaul Pottery was founded in the middle of the 1970's by Monica and Niall Phelan. Monica set up her workshop in the garage at the old rectory in Annascaul that Niall restored from near ruin over the years.

Monica's work was always brush decorated and highly individual. As the business grew the workshop eventually moved to a premises in the heart of Annascaul village in the mid 1980's; Niall opened the Dingle shop about this time. As the years passed the next generation worked in the business and eventually Monica moved on to a career in Art and Zac took over. Today he continues the spirit of what started over a quarter of a century ago.

Louis Mulcahy

Louis Mulcahy has been potting for forty years. His pottery studio and its sister enterprises in weaving and lampshade decoration have grown from his and his wife Lisbeth’s original two-man venture to employ over forty people.

For over thirty years he has been researching materials and experimenting with new designs. The result of all the research is that Louis Mulcahy’s pots are by far the strongest and most durable of all Irish Pottery. They are widely recognised for their long life and resistance to abuse. His work is utterly modern and distinctively Irish and reflects the magnificent scale and dramatic colours of his Dingle landscape.

Louis continues to make all his work at his studio in Dingle. There, like the great European master painters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, he designs and makes each individual piece and for series production, designs, makes and tests the prototypes before handing over to his highly skilled assistants for repetition.

Over the years the pottery continually refined its clay body for durability and its shapes and glazes for beauty. This devotion to quality has gained worldwide recognition and the pottery has a special reputation for its large pots and rich, lively, lustrous glazes.

In 1976, Louis embarked on the first range of hand-thrown lamps in Ireland. These were an immediate success and led a vogue which has continued to this day Later, Louis developed a range of hand-painted silk and cotton lampshades to complement his bases and these started a similar trend.

His brand new 2008 - 2009 ranges, which have just come on the market, are proving to be his biggest success so far. These are a superb collection of modern shapes glazed in white with delicate red motif and a series of individual pots in a rich russet glaze and decorated with free flowing brushwork.

For some years his sculpted masks have been collected by connoisseurs and lately he has begun to work on large masked figures. These, the mysterious Druids, are big, atmospheric and full of character. They are intended for public display.

Continuously experimenting, he does not confine himself to thrown pottery, but works in all forms of production including: jiggering, casting, slabbing, hump-moulding, hand building and sculpture.

Visitors to his pottery studio may try their own skill at throwing a pot on the potter’s wheel under the free tuition of one of Louis’s assistants and to view a video of the making process in all its complexities.

All Louis Mulcahy’s pottery pieces are made exclusively at his studio in Dingle Co. Kerry.

Locations: Louis Mulcahy Pottery Studio and Showroom – Clogher, Ballyferriter, Dingle 066 9156229 Lisbeth Mulcahy Weaving Studio and Showroom – Green St., Dingle Town 066 91 57688 Louis Mulcahy Lampshades – Ballyferriter Village, Dingle 066 9156229 Louis Mulcahy Showroom – 46 Dawson St., Dublin 2 01 6709311

Linda Ni hAinifein

A native of West Kerry, Linda Ni hAinifein is a Contemporary Ceramic Artist living and working in the Dingle Peninsula. She has been exhibiting since 1996 after graduating from Limerick School of Art & Design with a Degree in Ceramics. Linda uses clay as her medium to create works of Art that is inspired by the environment of the Dingle Peninsula. She looks to the archaeological aspects and the history of the area as well as the Geological aspects for her inspiration.

In 2005 Linda received her biggest Public Commission to date from Tintean Theatre in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry. This body of work was inspired by the structure of the famous castle that lies in the centre of the town Ballybunion. Inside each piece Linda has inscribed a poem, from the renowned Listowel poet Gabriel Fitzmaurice, onto sheets of porcelain paper that she makes by combining toilet paper and Porcelain Clay.

Linda is also a member of the West Kerry Craft Guild and along with its twelve members, exhibits her work at their outlet An Gailearai Beag, in Main St, Dingle. Linda is continuing to develop her work through ongoing exhibitions and public commissions throughout Ireland.

Brian de Staic - Jewellery

Brian de Staic Handcrafted Celtic Jewellery. The Dingle peninsula in County Kerry is a magical land on Europe's most westerly shore. It is here that Brian de Staic crafts his jewellery according to the age-old traditions of the Celt.

Inspired by Ireland's ancient culture and language and by the wild, haunting beauty of her landscape, he lovingly fashions gold and silver items that carry a timeless appeal.

Ogham Collection: There are ancient alphabets that were notched in stone, rude and primitive to some but to us spare and hard and passionate as love itself. And because they speak to us across the centuries we deem them timeless and in all honest reverence invoke them to our art. Please call to our Jewellery Studio at The Wood, Dingle and witness this timeless art inscribed on a range of beautiful gold and silver designs, and take a piece of history away with you forever.

Sean Daly - Dingle Crystal

Sean Daly's career as a master craftman began in 1973 when he joined Waterford Crystal as an apprentice crystal designer. Five years later, he qualified as a craftsman. Sean continued in his quest for excellence and in 1983 he became a master craftsman. It was in 1998 that the spirit of Dingle captured his artistic mind. With a new found inspiration he swiftly began to make his dreams a reality by finding suitable premises and re-locating to Dingle to open up Dingle Crystal. It is here that Sean transformed the celtic history and his own vision of art to create a breathtaking collection of mouth blown crystal using the Celtic theme.

His pieces have become distintive and extremely popular, known for their Celtic knots and circles. Each piece is deep cut and hand polished to give a beautiful sparkle as light penetrates through the crystal. The Master Pieces are then personally signed and dated by the Master Craftsman Sean Daly. Shop on-line and visit Dingle Crystal web site and see the very fine pieces of Dingle Cut, Dingle crafted, and most loved crystal.

Sinead Lough

Sinéad Lough's distinctive range of pottery is hand thrown in her workshop 4 miles west of Dingle. Using a range of bright Mediterranean colours, Sinéad handpaints each unique piece. The studio is open for most of the year and visitors are always welcome.

Syra Larkin

Syra sudied art at Hammersmith College of Art London before moving to Ireland in 1977. Her work has been exhibited in Ireland England and America and is represented internationally in public, corporate and private collections. Syra lives on the beautiful Maharee Peninsula in County Kerry with luthier husband Chris Larkin. Syra's paintings, like the changing and developing Maharee skyline, have evolved over the years into a very personal and often quirky view of the enviroment in which she has found herself.