SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1985

Crafts Council of Ireland Thomas Prior House Merrion Road Dublin 4 Telephone 680764 / 603070

BURREN III21 participants gathered in Ballyvaughanfor the first week of a two week Designand Development Programme. LeadersLudmilla Kaprasova, Alison Wooten andFrank Boyden had spent the previous weekfamiliarising themselves with West Clare,the Burren in particular, and the pre-paration of their approach to the weekwith 21 very professional craftsmen,potters, weavers, embroiderers, printerswho would be seeking, through a sharedexperience with leaders of such inter-national calibre and with each other newdirections, new developments in theirapproach to design which plays such avital role in each one's business if itis to remain viable and to grow, notmerely in size but in quality and in thelevel of price applicable internationallyto such quality.

It was early clear that many of the

The creative process. Ludmilla Kaprasovaleading a bobbin lace module. Burren III.

participants were already pushing them-selves beyond limits they had acceptedand also that, in international terms,they were capable of a level which ifit were to be valued outside this countrywould be many times the value on theirwork here.

As with such intensive workshopsthere were those who were prepared towork at it and draw from it every last,ounce of value — and this could be seenin the work books and will be seen in themonths to come as the experience seepsinto current work. There will alsoprobably be some whose work six monthshence may show no influence. April 7thin the Bank of Ireland Exhibition Hallwill be an interesting coming together.

Everyone taking part in Burren III hasguaranteed work for this exhibition.

Will it show the progress which theother Burrens have drawn from part-icipants?

The weather was fairly diabolical attimes — some were quite undeterred andwould have worked (almost did) under-water.

Comment and experiences perhaps in thenext Newsletter.

THE GREAT CRAFTS FAIR IIApplications well exceeded the number ofstands. The Selection Committee passedthirty six of the new applications asbeing of the required standard and ful-filling the conditions. So. a full fair tolook forward to with 150 exhibitorsranging over a wide number of disciplinesfrom the ubiquitous pottery (20) toleather, woodware, glass, jewellery, casualwear and knitwear, including some newupmarket designs. While the mixture mayappear much as before there are innov-ations and products which should catchthe public's eye and hopefully its pursecontents.

Watch out for a new range of driedproducts, beautifully produced, for cardsand wrapping papers, for excitingdesigner knitwear, porcelain dolls andlots of other Christmas ideas.

Demonstrations will include tiffanyglass, pottery, woodworking on a widescale — turning, marquetry, smallfurniture and basketry, this time fromDonegal. Country Markets will have adouble stand and will be demonstrating anumber of traditional crafts such ashedgerow basketry, rushwork and lumra.

There will be five exhibitions. Kilworth4 is the current exhibition work of themajority of those who have passed

Continued on back page

KILWORTH AND THE RCASeptember 22nd saw the arrival atKilworth Craft Workshops of three youngfinal year students of the Royal Collegeof Art s two-year Master of Arts degreecourse to take part in an interestingdevelopment aimed at creating an intensivedesign stimulus for the participants inthis Craft Council's initiative, backedby AnCo.

While, over the years, there has beenvery successful progress made at Kilworth,and the recent exhibition of the work ofthose who have taken part since thebeginning, Kilworth 4, has shown thecapability of those who have passedthrough, design has always beenrecognised as a weakness.

This has been most apparent at a stagein each year's throughput when thepressure to produce a range of productsto a time schedule at a price limitationin quantities related to making a viableliving is being exerted by the trainingmanagement.

Many young participants who have grad-uated out of art college with a diploma orwho have reached this general standard byapprenticeship or some other route andwho have presented a portfolio andsamples of quality high enough to earn aplace at Kilworth, find that there is abig difference between the time andcosting demands of real commercial lifeand relative timelessness of art collegedemands in arriving at a product. It isthis pressure which makes a real demandon one's design capability and if thatis a weakness then the pressure willmean that design elements may have to besacrificed to commercial demands. Whereit is strong, of course, it can be apositive advantage and should enablethose capable to design their way out oftrouble instead of into it.

As this general weakness was apparent ineach year (some more intensively thanothers) and was not necessarily improvingin that the intake from the colleges wasno stronger in design competence, it wasdecided that what would have to be donewas to initiate a crash course in designfor each years participants.

Various options were looked at and ineach case there were some obstacles suchas that it had to be borne in mind thatthe overall competence of the Kilworthparticipants was diploma level plus, butnot B.A. and certainly not M.A. level.The tutors for such a crash course, there-fore, had to be such as would not be sofar above the heads of those beingtutored as to be largely incomprehensiblenor so academic or lofty as to talk down,nor either so locked in into a particular2

international design style as to ignoreothers. It would be harmful to have allthe weight of the Italian School, ofSottsass, of Memphis, while ignoring whatwas happening in, say Finland. Or even tolose a balance between a strength intextiles in one country while the strengthin ceramics could be happeing elsewhere.

Exploratory discussions with the RoyalCollege of Art threw up an innovationthe basis for which was that graduateschosen by that College to undertake itstwo year Master of Arts degree coursewould themselves have been subjected tomany design influences as part of theiryears of study, and would be aware ofthe current situation, the currentleaders, the trends. Not only that butwould also be aware of the tricks of thetrade, the short cuts, the techniques ofdesigning.

It was this thinking, coupled with thefact that the age difference betweenR.C.A. final year Masters graduates andthose at Kilworth would be much closerand therefore the rapport more likely tobe better than that with a collegelecturer, that decided on the course ofutilising three such graduates chosen bythe R.C.A. for their committment tothis initiative as providing the crashcourse.

Kate Malone (ceramics), Paul Burgess(textiles) and Jane Adam (metalwork and

jewellery) have been described as"a splendid group, full of ideas as wellas being sympathetic to what you aretrying to achieve at the workshops".

A detailed programme has been workedout for the two seminar/sessions (one twoweek period in September and another inDecember). On the programme themeeting with the three was recounted asbeing "most refreshing to see how they'wanted to work together as an integralgroup, rather than be limited by theirdisciplines."

Those Irish students, including two fromthe North, lucky enough to have beenchosen for a place at Kilworth are aboutto face an interesting experience and theresults will be observed with equalinterest.

Despite a very late arrival the nightbefore, the three were already at workbright and early on the Monday andalready by midday one could sense thatthe group was well chosen and there wasclearly a seriousness and sense of purpose,a carefully thought out approach and atthe same time a unity developing betweenthe eleven participating at Kilworth,some of the previousalumni and the threefrom the R.C.A.

Worsted dip dyed skirt, ribbon and worstedtop and two fabric lengths by Jane Sorensen.Kilworth 4 exhibition. Photo. J. Breivik.

Zig-zag patterned blue and pink bowl in whiteearthenware by Maxine Mearns. Kilworth 4.

Anna Kee, Porcelain Bowl, Kilworth 4.

CAROL McNICHOLLJill Crowley for hopeful happy familyreasons has had to cry off The Societyof Cork Potters Seminar on Saturdayand Sunday 16th and 17th November.Her pJace will be taken by rising youngstar, ceramist Carol McNicholl who,like Jill Crowley, is essentially asculptural potter. She has been givena major exhibition by the Crafts Councilat its Gallery in London, which openedon 24th September and will tour.

1986 PATCHWORK TRIP TO USANoted are plans by the Irish PatchworkSociety towards a visit to the U.S.A.on a study/sightseeing tour this timenext year.

The sort of itinerary it is hoped toachieve would be New York for a fewdays, likewise Washington to see theTextile Museum and the Museum of theDaughters of the American Revolution.As the Quilting Congress takes place nearWashington this would be the focus ofthe tour and the post congress planswould include a bustourthrough Virginia,on to Pennsylvania via the Blue RidgeMountains, and to New York via Amishterritory.

All at the idea stage. Those interestedmight drop an s.a.e. to Jane Almquist,73 Marlborough Road, Donnybrook,Dublin 4.

BOOKING OUTAt the time of going to press the floodof entries for the 10th National CraftsTrade Fair was still continuing and it islikely that the extra 8% of space will befilled by the closing date. Johnny-come-latlies may find they are disappointedagain.

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"Hurler". A cast stoneware piece by JohnBUtt*r, Kilworth Craft Workshops exhibitionKilworth 4.

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COLLECTING THE CONTEMPORARY -FASHION by Elizabeth McCrum, Ulster Museum.

In November 1976 the Ulster Museum's entire collection of costume and textiles was destroyed in the fire following the bombing of Malone House, on the out­skirts of Belfast, where it was then stored. This was one of the worst cultural losses which Northern Ireland has suffered during the recent troubles. It was resolved immediately to recreate the collection as far as was practical and possible. We could not obviously [eplace what had been unique, and did not wish to replace some of the oddities that had come in before mid 20th century concepts, such as collecting policies, were thought of. Historical accident had given us an oriental costume collection, brought back by Ulster's many mission­aries to China. With the source dried, up we decided not to try to replace this apect of costume. Again, we could not hope to replace what had been one of the three best linen collections in the world, and should not, since the Lisburn Museum is now the specialist linen museum in Northern Ireland.

As far as fashionable costume was concerned however, our position was relatively simple. Clothing is collected by the Art Department as an applied art and as one of the most vital reflectors of changing tastes and preceptions. We acquire mainstream fashionable costume of men and women and children from as early a date as possible until the present day.

We obtain new specimens through gifts, always most welcome, and purchases. On the whole donations are of late 19th and early 20th century items, and purchases are of earlier items, where the recent price rise in antique costume is particularly notable. We mostly buy the latter from auction houses in London, now one of the most important world centres for old costume. By buying at auction we are saved problems of valuation which arise because sellers often have no accesss to information about current prices of costume and museums are forbidden to financially evaluate any item. We would of course feel an obligation to give a donor some indication if an offered gift was especially valuable.

Good late 19th century to mid 20th century costume is also bought occas­ionally at auction, but also from a variety of other souces, mostly local. Organis­ations such as War on Want and all types of second hand and nearly new clothes

shops give us first refusal of interesting pieces. We keep the collection in the public eye as much as possible to make contact with as many potential donors and sellers as we can.

Very fortunately we have a healthy purchase fund for costume thanks to government compensation for the loss of our former collection. This puts us in a very singlular position in relation to most other museums in Ireland and Great Britain. At a time when most other curators are desperately short of money for their collections, we are able to bid against transatlantic and continental dealers, with reasonable chance of success, for items which we particularly want. Hence we have been able to secure quite spectacular and very appropriate pieces such as the suit and rod of the Black Rod of the Irish Parliament of 1751.

In the years since 1976 we have, therefore, made good progress in recreating a valid historic costume collection. We found however that our acquisitions of post 1970 costume were alarmingly sparse. Several factors account for this. People on the whole do not see that their clothes have any intrinsic value after they go out of fashion until at least fifteen years have passed. Donors who might now give us a 1950s cocktajl dress would often have to be prompted to offer an equally interesting garment of the 1970s. The relatively cheap price of clothes and the general tendency to smaller houses encourages the disposal rather than the storing of unfashionable garments. Our greatest difficulty derives from the way in which clothes are now worn. In the 1880s, a disctinctive day dress, or walking dress or dinner dress would have been worn if the wearer was required to look smart, or casual or dressy, to use 20th century terms. In the 1980s, to achieve these looks, a woman could wear the same pair of trousers worn with say, a jacket and tailored blouse in the first case, boots and jumper in the second, and sandals and frilly blouse in the third. Most of these separates would be bought individually and there would be no reason to give away a complete outfit. One very typical item of the relatively informal clothing of the seventies; a pair of trousers, would there­fore tell us a great deal less about what people of that era wanted to look like than, for example, one equally typical item of the fifties such as a dress which needed only very predictable neat accessories to be an outfit.

Incidentally, in describing increased versatility of contemporary garments I am by no means echoing that most

dreaded and incorrect phrase of the bad fashion journalist 'This season anything goes'. That is not and never has been the case. Any apparent freedom of choice in the sphere of mainstream fashion only operates within prescribed margins. There are a limited number of options.

Our solution to the risk we appeared to be running of missing the chance to acquire the right type of contemporary fashion is to buy two complete outfits for spring/summer and autumn each year. One outfit is a designer outfit i.e. by a successful designer whose work reflects one of the key looks of the coming season's fashions. The other is a 'High Street' outfit, bought in a Belfast shop, which reflects what is popular and available and actually worn here. This means that we can encompass coming fashion and present fashion, or two distinct but complementary looks, or an extreme and a diluted version of the same look.

The choice of the 'High Street outfit' is the simpler of the two. We can buy from various ranges, each reflecting the fashionable interests of slightly differing classes and ages. We can choose a range which seems particularly good one season, such as In-wear, our Summer '85 choice without too much heart-searching, knowing that another facet of Belfast fashion can be represented the next season, or next. We are concerned, I should stress, with High Street fashion rather than street fashion. We keep documentary evidence of the clothes of the various Belfast youth peer groups, but haven't yet ventured into collecting them. That may yet come.

The choice of the designer outfit is more problematic since it involves deciding on key developments now, and the immediate is always hard to view with clarity. The difficulty is solved in other institutions such as the Museum of Costume in Bath by asking a fashion journalist to choose the outfit of the year. Here we lack sufficient of these animals to give continuity to the device. My colleague Elise Taylor and I make each season's decision ourselves. We come to accord in what is, we flatter ourselves, an informed opinion. We know our collection and collecting policy better than anyone, and can ensure a balance of emphasis from year to year.

Despite the above complaint, some years the choice of designer is easy. Last winter for example, we bought Paul Costelloe's clothes. His work was particularly successful internationally that season, his own interests and skills in designing for tweed coinciding with very general interest

Outfit by Paul Costelloe. Autumn/Winter 1985.Photo Ulster Museum.

Karl Lagerfeld outfit. Summer 1983. PhotoUlster Museum.

Red and yellow crepe dress. Mary Quant.C. 1967. Photo Ulster Museum.

in that cloth. His large loose coats,Aran sweaters and long slim skirts featuredwidely in fashion journals. Added to thishe is an Irish designer with a factory inDungannon, Co. Tyrone. Another bonuswas that Paul Costelloe put the outfittogether for us so we know that ourcombination of garments conforms withthe designer's intentions.

One bonus of buying contemporarycostume is that we can be sure that weare not unwittingly buying a dud garmentwhich has survived without signs ofwear because no-one wanted to wQar it.To counteract this risk we try on anypotential acquisition if possible beforepurchase or acceptance and have therebybeen saved the embarrassment of refusinga dress of superb cut because of itsunspectacular colour or accepting abad dress whose eccentricity has beendisguised by interesting trimmings orcolour. Still, costume museums mustinevitably remain, to take one example,the world's greatest repositories of illfitting shoes. The further back in timeone goes, the more historical accidenthas to do with the material available toany collection. Buying contemporarykeeps the free will in collecting.

Kilworth 4. The exhibition at Kilworth.Subsequent locations Ballycasey, DublinCork. Photo J. Breivik.

THEY'RE LOOKING FOR THEHAIRIES.DEARWe were in West Cork. We were lookingfor Thomas and Heidi MarieSpringledorfer. We were not having muchsuccess in the finding of them.The houseat which we enquired was not likelyto contain them — a nice little chunk ofW.C. (West Cork) transformed into apiece of California - the arches, thefive cars. I left the car, moored stoutlyin the wettest of west rain, frightenedthe Afgan hound — string shaped fromthe wet, and made it to the edge ofluxury. I explained to the good woman,perhaps wife, of the house who we werelooking for. A voice beyond her growleda question and she answered "they'relooking for the hairies dear".

I made a mental note of those words.

As retailers, we really should not havebeen there. The only thing that was ofbenefit was the rain; it was restoring us toour original size after a long period ofbeing pinched, painfully, between theproducer and the customer. We shouldhave absorbed much more rain.

Back in our accustomed spot, beside theti l l , surrounded by the product, we have afine lucrative sale on hands. Mrs. K. VirgilMacConway of 3000000 Hiatus ChaseCinncinati has made a selection and wantsto, well — she wants to do somethingShe presents a credit card of the ChanceBamboo Breakfast Club, Kowloon. Shewants to know the rate of the dollar.We will check the day's rate as soon aswe have rung for authorization of hercard. It is 2 a.m. in Kowloon and theyare still in last month. Can she have aV.A.T. refund chit? Yes, when we havemade contact with Kowloon. Will wemail the purchase — not to her ownaddress, to this other one. She searches,and I see in her wallet approximately sixfifty pound notes and numerous singles.She has now forgotten which items arehers and which belong to others. "Ohjeeze! my husband is waiting in anothershop — I gotta go". Elapsed time, twentyfour minutes.

By and large the product is excellent, ifiyou would subscribe to the view thatcraftwork is what was a necessity ofbygone days now turned to something ofa luxury of the present day. Oh sod! Iwent and used it! —that word: Craftwork!A quick little word that makes a subtlescreen of mental glass descend betweenthe worker and the 'Mr. Average' it makesthe ... worker a bit special, a bit remote.Mr. Average shakes hands, tries to under-stand, his teenage daughter would surelyknow if the "stuff'was good — no — noconferring, what was it Michael Ryan said

on the T.V. on Friday, so urbane, soknowledgeable, so good, the wordwon't come "er thank you, er thank you,er we'll er — my daughter — verygrateful — byee".If a little flux, just a pinch of it, mindyou, were introduced between many Mr.and Mrs. Averages and the comparativelyfew ... workers I'll hazard a prophecy, thehome market would increase by at least331/4%.

Oh! a rosy dream indeed! All could beinvolved, a rapturous Breughelesquestampede for Mr. and Mrs. Average andtheir children. Now, there'*s a peculiareffect manifests itself at this point.Just once I will risk being dogmatic(no offence to Linus, Borage andIsaac, good friends all) and make thissecret knowledge secret no more.

When large numbers of the public (Mr.Mrs. Averagex 60,000= "THE PUBLIC")become interested, they lose interest inpurchasing and start at "the work"themselves, flood the market, squealabout lack of grants, facilities etc. — andfinally, totally dis-commode the goosethat was attempting to lay the golden egg,and scare it clean across the Atlantic tolay with profligate abandon, in America.It happened in the sphere of picturepainting.

Excuse me, I'll just use that word again,pop out on an unsuspecting Mrs. Averageand bellow"CRAFTWORK". She will belikely to tremblingly suggest "POTTERY".Why have we so many potters and, Ithink, only one glass-blower. Dare I toy

Detail Zodiac Sign hanging. Bobbin Lace,Ludmilla Kaprasove. Burren III.Photos by F Sutton

with the heresy . . . have we one or twotoo many potters?.No, we probablyhaven't. Anyway, they, like the gooseare beginning to look towards Americaand court with Lady Fortune throughthe medium of exports.

One of the pitfalls of the retail gamemust surely be overstocking with pottery.What can be the fascination of thisparticular pursuit; how do they stand allthat cold clay as they mud-wrestletheir solitary way through each day?Another pitfall must surely be supplyand delivery of this cursedly heavycommodity, the packing material all overthe shop, Japanese visitors wonderingif we are selling it (the packing); endlessnumbers of boxes to be karate choppedand kicked into submission. I think thathonours in this field are about fity-fifty.Oh how tempting to drop the untidyfifty and call the good fifty one hundredper cent.

The leather workers are great, and thewood workers, and the glass blower —there he is, blowing silent symphoniesof superb skill . . . we did have otherglass, cut (and badly wounded), but thisis the 'real thing.'

From here I clearly see the end of thisarticle/tirade/discourse and, of course,I know what it was I meant to say: It'shandwork, isn't it? It's not craftwork— it's handwork.

Laurence Hutson

BelowZodiac Sign hanging. Bobbin Lace, Ludm iliaKaprasova. Burren III.

AboveLithograph. Frank Boyden. Burren III.

Printed textile, detail. Alison Wooten.Burren III.

\

BURREN III EXHIBITIONThe leaders of the joint Crafts CouncilAnCo Design and Development ProgrammeBurren 111 each brought with themexamples of their work which weremounted as a very interesting exhibition atthe Ballycasey Craft Workshop Galleryduring early September.

Frank Boyden, the potter was unable tobring samples of his pottery for obviousweight reasons but brought lithographsand since he is, in many ways, anillustrative potter, who sometimes usespottery as a medium as an artist woulduse canvas, his lithographs reflectedhis style and philosophy.

Ludmilla Kaprasova's delicate bobbinlace hangings were superb examples ofexpression in this medium, pushing itbeyond the confines of tradition, explor-ing both method and textures. To seeher create a mini masterpiece — freehandin lace where others might draw or planit out firsi — was to marvel at herskill and to wish that our own lacemakers,albeit working in, say, crochet, couldshake off the dogmas and restrictionsand become creative rather thanrepetitive.

Alison Wootens' textile pieces weregreat riots of colour, all so carelesslycarefully contrived in shape or colourthat one has to think for a moment beforerealising how difficult the seeminglysimple is.

through the Kilworth Craft Workshops. Itis a juried exhibition, and there are 80exhibits. The exhibition was originallyopened at Kilworth in July by theMinister for Foreign Affairs,Mr. Peter Barry T.D., and will travel toClare and to Cork subsequently.

The Irish Guild of Weavers, Spinners andDyers will have another exhibition alongthe lines of the very successful onemounted at the Great Crafts Fair lastyear.

If the Irish Patchwork Society matchesthe magnificent selection of work seen atits annual exhibition in the Bank ofIreland earlier in the "summer", theirexhibition at the Great Crafts Fair IIshould make an even greater impact thanlast year when their sales were so goodand the public so interested.

An innovation is an exhibition fromLoughborough College of Art and Designof experimental projects carried out ontheir B.A. 1st year textile course. Thecourse concentrates on aesthetic problemsand provides exciting possibilities forthe promotion of an artistic andintellectual curiosity within the framework of Textiles and Fashion. The key isto help students to make an appropriatechoice of specialisation (capable of laterdevelopment) and they are encouragedto base that selection on an understand ingof the inherent characteristics of theirtalents rather than the limited, oftenarbitrary technical experience whichresults from initial attempts to print,weave and embroider. Certainly it will beof great interest to students of design andindeed should also have lessons for thedesigners of training courses in the areaof textiles.

The Craft Potters Society of Ireland willmount a limited version of their annualexhibition again. Interestingly, thisapproach was very successful last year atthis fair and made, in some critics judge-ment, a better exhibition than the original.It certainly sold as well.

So, the Great Fair II will offera varied selection of goodies to interesteveryone and, of course, its only 35shopping days to Christmas!

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DOUBTS DISPELLED -ARNOTTSFAIR IS ONThere was some dismay among thefaithful when rumour spread that theIrish Craft Fair at Arnotts was not takingplace as the Irish Goods Council inSeptember, decided not to continue thesubsidy and organisation of this fairwhich it had hand held for a number ofyears.

Too late also for the Crafts Council to beinvolved. !t had its own fair, and had nobudget to match that of the Irish GoodCouncil's anyway. But it did give advice,and with professional guidance and thecooperation of the North Dublin Craft-workers Association who stepped in to actas coordinators, as well as the enthusiasmof Billy Kelly of Arnotts, the Fair willtake place to sighs of relief from thosewho regularly participate.

The dates we are advised will be fromFriday 6th December to Saturday 21stDecember inclusive, and the number ofexhibitors will be limited to last yearstotal to ease the administrative burden.

The Newsletter understands that there \sconsiderable satisfaction among exhibit-ors that the position of the fair has beenmaintained for another year and themany Arnotts customers who had,apparently, been enquiring can now beadvised of this Christmas treat.

PATCHWORK EXHIBITIONFrom December 3rd to Christmas Evethe Cork 800 Patchwork Show will beat the Crawford Municipal Gallery inCork. As the show is being organised bythe gallery with Evelyn Montague, thoseinterested should get in touch with her at25 Grattan Hill, Cork as soon as possiblefor an entry form. She would certainlywish to know name and address and fulldetails of the quilt or wallhanging.

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