Part II
The two words go together - Newbridge and cutlery - unsurprisingly perhaps, since Newbridge Cutlery has been turning out knives, forks and spoons for the nation since 1934. Yet more recently, the family firm has opened up a whole new area of manufacture, one which is earning them fans across the country and invigorating the whole business - Newbridge Silver. Even if you're not aware of the name, you've probably seen their product on a lapel near you as their simple silver necklaces, bangles, earrings and brooches are one of the Irish success stories of recent years.
"It's a long way from King's Pattern anyway," laughs Tom Wallis, design and marketing consultant to Newbridge Silver. "The cutlery market in England and Ireland is notoriously conservative, so it really was quite a step for managing director William Doyle. I think there were a few raised eyebrows when we first started." Doyle, who took over from his father as managing director a decade ago, was responsible for bringing Paul Costelloe on board to design what is now a flagship cutlery range, and for increasing the number of Newbridge Cutlery ranges from five to 24 in recent years.
In-house designer Emma Tunney explains how they used to send the residual materials left over after manufacturing their cutlery back to England to be melted back into sheet metal. "So back in the beginning, in 1996, we were just doing something with the leftovers. We already made napkin rings so we knew we could make bracelets, and it all took off from there." Wallis estimates that Newbridge Silver now makes up some 25 per cent of Newbridge Cutlery's business.
"William was always very confident about it but I must admit that I never thought it would go so well" he confides. Much of this has to do with their very competitive pricing - a pendant might only cost £15 but it will look as though it cost much more. Silver-plated rather than solid, the emphasis is on the contemporary, easily identifiable nature of the design.
"There's a strong minimalist influence to the pieces; they're all very contemporary. You won't get anything with leaves or hearts on it in Newbridge silver," points out Wallis. The pieces are easily recognisable as Newbridge Silver, which has been an advantage to the company. The very first range, Mona Lisa, was created by a New York-based designer, Kevin O'Dwyer, and it is still their biggest seller. Many customers have returned to Newbridge Silver over the years, building up a collection of pieces from the same range. "It's interesting: a lot of people like our work because they say it's very Celtic, but there's no surface design on the work. It's all in the shapes," explains Tunney.
The jewellery and the cutlery businesses work well together. Although the jewellery was originally a way of using up leftovers, there are now staff, machines and designers devoted solely to its manufacture. However, when a large order needs to be filled, people can be taken off polishing spoons and put onto polishing bracelets. In turn, Wallis points out that the well-priced, well-distributed contemporary jewellery has helped to introduce a new generation of customers to the business: "It has brought Newbridge to the attention of younger customers who are attracted by the modernism of the jewellery".
Part II
There's a small lump of tarnished metal sitting on a glass shelf in Maureen Lynch's studio, the kind of fiddly scrap metal which you would throw away without thinking twice. Yet once Lynch has hammered it, shaped it, filed it and polished it, this lump of chunky wire will be an 18-carat, white-gold wedding ring, a ribbon-like band on one side, thin as a sliver of new moon on the other.
It'll take her half a day to do, more if it doesn't go quite according to plan. "The tools I'm using are pretty much the same as those you'd find in museums," explains Lynch, pointing out the only modern invention in the place, an electric polisher. Although Lynch is part of a very old tradition of Irish silversmiths, finishing all her jewellery by hand and forging individual pieces, she is wary of the term craft. "I don't think what I do is craft, although it does depend on what you take craft to mean. I think my pieces are much more design led . . . they're fashion accessories rather than craft pieces."
It's an interesting division, but one that makes perfect sense when you see Lynch's work. Simple in design, with clean lines and simple shapes, her pieces call out to be picked up and turned in the hand. She works in silver and gold, making silky smooth pendants which hang like angular drops from a chain, bracelets, earrings and rings set with small round stones which click satisfyingly against the knuckle. These are pieces which you buy as a gift or for yourself because you like them and not particularly because they're Irish, or because they look handhewn. "I do look to see what's out there before I design my pieces - I look at magazines, at shops, I check out scarves or shoes or whatever. It's not as if I say `that's selling well in Oasis' for example, but I will always know what is on offer in Oasis."
Lynch now has a successful business, working out of her Fitzwilliam Square workshop with another fulltime maker, Michelle Burns, for an extensive client list which includes The Edge, actress Pauline McLynn and Riverdance's Moya Doherty, as well as a number of high-end stockists such as the Designyard in Temple Bar. Yet her career path was not a direct one. After studying design in NCAD she went to Copenhagen to work with renowned silversmith, Erik Sjodahl: "Copenhagen and the kind of design that was going on there really formed my style. It really made me appreciate clean lines and simple, contemporary design".
Arriving back in Ireland, Lynch set up a studio in the old stables of Butler House in Kilkenny. Four hugely busy years followed, before she decided to readjust her priorities and head out to Australia for six months. "I was working round the clock and I wasn't making any money. Really though, I just wasn't getting the satisfaction I needed out of it." While in Australia, Lynch had a motorbike accident which put her whole career on hold: "I was on my own on a motorbike on a dirt road and I can't really remember what happened. Some aboriginals found me and brought me to a bush station." She had cracked her skull in two places. "It was so bad that something good had to come out of it . . . My body wasn't allowed to work too hard so I had time to examine how I was going to make a living making jewellery and enjoy myself as well."
Since then, her career has really taken off, which she puts down to a number of factors, including a year-long DIT course in starting a small business. "Now I really listen to my buyers and make sure I know what's going on elsewhere. Of course you have to find a balance - if someone came to me wanting 500 Celtic rings I wouldn't do that, but I do think about where there's a gap in the market." She is unapologetic about wanting her work to provide a good salary: "I don't agree with the idea that just because I work with my hands I don't want to make money". That shouldn't be a problem; although Lynch's pieces are not hugely expensive - her summer Rainbow collection ranges in price from £24 to £155 - demand is good.
Maureen Lynch jewellery is stocked at Kilkenny, Nassau Street; Designyard, Temple Bar; Angles, Westbury Mall; Elements, Blackrock; Cobou, Ballina, and Couture, Longford
