The art of craft: Kilkenny Kilkenny made its name as a craft centre after the design workshops were founded. How does the area's future look, asks Rosita Boland

Were you to conduct a straw poll on which county people most associate with craft, the chances are that it would be Kilkenny. For those with long memories it was the home of the now defunct Kilkenny Design Workshops, of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Kilkenny Design Shop, established to showcase the workshops' output.

Now it has the mini-empire of Nicholas Mosse's pottery, in Bennetsbridge; Stoneware Jackson Pottery is down the road; Jerpoint Glass Studio is in Stoneyford; and Grennan Mill Craft School is in Thomastown. And since 1998 the Crafts Council of Ireland has been based in Kilkenny, in Castle Yard in the city, which also houses the council's National Craft Gallery.

Visitors are encouraged to follow Kilkenny Craft Trail, which takes in eight professional studios, from pottery to woodturning, leatherwork to jewellery (see panel, right). And the county has numerous other crafts enterprises and shops, big and small. So how did this concentration come about?

"It's down to the Kilkenny Design Workshops," says Rudolf Heltzel, a jeweller with a shop on Patrick Street. He was invited to Ireland from Germany in 1966, to help run a goldsmithy as part of the fledgling Kilkenny Design Workshops. Irish industry was struggling at the time, with little foreign demand for Irish-made goods. The workshops were set up by the Irish Export Board in response to a government report from the early 1960s that warned of a bleak export future unless the quality of Irish goods improved.

Covering crafts such as textile printing, woodturning, ceramics, weaving and jewellery making, many of the workshops were run by artists invited from abroad. Heltzel was already established as an innovative jeweller in his home country; ceramics was taught by the Dutch potter Sonja Landweer. Both subsequently settled in Ireland; most of the others stayed for about a year.

"We worked with apprentices to design things that were new and we produced them to a high standard," says Heltzel. "The workshops were an enormous success, but indirectly. They didn't influence the bulk of Irish industry one iota. But the shop in particular, which was originally opened as a showroom and then to sell the pieces that were being made, was very influential. People learned that in the Kilkenny Design Shop you got a piece of craft that was good quality and good design, and that educated the public about craft."

In the late 1980s, soon after the workshops closed, the Kilkenny Design Shop was sold to Blarney Woollen Mills. Confusingly, although it no longer limited itself to high-quality Irish crafts, its name was modified only slightly. Now, with branches in Dublin and Galway as well as Kilkenny, and under new owners, it is known simply as Kilkenny. Many customers still refer to it by its old name, and some do not realise it ever changed hands. That tangled legacy is further complicated by the existence of Kilkenny Design Centre, a separate organisation housed, as the Kilkenny Design Workshops once were, in the stables of Kilkenny Castle.

The Crafts Council of Ireland came to Kilkenny under the leadership of Leslie Reed, who has been its chief executive since 1989. He is clear about the importance of the area's creative heritage. "Without the Kilkenny Design Workshops the crafts council wouldn't exist," he says. "Nor would the craft industry in its current form. Through the workshops Kilkenny became a focus, a magnet for people working in craft. It drew people here to live and to experiment."

Currently, 1,400 craft companies are registered with the council; almost a quarter work in ceramics. Only six employ more than 10 people, however. "Craft is still a classic micro-enterprise in Ireland," says Reed, whose organisation advises registered companies. "We try to help any craft company who want to improve its design, and we help them with access to resources."

He points out that in Scandinavia craft and industry have always developed together; although Ireland has many craft companies, very few of them are on the scale of Mosse's pottery - or, indeed, Louis Mulcahy's, on the Dingle peninsula.

The Crafts Council of Ireland is trying to nurture its sector: it runs a pair of highly regarded two-year training courses in Kilkenny, one in ceramics and one in jewellery. The first year is about product development, but for the second the emphasis is on marketing, recognising the importance of a professional approach to selling crafts.

There are other courses, too: George Vaughan has been the course director at Grennan Mill Craft School, in Thomastown, since it was set up, in 1981. "There weren't many post-Leaving Cert courses around then," he says. "There was a lot of fine art but nothing really for crafts."

The course at Grennan Mill - a huge, characterful building, although it feels chilly even in the summer - also lasts for two years, offering classes in weaving, batik, screenprinting, ceramics and drawing, among other subjects. Although it can take in 15 students a year, it is not full. "We are having ongoing problems attracting the numbers now. There were much more applicants in the early years," says Vaughan.

If, in the past 30 years, Kilkenny has become synonymous with excellence in crafts, the question now has to be: is it regenerating that energy? Are new practitioners coming along to maintain Kilkenny's reputation? Or is the Irish craft industry in danger of becoming a little tired?

"The craft industry here is not regenerating itself as rapidly as it did in the past," admits Reed.

He adds that the Crafts Council of Ireland now regrets dropping the business-development programme that it offered graduates ithe 1990s: business acumen is a crucial element in preparing professional crafts workers for the marketplace. It hopes to get the programme going again and to set up a better dialogue with art colleges, with a view to developing business projects on campus. "Commerce," says Reed, "is an absolute requirement for success in craft."

What Kilkenny Craft Trail has to offer

The trail's eight workshops give visitors the chance to see craftspeople at work and even to commission pieces.

Rudolf Heltzel 10 Patrick Street, Kilkenny. A tiny shop of treasures, with an ever-changing display of Heltzel's gold, silver and platinum jewellery.

Nicholas Mosse Pottery Big Mill, Bennetsbridge. See the spongeware pottery being made and visit the extensive shop, which sells Mosse's pottery and pretty household imports.

Keith Mosse Wood Working Bennetsbridge. Woodturner and furniture maker, with examples on show.

Stoneware Jackson Bennetsbridge. See the company's trademark blue pottery being made in this intimate workshop run by Mary and Michael Jackson.

Moth to a Flame Chapel Street, Bennetsbridge. Large selection of high-quality candles made by Larry Kinsella.

Chesneau Luxury Leather Goods Bennetsbridge. Visit to preview new collections from the French-born designer Edmond Chesneau.

All That Glisters Ladywell Corner, Thomastown. Sue Bowden's jewellery workshop uses semi-precious stones, crystals and fossils.

Jerpoint Glass Studios Stoneyford. See Keith and Kathleen Leadbetter's distinctive coloured glass being made and hunt for seconds in the shop.