THE most interesting exhibition on view this week was at the Crafts Council, where rugs designed by 12 artists and craftspeople and made by V'Soske-Joyce- were on display. Tom Dixon of V'Soske-Joyce a great believer in art and industry working together had the idea of getting six artists to work in wool instead of on canvas.
Then the council's Keathe Burt-O'Dea had the smart idea of persuading him to add six more designers to the list and the result is a wonderfully imaginative collection of rugs - mostly with relatively modest price tags considering they are one-off pieces.
Dixon, whose company draws the world's top designers, including Philippe Starck and Nigel Coates, to the family's carpet factory in Oughterard, has recently set up an office in Dubai, where most of his orders come from extremely wealthy private clients - the most recent being for a £50,000 rug for an Arab prince's bedroom.
For goldsmith Alan Ardiff, who designed one of the most colourful rugs, the exhibition opening was a case of returning to the scene of what has proved to be a very costly crime. Last month, his new collection of spectacular jewellery worth £6,000 was stolen from the Craft Council's new display cabinets - which not only means that Ardiff has lost an entire year's work but also that he has missed out on the chance to exhibit the work at an important show in Luxembourg.