Drystone wall building and currach-making: they’re just two of Ireland’s most traditional craft forms, but there are so many others. Irish lace, Aran sweaters, traditional crios belts and even that schoolchild staple, the good old St Brigid’s cross. While some of our crafts are fading from view, many more are enjoying a resurgence as Ireland experiences an influx of talented new creatives. Here, we meet three skilled craftspeople who tell us all about their chosen art form.
Heike Kahle, basketmaker
When she moved to Ireland from her native East Germany in 1993, Heike Kahle fell in love with basketmaking. Nearly three decades later, she has become an expert in working with organically-grown willow. Now based in Castlewarren, Co Kilkenny, Heike founded Baurnafea Studio with her potter husband Klaus Hartmann in 1996. She works part-time as a basketmaking tutor for the Carlow/Kilkenny Education and Training Board (ETB), teaches day and night classes, and runs a basketry workshop for adults with intellectual disabilities. Her baskets, lampshades and structural pieces are popular fixtures at craft fairs, markets and exhibitions.
“I came to Ireland, initially on a belated gap year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Basketmaking, the people and the pace of life here in Ireland and the birth of my children made me stay for good. I joined a Camphill Community as a residential care worker and got basic training in basket making.
“After that I attended lots of workshops given by national and international makers, studied books and learned by trial and error. As willow has to soak for several days in order to be pliable for weaving, I make plans for what I want to do on a particular day a week ahead. It can be a basket to replenish stocks, making an order or I might decide to try something new.
“Some days I’m away from my workshop teaching basketmaking as a therapeutic workshop or as a tutor for the ETB. A great deal of my time is taken up making well-crafted, functional baskets with willows of different coloured bark that I grow myself. I also produce garden structures like obelisks and other plant supports and re-seat chairs with cane, rush or straw. In recent years I have begun to weave lampshades and light objects, which I’m planning to continue. Together with my husband, who is a potter, I’m working on collaborative pieces.”
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Julia Gebel, stonecutter
Stonecutter Julia Gebel is making a name for herself in a field which is known for its male-dominance. She has worked on numerous public and private conservation projects in Ireland, Italy and her native Germany. Currently based in Co Tipperary, she completed her apprenticeship and her Master Craftsman’s diploma in architectural stonecutting and sculpting before relocating to Ireland in 2006. She established Gebel & Helling Conservation Ltd with fellow German stonecutter Christian Helling in 2017.
“I grew up near a town on the Danube, and after school I moved to Munich for my apprenticeship. I came to Ireland to work on several tower houses in Munster, such as Tubrid Castle and Grantstown Castle. I worked with the OPW on the Rock of Cashel for nine years and when the project was completed, I was looking for a way to further my career in the private sector.
“I had studied building conservation in Trinity College while I was with the OPW, and Cork city seemed to provide exciting projects in this field of work. I was originally drawn to stonecutting because I wanted to study a subject which combines technical knowledge and creativity. During an internship with a stone conservator I realised that even after long years of academic studies I would not be able to create the objects I am restoring. That’s when I signed up for an apprenticeship and became a stonecutter. It’s a vocation that’s shaped my life.
“Between workshop work, site work, administrative jobs and design work there really is no one day like the other. Larger patterns only exist in the overall administration of projects, and the methods of working the stone stay thankfully the same. We hand-cut lettering for headstones, I design and sculpt stone on commission and we also prepare most cut stone for conservation and other construction projects in the workshop.
“Site work can range from stone consolidation and cleaning to stone repair or replacement, and the fixing and installation of stone elements. I am personally inspired by how nature has refined her forms throughout evolution, but also by minimalistic architecture that incorporates natural building materials and by stone constructions that seem to fully exploit physical limitations, like self-supporting spiral stairs or drystone arches. I strive to integrate those ideas in my own designs. However, in building conservation, we are mostly guided by historic design and construction principles.
“I feel privileged to experience the labour, expertise and ingenuity which was applied by our predecessors in the smallest details. I followed a rather traditional route from apprentice to master, although I realise that, like most other professions, stonecutters are truly in for lifelong learning. Our trade is best and most authentically represented in building conservation, so I feel fortunate to be able to stay true to my roots and work at the same time in a rapidly evolving industry.
“Much has been achieved in terms of meeting European standards and on a European level I am also convinced that traditional trades will be assigned more responsibilities in the design process of conservation projects in the future. I think many of us are ready for it.”
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Paul Curtis, conservation bookbinder
Dubliner Paul Curtis runs Mucros Conservation Bookbinding in Muckross House in Killarney, Co Kerry, where he’s been based for 38 years. Employing traditional skills combined with modern conservation methods, he works closely with clients throughout Ireland, such as libraries, colleges and museums, antiquarian and book publishing trades.
“I first came across bookbinding when I got a summer job during the Leaving Cert. I trained in the John F Newman fine bookbinding department: three years in Bolton Street College and, as was the practice then, internships. There was a structured system for training bookbinders up until the late ‘80s, early ‘90s in Dublin. This has ceased due to changes in the book production industry and there is now no third level equivalent available in Ireland.
“I interned in conservation bookbinding in London, Florence and Paris and I worked for a year in Melbourne, Australia. A typical day is based on working on several projects at the same time, as most jobs require attention for short periods over several months. Our only deadlines are for exhibition openings for museums and libraries.
“Paper-washing, repair and de-acidification, Japanese paper and tissue repairs are a daily process. Hand-sewing sections and endpapers, linings, leather re-backing of volumes and gold tooling are ongoing daily processes. New bindings require a different approach and evolve only after discussion with the client and are usually based on the book topic or design. Design book bindings in fine leathers and tooling evolve from outline drawings and are based on book structure principles. I prefer traditional Irish hand-sewn pages on hemp cords, laced into acid free board, Irish oak or elm boards, covered in archival calfskin, goatskin or Morocco leathers, onlay or inlay designs and gold tooling.
“Techniques have evolved with improvements in acid-free materials and now my binding style reflects many aspects of book conservation. The methods I was trained in 40 years ago mixed with the conservational styles and new science available now lend themselves to a vastly improved end product. Mind you, most of the new volumes we work on have survived 300 years, so the original binders were, in their day, cutting edge.
“I don’t think the outlook is great for bookbinders. We are dinosaurs, only a few left and very few in training. The craft is labour intensive, materials are expensive and the nature of our society doesn’t lend itself to expensive bindings. Book conservators might exist, but the traditional skills of generations of Irish bookbinders will not exist in 20 or 30 years’ time. Now, time to check the 1762 vellum deeds we are working on ... ”