Month: August 2022

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Headford Lace Project is offering this Heritage Week tour, which will explore the remarkable heritage of Bobbin Lacemaking in Headford going back to the mid 1700s as well as recent work to revive the traditional craft.

Headford Lace Project is taking part in ‘Connecting Corrib Communities – Showcasing Heritage’ an initiative of Corrib Beo in association with LAWPRO.

Participants will gather at The Angler’s Rest Hotel and will explore a route including the original lacemakers’ cottages in New Street, Lace Matrix in St. George’s Square and will finish in the Lacemakers’ Garden in Headford Community Orchard. Headford Lacemaking was added to the Irish National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021.

Date and time: 21 August, 11:30am – 1:30pm

Starting point: Angler’s Rest Hotel, Headford, H91 PN77, Co. Galway – County 

For August Craft Month, Borris Lacemakers are going on tour. For four Wednesdays in August, they will pitch their gazebo in beautiful scenic locations in South Carlow.

• 10 August 2022  Kilgraney House gardens
• 17 August 2022 Lace Garden, Borris House
• 24 August 2022 Altamont Gardens
• 31 August 2022  St. Mullins – on the quay, Near the Mullichain Cafe

Come along, meet the makers, see how the lace is made, and view some beautiful samples of Borris Lace. Take a stroll around these beautiful gardens and sites. 

More details can be found on the August Craft Month 2022 website.

For Heritage Week, the Corrib Lacemakers, are holding a Carrickmacross Lace exhibition. This exhibition is inspired by heritage sites, landmarks and traditional craftsmanship skills of Galway, Connemara and the Aran Islands. Galway’s coastal location on the Wild Atlantic Way enhanced the choice of themes created in this lace exhibition.

The Corrib Lacemakers originated from a Heritage Week craft event held in Galway in 2017. We meet weekly to share, promote and encourage participation in the community to help ensure the sustainability of lacemaking skills long into the future. We will be available at the Fishery Watchtower Museum, Galway to demonstrate and explain how this beautiful and delicate lace is made. Everyone’s welcome.

(excerpt from the Heritage Week website)

The exhibition will run from 13 to 20 August, and is open from 10:30am to 5pm.

• Venue:
• The Fisheries Watchtower Museum
• Wolfe Tone Bridge, Galway
• Co. Galway – City

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As part of Heritage Week, members of The Guild of Irish Lacemakers will be in Rathfarnham castle as part of Heritage week. Lacemakers will be displaying lace pieces and working on new lace pieces.

Members of the public can come and view these pieces and watch lacemakers in action. There will also be the opportunity to try your hand at some bobbin lace stitches with pillows set up ready to go!

Date: 20 August, 10am – 4pm

Venue:Rathfarnham Castle, Rathfarham, D14 K3T6, Co. Dublin – South Dublin 

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2022 AT 10:30 AM – 4 PM

Looking to learn a new craft or to try your hand at something new? Come join us and learn about the fine old Lace-making tradition of Carrickmacross Lace and it’s long and illustrious history right here in the Ring of Gullion, South Armagh. Learn the essential techniques under the guidance of expert Lace-makers. 
For more information, check this website.

Join Rosie Finnegan-Bell and her lace-making friends in the charming Tí Chulainn Cultural Centre at the foot of the mythical and mystical Slieve Gullion mountain for this unique heritage lace experience which is running as part of the Aspiring Geopark Lúnasa Festival 2022. 

Event by Visit Mourne, Ring Of Gullion AONB and Lace, Love & Forget-me-nots, Ti Chulainn

Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/380290086887

Please note, this experience is offered at a special rate for the Aspiring Geopark Lúnasa Festival 2022.

A new exhibition featuring the work of five textile artists opens on Sunday 7 August 2022 at the Olivier Cornet Art Gallery in Dublin and will run for the whole month. 

The exhibition is part of ‘August Craft Month‘ and featuring work in felt and lace. 
The artists exhibiting are : Annika Berglund and invited artists Ramona Farrelly, Fiona Harrington, Fiona Leech and Leiko Uchiyama.

Fiona Harrington is a visual artist who uses handmade lace as her primary medium. She studied Fine Art at Crawford College of Art, Textile Design at NCAD and completed an MA in Art and Research Collaboration at IADT.
She has been the recipient of the Thomas Damann Bursary, RDS Graduate Prize, National Craft Award, Eleanor De La Branchardiere Prize, Traditional Lacemakers Award and a Percent for Art Commission.
Her work has been exhibited widely, both at home and abroad and was featured in ‘Lace, Paint, Hair‘, a 3-person show, curated by Sinéad Kathy Rice at the National Gallery of Ireland. She has travelled extensively giving talks and demonstrations on Irish Lace and her academic work has been selected for publication for the Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of World Textiles.
In 2021, she represented Ireland at Doily Free Zone, an international symposium exploring contemporary lacemaking in art and design.
Most recently she was awarded the reimagined RDS Branchardiere Bursary and was selected to the Michel Angelo Foundation’s Homo Faber Guide, which celebrates European excellence in craftsmanship. She is currently one of only 4 lacemakers in Europe to be featured in this guide. 
Fiona’s work explores themes relating to cultural identity, the domestic space, memory, female labour and what is often referred to as ‘women’s work’. She is interested in how we interact with everyday objects, what is discarded and what is treasured. By creating highly intricate and labour-intensive pieces, the artist is encouraging us to take time to reflect on our past, question how we process memory and reconsider our relationship towards the familiar and the accepted.

(excerpt from the Olivier Cornet Art Gallery website)

If you’re in Dublin, make sure to pop in and check it out!

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Invited speaker Merrie O’Sullivan will introduce the lace collection of her grandmother, Amy Whitelegge, who made and taught lace in Ireland. The collection includes a stunningly beautiful wedding dress and a sampler of Amy’s work, with many intricate stitches. The collection displays a wide variety of filling stitches and tambour, tape lace, Carrickmacross lace and crochet lace, as well as original artistic designs. 

Gabriela Avram (UL) will propose a project aimed at creating a digital catalogue of lace pieces found in private collections (such as the one presented here), with the view of recording these and using them as educational resources. The creation of an all-Ireland community for people interested in lace history, lace making, lace design and continuing the tradition of Irish laces in the 21st century will be discussed with the participants.

The event will take place at the Limerick Museum, where several lace pieces from the Florence Vere O’Brien collection, on loan from Veronica Rowe, are currently on display.

Date and time: 15 August, 2:30pm – 4pm

Venue: Limerick Museum, The Old Franciscan Friary, Henry Street, Limerick, V94 C7W1, Co. Limerick