Since the Craft Council moved out of its retail outlet in the Powerscourt Centre, Whichcraft, an independent craft retailer, has become an important shopfront and showcase for Irish crafts. And it must be working. Earlier this year Gerry Crosbie, who set up the shop on Lord Edward Street seven years ago, expanded into Temple Bar to a smart new unit in Cow's Lane. He's called this branch of his crafty empire the Whichcraft Gallery and his summer show features an electric collection of crafts from furniture to ceramics.
The show features the work of 15 Irish and Irish-based artists, including the well-established Ronan Halpin and Bernadette Madden.
"We've had shows in the gallery before but they tend to be solo shows," says Mr Crosbie. "So for the summer we thought it made more sense to have a group show, so that more people would get their work seen."
He sources much of the work himself, driving the length and breadth of the country to look for new craftspeople. In the seven years Whichcraft has been in business he has carried the work of more than 200 artists. Most of the work is exclusive to the Gallery and includes one-off and limited edition pieces.
He has discovered that there is a market for hand-made Irish pieces and that the market increasingly stretches into the corporate world. "We do a lot of work on that side of the business convincing companies that a corporate gift doesn't have to a marble clock or whatever and it's working - companies are becoming more open to one-off craft pieces."
The range of exhibitors in the show is broad. Crosbie's new discoveries for the gallery include Breda Marron who, like most of the other exhibitors, is a graduate of NCAD. While her degree is in textiles, her current work is a range of lighting made from willow and handmade paper.
Also experimenting with light is Seamus Raben, a metal artist who has produced a range of dramatic, illuminated wall masks designed to create mood lighting for a room. Brian Clark is the third artist exhibiting for the first time through the gallery. He graduated from NCAD and moved to Paris to study in Ecole des Arts Appliques. His sculptures use silversmithing techniques and he works primarily with silver and bronze.
There are only two furniture makers in the show, which seems a pity as it is increasingly difficult to find the work of Irish furniture makers in a retail environment.
Alison Ospina made the exhibition's centrepiece, a large two-seater sofa in hazelwood. She is a specialist in the use of coppiced hazel (newly cut wood that still has its sap) which she gathers in the woods around her workshop in west Cork.
The other furniture maker is Tom Dalton, another Cork-based designer, whose work with natural materials is informed by architectural sensibilities.
Whichcraft Gallery, Cow's Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin. Exhibition opens today and continues until the end of August.
