Felt makes crafty comeback at national competition

“GLASS IS a wonderful thing . . . It will do whatever it wants, whatever you do to it. I don’t force or lead the material – glass will formulate itself wherever it wants to go,” according to glass artist Karl Harron.

Harron was this year’s winner of the €7,000 Award of Excellence and California Gold Medal at the National Crafts Competition prizegiving ceremony at the RDS yesterday.

His vessel Temple Artefact #0411, inspired by ancient volcanic shards embedded in Irish peatland, uses a unique technique that took him eight years to develop, of fusing surface silver staining within the glass itself to create a powerful, fiery effect.

An internationally successful glass artist based in Newtownards, Harron’s work is held in private and public collections around the world.

The winning piece will travel to the US later this year to the Dubh exhibition at the American Historical Society in New York.

The reserve prize of €3,500 was won by Mark Campden of Kilkenny for his large Islamic inspired earthenware fish platters.

What stood out among the many craft categories was the creative use of felt, from clothing and accessories to sculpture and wall hangings.

The new entrant’s prize of €1,500 went to Kate Ramsey in Limerick for a long openwork felt dress cut like lace, while Caroline Schofield’s dramatic felted busts, expressing fault lines in family relationships, carried off the first prize in the felting category.

The winner of the RDS graduate prize was LSAD fashion graduate Claire O’Sullivan of Dungarvan, whose dress in unbleached handspun yarn from Donegal was a modern take on old Irish crochet and knit.

The National Crafts Competition has one of the largest craft prize funds in Europe, at €28,000.

Gerald Pullman, chairman of the judging panel, said: “It is clear looking at this exhibition that the future of the Irish craft industry looks very promising. New talent is coming up every year and the craft sector is doing well, despite the downturn.”

For the 13th year, the RDS is funding a travelling exhibition of the prize-winning work which will go to the Atrium Gallery in Mullingar, the Alley Arts Centre in Strabane and the Yeats Memorial Building in Sligo, before returning to the National Crafts and Design Fair at the RDS in December.