20th January 2008

Millinery Masterpieces

Hats for the races…
Hats for going places…For a garden party, wedding or special occasion.

Following on from our special ’sell out’ Art of Fashion event the Leitrim Design House brought a visual feast of millinery masterpieces to the North West celebrating Easter 2007.

What do you get when you combine colourful straws and silks, exotic plumes, crinoline, dazzling beads with a splash of glamour? The answer is breathtaking hats. The current Renaissance in the craft of hat making gives inspiration to all of us to produce the ultimate accessory.

Eight of Irelands top millinery designers Lina Stein, Linda McKay, Carol Smith, Suzie Mahony, Brigid Higgins, Wendy Knight, Maureen Patterson and Jamie Mc Eleney collectively showcased their talent and precise craftsmanship. This group of well established Milliners have come together to exhibit their creations and place Irish Millinery under the spotlight. Traditional, evocative, ephemeral styles were on display and for sale for the first time ever in Ireland. Yet another innovation championed by the Leitrim Design House.

From left to right: Linda McKay, Brigid Higgins, Wendy Knight, Suzie Mahony and Lina Stein.

To celebrate the festival of Easter we held a lunchtime talk on Thursday March 29th 2007 with all eight of the top Irish Milliners. The talk was given by Mayo based Lina Stein. An Easter Bonnet cake by Sharon Sweeney of Cannaboe confectionary Ballinamore and a little pampering with one of Carrick-on-Shannon’s leading beauticians helped to make the day extra special for our customers who travelled from Galway and Northern Ireland to get first hand experience of seeing this collection and meeting the milliners. From Grafter’s hair company, in Carrick-on-Shannon, Lorraine Keogh demonstrated how to style your hair in a creative fashion to compliment your hat, while Joleen from Beauty by the Shannon carried out special “mini make overs”.

This launch was a fundraising event to “Support an athlete” for the Special Olympics Ireland campaign.

Due to demand and to compliment this innovative exhibition we organised several Millinery workshops with top milliner Jaime McEleney at the Dock Arts Centre in Carrick-on-Shannon. Jaime McEleney is a Galway based designer who creates one of a kind hats and headpieces for theatrical productions and individual clients, both nationally and abroad. His work has won numerous accolades, and been featured in many high profile product launches and advertising campaigns, by clients such as Red Bull, and the Hilton Hotel group.

These workshops were attended by people from all over Ireland and were a great success!! Described as very useful and interesting, with great tips and as well worth the trip… One participant even managed to make all her own beautiful wedding headpieces in one session…
A programme of workshops for 2008 will be available on the website from Easter. Classes are kept small to facilitate individual tuition… Please get in touch with us for further information.

18th January 2008

Pleasure and wayward distractions

“Pleasure and wayward distractions” Leitrim Design House exhibits diverse artworks by the students of the National College of Art & Design

Last summer the Leitrim Design House took a new direction & followed trails to unchartered territories.

Our summer calendar of exhibitions and activities began with an exhibition exploring - PLEASURES AND WAYWARD DISTRACTIONS - by the students of 3rd year painting at the National College of Art and Design. Laura Burke, student at NCAD and native of Carrick-on-Shannon spent time working with us to bring this unique collection by her classmates to her home town for the month of June.

Artist, Mark Garry who opened the graduate show in Dublin sums up this unique exhibition in his own words…

“The works and positioning of the artists in this exhibition are both diverse and various
and it would be difficult to find a definitive theoretical mechanism to encapsulate this
complex diversity, indeed one of the defining features of this era of
contemporary art practitioners is a move away from movements.
Perhaps a commonality can be found in the desire to find something new?
To develop a new language, a new means to view oneself and the world?
A quest ultimately aimed at the discovery of something that had been previously unknown.”

One of the young painters, Owen Boss, used family photograph collections embedded with meaning as the inspiration for his works. “These photographs reveal an abundance of information regarding relationships, power and life” says Owen. The family photograph does not release all its information. The photograph contains a residue that infiltrates and permeates.

Owen Boss 2007

Laura Burke’s work questions her experience as a child - Panic stirred me. Awakened by a ringing phone. Why do bad things always happen on nice days?

Judy Carroll Deley tells us that her recent work deals with interiors, especially the home. “Sometimes they include figures. Often what is depicted is a psychological space rather than an actual one. There is an uncanny element denoting the dual nature of home a place both of nurture and sometimes of oppression. The home enforces rules and conventions, but can also be the site of rebellion against the norm.”

Siobhan Conway’s interest is focused on the individual word and its perceived meaning. Words are items to be interpreted. It is not until they are interpreted that they have meaning. There is no neutrality in language: each individual has their own interpretation of a word. This project endeavours to explore how arbitrary this process is - how time, context and actual interaction between receiver and the word will affect the interpretation of that word.

Siobhan Conway 2007

John Donohue explores the importance of film stars and other media personalities and characters in his life. Looking at current iconic stars and moreover those of the last century that are rapidly changing in status and meaning as well as the likely and unlikely associations formed by the viewer.

Niamh Farrell works with a variety of media and encompassing the use of organic shapes, bright colours, biomorphic forms and pattern to explore idealistic fantasy as an escape from prevalent convention.

From left to right: Niamh Farrell 2007 - Sabina McMahon 2007 - Oisin McGovern 2007

Caroline Kennedy’s work is the stuff of glossy magazines, Hollywood films, fairytales, newspapers, love songs, popular fiction, TV sitcoms, advertising imagery, travel programmes…the material out of which we craft our dreams and aspirations, material that is dripping with fantasy and which occupies a space somewhere between the sublime and the ridiculous.

Sabina Mc Mahon asks “What it would be like to be a saint everyday? How could you play tennis if you had to stand on a dragon the whole time, or bring a sword on holidays and carry your eyes around on a plate? How can you lead a normal life if all you really want is to be martyred in a giant frying pan?”

Oisin McGovern had two influential sources of imagery throughout his childhood - Fundamentalist Christian magazines & Manga Cyberpunk and ultra violent comic books. The content of the two would appear to clash. Yet, both portray similar themes, such as their own versions of total destruction and the afterlife. Oisin creates paintings, which would combine these two different yet similar worlds.

Michelle Melody work is based on historical homes and lives, especially the Georgian House Museum, while Lesley-Ann O’Connell has been exploring the nature of the environments we live in and using colour and pattern to either enhance or confound characteristics associated with a particular place.

Michelle Melody 2007

Martin Smyth feels that the sense of isolation within the development of a modern cityscape can be felt by all walks of life. Our traditional identification of community spirit is left behind when the speed of such development is realised. As we reach for a sense of belonging…monetary value and ownership take precedence over connection, people and community.

Kathy Tynan has been investigating the processes of recording and reproducing memories as well as the authenticity of the individuals recalled memories. Kathy has made a series of drawings which refer equally to blank spaces and informed spaces, allowing me to include my own memory while creating a trigger for the viewer to connect with his personal experiences.

The link between The Leitrim Design House and National College of Art and Design has evolved through our links with the Continuing Education courses in advanced crafts skills and the art of Fashion last November. Over the past two years we have established links with third level institutions both North and South of the border. We offer a business development platform for graduates and fledgling businesses. If you are a student or recent graduate and would like to become involved with the Leitrim Design House please give us a call.