Celebrating the magic of Clare crafts

THE public are invited to an exhibition celebrating crafts from Clare entitled Draíocht which is running at the County Museum in Ennis from Saturday to December 9.
The exhibition is the work of two Dublin artists, Claire Carroll and Morgan Nic Iomhair, who have relocated to the Banner county and been inspired by it.
Claire has been living in Ennis for almost 20 years. She is a keen craft-worker focusing on many elements from glass to silk, stained glass, clay, and jewellery, while she particularly likes the permanence of mosaic.
“A piece of mosaic art will outlive us all. Just take a look at the many examples in churches around Europe in places like Rome and Barcelona which have pieces of mosaic going back through the ages.”
She has been working with mosaic for over 10 years and runs many workshops in this and other disciplines at her studio in Ennis. Her background is in teaching and she imparts her knowledge in a very calm, easy manner, thus giving her students the confidence to explore their creative side without feeling overwhelmed.
She has had many corporate as well as private commissions. Among commissions that Claire has recently undertaken is a commemorative piece for Inch National School on their 150th birthday.
In so doing a little piece of history was created by virtue of the fact that each child in the school was invited to place a piece of tesserae on the mosaic under Clare’s supervision.
Clare’s work has been exhibited in many parts of the country.
Ever since she was a child, Morgan Nic Iomhar has had a deep love of the wild natural landscape of the west of Ireland. As an artist she takes her inspiration from this landscape and from the ancient legends of Celtic Ireland.
With her slate Morgan hopes that the buyers will bring a little of this magic into their homes or workplaces.
Each piece is handcrafted with care in Clare using a process of layering paints, inks, varnishes and copper onto slate.
A reception to mark the opening of Draíocht will take place on Saturday from 3-5pm and all are welcome to attend.