It’s been such fun to be part of the collaborative project – to merge fashion and traditional craft skills – promoted by the Council of Irish Fashion Designers and the Design & Craft Council of Ireland. 15 different and very interesting looks were shown and photographed on the runway last Thursday and will go on exhibition in Dublin next November.
I was paired with Jane Murtagh of the Blacksmiths Guild and our challenge was to create a piece using both the lightest and heaviest of materials – silk and metal!
We used the harts tongue fern leaf as design inspiration, a shape that Jane had previously used in her sculpture, and the neckline as our start point – one side silk the other metal.
For my part, I created a series of paintings, the images of which I used in the design I digitally printed onto 100% silk twill, and from which I created a single sleeved wrap that attached to Jane’s forged copper piece formed in the shape of the harts tongue leaf, which she finished with verdegris patination, and a neck band of forged solid copper round bar gilded with variated leaf.
The finished piece is easy to wear, looks stunning and you never know where this design leap may lead!
