Initiative aims to help diaspora find local craftspeople online
A new initiative from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland aims to make it easier for the Irish diaspora to source design and craft products from their native county.
The work of a number of Co Wicklow craftspeople and designers is now just a click away thanks to designIreland. ie, the online selling platform presented by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland, which allows users to search its database by county.
At the moment, the website presents the work of 180 of the country’s best designers and makers producing beautiful jewellery, homewares, textiles, fashion, and giftware in counties across Ireland.
Among the Wicklow contingent is Chaim Factor, which is based at Hill Picket Studio near Avoca and offers an award-winning contemporary range of home-ware gifts, and Newtownmountkennedy’s Slated, a family-run artisan homeware brand.
The world famous Avoca Handweavers also appears on the site, alongside Hennessy and Byrne in Blessington, which creates elegant but functional tableware and gifts from indigenous Irish stone.
Max Benjamin, the successful candle company run by brothers Mark and David Van den Bergh, is also featured, as well as the contemporary textile artist and designer Geraldine Leonard in Enniskerry.