Collaboration

Collaboration with Imelda Connolly

Looking at the natural grain of the beech wood, patterns in nature such as contours on the map and sea shell forms and how these shapes relate to pattern in ancient local stone carvings. Light moves through the cutouts leaving shadows of these patterns on the face of the wearer.

Leonora Ferguson working in collaboration with woodturner and sculptor Imelda Connolly. The wood is from a beech tree that split and fell on Imelda's family farm in Meath many years ago, and was inherited from her father's collection. The beech has been turned on a wood lathe in the shape of a bowl. The side with the most interesting grain pattern was cut away and carved along the main grain lines using a Dremel tool. It was hand sanded down to 800 grit and finally polished with carnauba wax, before being mounted on a blocked sinamay base.

This piece was created as part of the Collaboration Project between the CIFD and the DCCoI, 2021.

Collaboration with Kathie Earle

Kathie is an internationally renowned master lacemaker, known for her Irish Crochet Lace. Kathie has extensively researched traditional lacework, recreating motifs from otherwise lost patterns while designing new motifs with age old techniques. She has won multiple awards for her craft and has created exquisite lace for Sybil Connolly in the designer's heyday.

We created this piece inspired by a moonlit garden, exploiting the three dimensional nature of this style of lace.

This piece was created as part of the Collaboration Project between the CIFD and the DCCoI, 2019.

I reunited with Kathie for my Wildflowers collection featuring Irish Crochet Lace, sold in Brown Thomas as part of Create 2021.