Note: apologies for the poor quality of some of the images.
I first wrote about talented goldsmith and designer Deirdre O’Donnell back in November 2011 when Deirdre was setting up a jewellery school and was navigating her way through the establishing-a-business- maze. The business seemed fair set for success as it was plugging a gap in the market and because of Deirdre’s stellar reputation as a craft jeweller and her passion for passing her knowledge on.
I love jewellery. It’s not that I trip the light fantastic to high-end jewellery shops or high street chains to stock up on baskets of bling but rather that I am passionate about beautiful hand crafted pieces. I love looking at them in awe-struck wonder and appreciating the workmanship even if they are totally beyond my means. It is of course important that the skills that go into crafting these wonders tumble-down the generations, so as a lover of hand crafted jewellery I was pleased to learn that one of Ireland’s foremost practitioners of the art Deirdre O’Donnell is setting up a jewellery school in Dublin in 2012.
Once upon a time, I applied for a place on an intensive two-year jewellery skills course, run by the Craft Council of Ireland. My application, as Oscar Wilde said in an entirely different context was ‘the triumph of hope over experience’. Well, lack of experience, actually, as my only exposure to jewellery making /designing was a couple of terms at a once a week two-hour evening class.
Filed under Musings
I find that the shops I like the most are the hardest things to write about on the blog, as there is always the fear that my words and photographs will not do them full justice. AMOC Jewellery is a special favourite of mine. It is not your average jewellers selling a mass of homogenous manufactured items. Instead it is a veritable treasure trove of handcrafted jewels designed by Mette, AMOC’s talented owner. The prices are amazingly reasonable.
Just Add Attitude 