Aos Dara Symposium 2022

I went down to Tomnafinnoge Wood, near Tinahely, Co Wicklow, in order to check out the sculptures that formed this year’s contribution to the forest art trail, after the third Aos Dara symposium ended. The four artists who created work on the symposium this year were James Hayes, Niall O'Neill, Dave Kinane and Sarah Kineen. The project was facilitated by the Courthouse Arts Centre, Tinahely. Hayes, O'Neill and Kinane have all participated in the two previous symposia. I wrote about the first Aos Dara Symposium in 2019 in a Circa Online short review here, and I blogged about the second symposium (during lockdown in 2020) in which I participated here, here and here.

It was great to see the work, which you first happen upon from the path, 

and then, curious, you can explore with a closer view. This is a piece carved by James Hayes.

Again, visible from the path the piece by Niall O'Neill invites you to take a closer look.

O'Neill decided to continue working on his very large and intricate tree carving from the first symposium. It must be noted here that the artists could only use fallen material and hand tools for carving.

Although Dave Kinane's piece was originally created in a glade off a walking trail, he moved it across the river into another open glade. It can be seen from the path

but any desire for a closer look is still met by a rushing body of water. However, it is highly visible from the path in a number of places.

It is helpful that each work is signposted on the trail. Sarah Kineen's work appears at first to be a jumble of small sticks as if in preparation for a bonfire.

Closer inspection reveals a lovingly woven container of golden leaves that Kineen had gathered from the forest floor.

May future symposia leave further artworks for the enjoyment of walkers (or runners!) in this gorgeous forest. While I was there I had a chance to see a piece from the first symposium, still holding its own with added moss and mushrooms several years later.

Raku event - October 2018

Members of the three ceramics workshops, facilitated by James Hayes at Signal Arts Centre, prepared pots last spring for a raku event planned for the autumn. The pots had all been bisque fired and glazed and waited over the summer in anticipation!

James had also built a new kiln from an old oil drum, bowdlerising some materials from the old square kiln. This kiln was much more efficient and heated to temperature in about an hour.

After removing one of his pots from the oil drum kiln, James gave a demonstration of some raku design techniques.

Touched to the hot pot, the feather burns a design into the pot.

Sugar can also be (gently) thrown at the pot to create random blotching effects.

The final chance possibility is to place the pot in a "smoker". Here we used a metal trash can full of sawdust and paper. Any part of the pot that is unglazed will hopefully become black in the "smoker".

From experience gained at the previous raku event, many people - including me - had been collecting hair to burn onto the pots. I collected my own hair (which is curly) from my hairbrush and also had some bits of my daughter's straight hair. After being removed from the "smoker" the pots are dunked into cold water.

It was obvious to everyone at the event that things were especially working well and there were lots of "oohs" and "aahhhhs" as final pieces were removed from the cooling water bucket.

Here is a view of my two finished pieces. I used a red and a white glaze; the black is from the smoker. As well as a crackle effect from the raku process, the designs were created by hair, feathers and sugar. I was surprised that ghostly hair effects are visible in the black areas and in some parts the hair looks metallic. I am very pleased with the results!

Raku is originally a Japanese ceramic process, the word meaning "comfort", "ease" and "release", among other possible translations. Here is another view of my two raku "goblets".