aileen

Interested in Craftlink? Get in Touch

By |June 13th, 2024|Categories: Information|

Craftlink is an Innovative Programme that provides craft makers in Westmeath & Offaly with opportunities to develop new techniques and skills and look at the use of different materials to adapt their current offerings of products or to create new products. It has also examined opportunities in Finland and Ireland through skills exchanges, exhibitions, and site visits. Our current programme is closed but if you are interested in our project or potential future projects please get in touch to register your interest or if you want to ask questions or make suggestions. Contact us HERE  Alternatively, please visit our

Craft as a Career Seminar Inspires Students at Esker Arts Centre

By |May 1st, 2024|Categories: Events, Information|

Craftlink, a partnership with Offaly Local Development Company and Westmeath Community Development, recently hosted a highly successful Craft as a Career Seminar at Esker Arts Centre. The seminar facilitated by Aileen Duffy (AD Training & Consultancy) provided invaluable insights and inspiration for students interested in pursuing a career in the art or craft industries. Guest speakers Jane Walsh from Button Studio, John Farrell of Esker Design, and artist Rosemarie Langtry shared their creative journeys and discussed how they successfully built professional careers from their artistic endeavors. The Craft as a Career Seminar aimed to inspire and guide students by

Westmeath Community Development and Offaly Local Development Showcase Green Businesses Promoting Sustainability in Creative Sectors

By |January 16th, 2024|Categories: Create Green, Events, Information|

Offaly Local Development Company and Westmeath Community Development proudly present the successful completion of their Create Green - sustainable by design initiative, recognising seven businesses in Westmeath and Offaly. The showcase event, held in conjunction with the launch of the Murmuration Exhibition, took place on Friday, January 12th at the Esker Arts Centre. Brendan O Loughlin (CEO, OLDC), Rebekah Keaveney (co-founder Green Offaly), Roisin Lennon (RDP LEADER OLDC), Caitriona Duggan (OLDC), Aileen Duffy (AD Training & Consultancy), Bernie Leavy (RDP LEADER WCD), Frank Murtagh (CEO WDC), Andrea Corroon (WCD), Eddie Newman (WCD) Funded through the LEADER Rural Development

Jaana Vähäsöyrinki

By |January 12th, 2024|Categories: Finnish Maker|

Jaana Vähäsöyrinki graduated as a fine art therapist and ceramist. She as an artist who has focused on ceramics. Jaana finds ideas and topics in ceramics as stories, folktales and myths. She loves storytellers. Jaana Vähäsöyrinki on valmistunut kuvataideterapeutiksi ja keramiikan artesaaniksi . Jaana on erikoistunut keramiikkaa ja raku keramiikan polttoon. Hän saa ideoita keramiikkaansa taruista ja myyteistä ja kansansaduista. www.facebook.com/jaana.hietala1

Juha Peltola

By |January 12th, 2024|Categories: Finnish Maker|

I am Juha Peltola, a cabinetmaker. Pieni Puusepänverstas manufactures high-quality wooden objects from traditional windows to gift items, and organises, for example, woodcut courses. I am familiar with traditional carpentry and like to use old working methods in my work. Finnish Olen puuseppämestari Juha Peltola. Pieni Puusepänverstas valmistaa laadukkaita puuesineitä perinneikkunoista lahjaesineisiin, sekä järjestää mm. puupiirroskursseja. Tunnen perinteisen puusepäntyön ja käytän töissäni mielelläni vanhoja työmenetelmiä. https://www.pienipuusepanverstas.fi/

Johanna Riepula

By |January 12th, 2024|Categories: Finnish Maker|

I am a multitaskeri in crafts and culture, who is constantly interested in different materials and techniques. When I was younger I studied ecology and got into studying metal crafts by accident. I carried on to contemporary crafts and ended up doing some teaching also. Moving from city to a rural countryside has made it easier to use new materials like rush. Collecting, drying and storing rush is so much easier in an old country house. Traditional crafts have become more important to me mostly because of rush, and the teaching of old skills. Living in centre of quiet Finland

Tero Mäkelä

By |January 12th, 2024|Categories: Finnish Maker|

I have been working with wood in many ways since I graduated as a carpenter in 1996 and as a artist in 1999. I have been working in forest management, restoration of old buildings and in log building. The start of Mäkelän Puukonttori was in 2016, when an elderly couple was looking for someone to continue their business of making wooden icon boards. Luckily, at the same time a neighbor asked me if I wanted to buy her fathers woodworking machines. As a result of this I now have a small workshop where I produce icon boards and art out

Marika Saarela

By |January 12th, 2024|Categories: Finnish Maker|

I graduated as a designer of unique clothing and theater costumes in 2005. Over the years, I have worked in many different tasks in the clothing, design and craft industry: sales, marketing and design. I have worked as a theater costume designer in a few productions and as an entrepreneur for 4 years running a Finnish design store, an online store and a tailor-made tailoring shop. At the moment, I work in the handicraft industry association in Ostrobothnia in sales and marketing roles, and I teach handicraft skills in a handicraft school and in courses. I do handicrafts in my

Johanna Smed

By |January 12th, 2024|Categories: Finnish Maker|

I am Johanna a 44 years old mother of four and I run a small business called Hiidenverstas with my husband. Lempiverstas, my craft business is a part of it. I create different products from leather, jewelry, pottery, paintings and more. All of my products are handmade with love in a small town in the Finnish countryside. An old barn in the middle of the forest, lots of love and care, and a bit of magic, that is what Lempiverstas is made of. Finnish Olen Johanna, 44 vuotias neljän lapsen äiti ja toimin yrittäjänä yhdessä mieheni kanssa Hiidenverstas- nimisessä yrityksessä.

Pauliina Yliniitty

By |January 10th, 2024|Categories: calligrapher, Finnish Maker|

I’m a Finnish calligrapher and formally trained as a visual artist (2014). My studies were focused on calligraphy all the way through. I have now taught calligraphy for ten years. Over the past couple of years, I have run lots of calligraphy workshops on-line and I have also started teaching goal-oriented and regular calligraphy basics courses. I do commissions every now and then, but currently teaching takes up most of my time. I live in a small town called Oulainen almost in the middle of Finland. I go for a daily walk in the nearby forest. Some weeks ago I

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