CRAFTS COUNCIL OF IRELAND ANNOUNCES €30,000 FUTURE MAKERS AWARDS & SUPPORT WINNERS
22nd May 2012
A gifted young Irish fashion designer whose stunning creations have been worn by singer/song-writer, Lily Allen, has won the top prize under this year's Crafts Council of Ireland Future Makers Awards & Support programme.
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Natalie Coleman's “All the Jewellery I Never Got” collection.
Natalie Coleman from Monaghan received the overall Future Makers Award of €5,000 for the distinctive dress designs from her “All the Jewellery I Never Got” collection which is playfully drawn from images of jewellery she has never received.
With a total prize fund of €30,000, the Future Makers Awards & Support reward the next generation of Irish designers, helping them develop an exciting future in the craft and design industry. Future Makers promotes and distinguishes craftsmanship and excellence in design for creative students and graduates at a critical stage in their career.
28 designers who were chosen by an international selection panel were presented with awards in The Sugar Club in Dublin today (Tuesday 22nd May) by Sonya Lennon, host of the RTÉ One ‘Off the Rails’ programme.
According to the judges Natalie Coleman has created the ideal image for contemporary fashionable women by fusing personal longing and memory with cutting-edge application. Speaking about her work, Natalie said: “Clothes are visual representations of our moods and what we think of ourselves and the world we choose to surround ourselves with, believe in and aspire to.”
Natalie studied fashion at Limerick School of Art & Design and has worked under threeASFOUR in New York, Icelandic textile designer Ragna Frodadottir and top Irish designer Joanne Hynes. She established her fashion label Natalie B Coleman in 2010 and has shown at Fashion Weeks in Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, New York and Paris. Natalie’s ambition is to develop her business into an internationally recognised fashion brand. With her collections already stocked in nineteen outlets in thirteen different countries, Natalie hopes to expand into the Asian, Brazilian and US markets. She is concentrating on her fourth collection I LOVE ME and will use the Future Makers award to help her focus on creating showpieces including a Carrickmacross Lace dress she is working on with accomplished lace maker Martha Hughes.
Meanwhile the winner of the overall Future Makers Student Award, worth €2,500, is Jackie Maurer of the Limerick School of Art & Design for her unique wearable ceramic neck pieces. This award rewards excellence, creativity and technical ability, and offers professional support for students to build their profile at a very early stage in their career.
Jackie was also the winner of the inaugural Scarva Pottery Materials Award worth €500 which contributes towards the cost of materials for the development of a specific piece of craft based work.
Speaking at the awards Chief Executive of the Crafts Council of Ireland, Karen Hennessy, highlighted the importance of supporting craftspeople at all stages of their careerin order to sustain and grow the sector into the future. “The Future Makers Awards and Support programme underpins the Crafts Council of Ireland’s commitment to developing the next generation of craftspeople in Ireland. The crafts sector makes a significant contribution to job creation and the creative industries in Ireland, and our continued investment in and recognition of our emerging craftspeople is crucial,” she said. “It is so encouraging to see the wealth of design talent, skill and innovation that exists in Ireland. The standard in this year’s Future Makers applicants was extremely high and the selection panel had a very tough job in making their decisions,” Ms Hennessy continued. “We are especially delighted to be announcing a new Design Award this year. It is important to highlight and reward the strong level of design innovation in craft being produced by recent graduates today.”
Other Future Makers Awards & Support winners announced by the Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) include:
· New award for Design (€1,600): Kate Cronin of Klickity, for design excellence. Kate impressed the selection panel with her design skills and desire to expand her work to develop a successful range of contemporary light fittings and products.
· Special Judges Award (€1,000): Jennifer Slattery, textiles designer, for excellence in design development.
· Innovation Award (€2,500): Kate Murtagh Sheridan, ceramicist, for her experimentation with process, technique, colour and form.
· Student Innovation Award (€1,200): Theresa Burger, jewellery student, for her large, geometric bangles made using 3D rapid prototyping techniques and inspired by the Zulu people of Southern Africa.
All applicants for the Student Future Makers Awards & Support 2012 were assessed by an international selection panel featuring John Jenkins of Heals, Jonathan Legge of Makers & Brothers and Louise Allen, Head of Innovation and Development Programmes at CCoI. The applicants for the Practitioner Future Makers Awards & Support 2012 were assessed by John Jenkins, jewellery designer Angela O’Kelly, and Muireann Charleton, Education and Innovation Manager at CCoI.
In addition to the substantial funding being awarded, the Crafts Council of Ireland will shortly announce details of an exhibition of the work of all 28 of the 2012 recipients of the Future Makers Awards & Support.
www.futuremakers.ie
www.ccoi.ie
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For more information contact:
Neans McSweeney, MD Media, ph: 086 2620355
neans@mdmedia.ie
About Future Makers:
Future Makers Awards & Support were launched by the Crafts Council of Ireland in 2009 and aim to assist students and recent graduates of full-time craft based studies or training to pursue an exciting and rewarding career in the craft and design industry.
The Crafts Council of Ireland takes a leading role in recognising and rewarding excellence in craftsmanship and design innovation. It aims to provide practical support and professional encouragement to students and practitioners at critical points in their training and careers. www.futuremakers.ie
About the Crafts Council of Ireland:
The Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) is the main champion of the craft industry in Ireland, fostering its growth and commercial strength, communicating its unique identity and stimulating quality design, innovation and competitiveness. Headquartered in Kilkenny, CCoI has over 2,600 clients on its register of craft enterprises and has over 70 member organisations. CCoI’s activities are funded by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation via Enterprise Ireland. For further information, please visit www.ccoi.ie
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Light by Klickity, geometric bangles by Theresa Burger, ceramic neck piece by Jackie Maurer.
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