Kildare: Bring out the artist inside you

From woodturning to pottery, Barberstown Castle is a great base to exercise your creative skills.

EMBRACING your creativity and making your own artwork is a childish pleasure few lose interest in, and just beyond the bustling city of Dublin lies a plethora of artistic treats available for anyone wanting to indulge their creative side.

It’s close enough for city slickers to sneak off on a long weekend, or indeed a short one, and return to the concrete jungle with a creation from their own hands to place on the mantelpiece.

I took off for a crash course in the fine arts of woodturning, pottery and blacksmithing to bring me up to scratch with a few skills I have little experience with.

While immersing myself in the limber skills of practical art, I stayed at Barberstown Castle, Kildare, a beautiful luxurious castle-type accommodation in the heart of the vast county bordering Dublin.

It’s a very quaint and comfortable establishment with exquisite food.

First off, there was woodturning, under the guidance of expert craftsman Seamus Cassidy.

Seamus creates wood sculptures and pieces in a small workhouse in Gilltown, Beaupark, Navan, Co Meath.

When I arrive into the small, gravelled yard, he is happily working away in a small little workshop, full of dainty knick knacks he has carefully crafted from wood. I am given a rectangular block of wood and following careful instruction I turn it into a gardening tool for digging holes in the dirt.

It is a lot of fun. It is very therapeutic to focus your mind on something simple and the feeling of accomplishment when you make something is euphoric.

The former architect-turned-artist runs a range of classes at the workshop, from personal one on one tutorials to master classes with up to three people.

I changed my focus to a more vulnerable substance; sticky, soft clay, and Thomas Diem is the man to show me the way with ceramics.

In his studio in Milltown, Ashbourne, Meath, he makes realms of pottery for commercial businesses and also runs a range of pottery classes for children all the way up to adults.

He offers courses in paint a pot, pottery parties, adult classes, kids summer camps and he also has a gift shop with a range of beautiful pottery pieces made by himself.

It takes a great deal of skill and thought to create the perfect cohesion of pressure and support needed to manipulate the soft material into the shape you want. I fail miserably at this venture, however it is very enjoyable. Watching the clay move from the force of your fingers is mesmerising.

There is a lot to remember, the clay must be kept wet, so you have to repeatedly dose it with water and the sculpting takes a few tricks, none of which I manage to master in my short tutorial, but the desire to perfect my far from perfect skills becomes stronger as the class goes on.

It is definitely something I would try again and a skill I would love to master.

Located on the grounds of the beautiful and historic Russborough House lies a haven of metal work.

Michael Calnan and Gunvorr Anhoj have a blacksmith studio in the heart of this historic tourist attraction for the past 12 years.

They run a range of courses from one-day tutorials to a weekend of making knives and creating the pieces for a full fire brazier.

It was a grand soft day, a touch of rain descended as I arrived at the sheltered open face workhouse in durable clothes as instructed and there was something very special about working in dry cover, while feeling the cold from the day and listening to the drizzling wet.

I am given gloves to protect my hands from the heat we would use to mould the metal into shapes.

Then I am handed two small steel rods and told in an hour I would have fused them together in a delicate brooch. I am more than dubious.

The process itself is simple and enjoyable, but patience is a must. Every time I want to mould the metal I must stick the rod in the fire for a few minutes to soften the steel.

This became frustrating as I started to see progress and wanted to work faster. It is not possible to rush the process. It is a slow methodical practice.

I heat the metal and with a hammer I apply sharp pressure to indent the steel. It is an admirable trade, but due to my flash pan patience, it is definitely not for me.

I head back home, relaxed, rejuvenated and with a few new tricks up my sleeve.

Good food, great fun and gorgeous scenery, what more could you want from a weekend?

* www.discoverireland.ie

A TOUCH OF CRAFT

¦ Woodturning Seamus Cassidy The Carthouse, Gilltown, Beauparc, Navan, Co Meath www.seamuscassidy.ie

¦ Pottery Diem Ceramics Thomas Diem Milltown, Dublin Road, Ashbourne, Co Meath

¦ Blacksmith Calnan & Alhoj, The Forge, Russborough House, Blessington, Co Wicklow www.calnan-anhoj.ie