Exhibition showcases the best in fashion and design

IRISH artists and designers are facing the challenge of finding ever craftier ways of attracting new customers as sales of their work take a hit on the international market.

Business generated by Showcase Ireland, the craft industry's biggest annual trade fair, fell for the second year running in 2003 and organisers warned yesterday that producers would have to become more competitive to prosper.

Crafts Council of Ireland (CCI) chairman Martin Walsh said that exhibitors had to attend to both the business and artistic sides of their workshops.