It’s impossible to ramble through St. Stephen’s Green on a beautiful sunny morning and not have the voice of Noel Purcell and the Dublin Saunter ring in your ears! I was meeting up with a few textile friends at the RHA to visit an exhibition and decided it was much more enjoyable to walk through the park than around it.

We met up at the RHA and visited an exhibition by textile artist Ursula Burke entitled ‘The Precariat’. It was a really interesting exhibition that included embroideries, porcelain and drawing. This exhibition has now ended but if it travels to any other venue I would highly recommend a visit. You can read about the exhibition here http://www.rhagallery.ie/exhibitions/the-precariat/

We then headed towards The Doorway Gallery on Frederick Street where there was an exhibition of embroideries by Textile Artist Aileen Johnston - ‘The Home Place’. These were beautiful detailed embroideries inspired by her home farm in Wicklow.

They have a lovely selection of pieces available at the Gallery. I was particularly drawn to the ceramics of Carol Read and Richard Ballantyne who work together creating beautiful raku ceramic pieces. These quirky animal pieces stayed in my mind over the next few days…..I paid another visit to the gallery….and yes, I came home with some new ‘feathered’ friends!

Here you can watch a YouTube video of Carol and Richard turning a lump of clay into a beautiful raku hare, I’m truly amazed by the process…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRHL_u0AqOM