This year, DCCI is delighted to announce that 16 designer makers will represent Ireland at Collect, the leading international fair for contemporary craft and design.

Collect offers collectors an opportunity to acquire new, museum-quality handcrafted artworks from some of this century’s finest craft talent.

It is a tremendous mark of recognition to have such a significant representation of Ireland on this expansive international stage, showcasing some of our talented craftspeople.

‘Four Seasons’

The title of this year’s DCCI exhibition for Collect is ‘Four Seasons’.

The contributing artists were selected from an open call to; participants in Portfolio 2021/22, Irish Craft Heroes, and makers who have exhibited internationally with DCCI over the last two years.

The collection by the sixteen artists brings a fresh perspective to the rhythms of the four seasons. Furniture sits alongside textiles, ceramics, woodwork, jewellery, metalwork, glass, knives, and organic materials, with each piece echoing shifts in light, colour, and form. Spring’s renewal, summer’s abundance, autumn’s reflections, and winter’s clarity appear as gentle thematic threads rather than overt motifs, allowing the individuality of each work to come to the fore. The result is an engaging experience that invites the viewer to connect with the seasons in surprising ways.

The pieces below are those that will feature at Collect (with the exception of John Lee whose piece will be updated shortly).

Cathy Burke (Ceramics)

Cathy Burke is a ceramic artist based in County Wicklow, whose practice is deeply rooted in a long-standing relationship with botany and geology. Drawing inspiration from nature, her work explores themes of emotion, movement, fragility, and decay. Working primarily in hand-built stoneware, Cathy finishes each piece with complex, layered glazes that evoke textures such as flaking rusts, mosses, and lichens, symbolising cycles of decay and renewal within a fragile environment. An acclaimed artist, she has received numerous awards, including the Golden Fleece Special Award (2023), and has been supported by the Arts Council and Design & Crafts Council Ireland on multiple occasions. Her work has been exhibited internationally across Europe, the UK, Korea, and Japan.

 

Ramelina Form i

 

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Hugo Byrne (Knives)

Hugo Byrne’s blades are crafted from contrasting laminated steels that echo the waves crashing along the Atlantic coast. Each blade is made with a meticulous attention to balance, finish and precision. The handles are formed from materials native to Ireland, ranging from ancient bog oak to stabilised peat, and are highlighted with colourful ocean plastic gathered from the beaches of the west of Ireland, grounding each piece firmly in place and material history. Deeply inspired by Ireland’s landscape and its influence on Irish culinary culture, Byrne’s work is an homage to these traditions, uniting quality, craft, and sustainability through a thoughtful making process that values longevity, and function in every element of our daily lives.

 

Talamh

 

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Mike Byrne (Ceramics)

Mike Byrne’s work is continuously evolving, with each piece a direct descendant of the one that came before. His practice is a constant exploration of material, process, form, and surface. Working with soft clay slabs, Mike builds forms that express the material’s inherent malleability, often heightening this quality through the use of contrasting sharp edges and decisive cuts. Surface patina is developed through multiple layers of coloured engobes and dry glaze; each piece experimental , each piece a moment in a lifetime of exploration. Mike has exhibited extensively, and his work is held in numerous private and national collections. He is co-founder of The Irish Contemporary Ceramics Collection at the Hunt Museum.

 

Urbanesque 6

 

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Seliena Coyle (Metalwork)

Seliena Coyle is a jeweller, educator, and curator with over twenty-five years of experience working at the intersection of craft, narrative, and cultural history. At the heart of Seliena’s practice lies a commitment to narrative, memory, and making, using the language of craft to recover, honour, and amplify voices too often unheard. Each icon combines traditional metalsmithing techniques with a visual storytelling language drawn from historical, fictional, and contemporary female figures. Through these works, Seliena seeks to create acts of remembrance and reclamation—objects that invite reflection on how narratives are constructed, whose stories are privileged, and how art can redress historical imbalances through representation.

 

Women’s Stories

 

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Paola Di Legge (Mixed materials)

Stillness in Motion interprets the landscape as an evolving system shaped by time, erosion, and movement, rather than a fixed geography. Crafted from preserved amaranth filaments, the work holds organic material in a suspended state, reflecting how landscapes are constantly changing yet momentarily fixed in our perception. Through sculptural, wall-based works, Paola Di Legge works primarily with preserved plant materials, drawn to their capacity to embody both fragility and endurance. With a particular interest in how natural environments are experienced rather than measured, texture, depth, and colour encourage slow engagement and attentive observation. Her work aims to create contemplative spaces that foster an intuitive connection with the natural world — shaped by sensation and presence rather than definition or control.

 

Stillness in Motion

 

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Noel Donnellan (Ceramics)

Noel Donnellan’s practice bridges craftsmanship, sculpture, and design through a material dialogue between ceramic, scagliola, gold, and pigment. Rooted in Ireland yet shaped by two decades working across Europe’s finest interiors, his work reflects a deep respect for traditional craft, reframed through contemporary sculptural form. Originally trained in mechanical engineering and the classical techniques of the decorative arts, Noel evolved from creating architectural ornament to producing autonomous sculptural objects. This transition — from wall to vessel, from surface to form — has allowed him to explore the inherent tension between precision and imperfection, and between the human hand and the timeless pull of nature.

 

Offering to the Sky

 

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Jennifer Hickey (Ceramics)

Jennifer Hickey is an Irish porcelain sculptor who lives and works on the west coast of Ireland. Drawn to the beauty and subtlety of the natural world, her work explores the rhythms and movement of nature and her relationship with it. Each sculpture is composed of thousands of tiny, wafer-thin porcelain elements, hand-worked to an almost paper-like delicacy before firing. These fragments are then painstakingly sewn onto tulle fabric stretched over a porcelain sculptural form. Taking months to complete, the slow, repetitive, and ritualistic process of hand sewing is an essential part of Jennifer’s practice, allowing time, attention, and precision to become integral parts of each finished work.

 

Wintering I & II

 

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John Lee (Furniture)

John Lee graduated from the Furniture College, Letterfrack (ATU Connemara), in 1993 and has worked from his purpose-built studio in his native County Meath since 2004. A third-generation cabinetmaker, his bespoke furniture is inspired by naturally occurring geometric forms and the effects of weathering and erosion. Moving between the boundaries of fine furniture and fine art, John creates objects that feel alive, as if shaped by natural forces yet carefully crafted by human hands. He sees furniture not as static, utilitarian design, but as a medium for poetic expression — a form of sculpture that quietly inhabits our daily lives.

 

Inishnee Table

Cara Murphy (Silversmith)

At Collect 2026, Cara Murphy will present her piece Long Grass Teapot. Cara is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths; a QEST Scholar; an Associate Academician of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts; a selected member of Contemporary British Silversmiths, and a selected maker in the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland’s Irish Craft Portfolio. Cara’s silver tableware is represented in numerous national and international collections, both public and private, including: the V&A Museum; the Silver Trust Collection at 10 Downing Street; the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; the Ulster Museum; the National Museum of Ireland; the Irish Embassy Collection; and the Pearson Silver Collection.

 

Long Grass Teapot

 

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Jane Murtagh (Metalwork)

Jane Murtagh is an artist and metalsmith whose practice centres on developing a visual narrative which is expressed through the forging, etching, and patination of non-ferrous metals. Her work explores an equilibrium between ethnobotany, music notation, and the written word, drawing connections between natural systems, rhythm, and language. Responding to the ever challenging and relentless nature of the Irish landscape, Jane’s practice reflects a way of living and working where environment and making are closely intertwined. Through an ongoing exploration of materials and techniques, she creates one-off metalwork pieces for exhibition and commission, each work shaped by process, experimentation, and a deep engagement with place.

 

Winter Wandering 2

 

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Helen O’Shea (Textiles)

Helen O’Shea is an Irish artist based in Cork who exhibits internationally. Helen has developed a practice of sculptural making that directly engages us with issues of waste and recycling, while challenging anthropocentric perceptions of the deep ocean. Through the use and reuse of existing materials, Helen creates forms that mimic the natural world and prompt reflection on our relationship to it. She employs techniques and equipment synonymous with fibre and textile arts, including the sewing machine, tacking pins, and embroidery threads, boldly reclaiming plastic waste materials. Helen attained an MA by Research at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in 2021, where her research focused on developing new narratives for waste plastics.

 

Cluster

 

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Mary Palmer (Textiles)

Mary Palmer’s work is grounded in the construction and style of traditional patchwork and quilting, but plays with definitions, expectations, and perceptions of the world around us. The Poison Apple is the first in a planned series exploring poisons and perception. When the tomato was introduced to Europe, it was widely believed to be poisonous, a reputation shaped by fear and misunderstanding. This belief stemmed from its association with the deadly nightshade family and reports of illness among those who consumed it. It is now understood that these reactions were caused by a chemical interaction between acidic tomato juice and lead in pewter plates. Through this work, Palmer reflects on how myths endure and how perception shapes reality.

 

The Poison Apple

 

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Michael Rice (Ceramics)

Michael Rice’s work is driven by a long-standing fascination with natural systems and the transformative qualities of clay. In the studio, he uses traditional techniques to explore form, texture, and surface. Drawn to archetypal shapes, Michael often incorporates patterns inspired by nature — coral, seed pods, erosion, and cellular structures. These forms carry a quiet resonance, something timeless and grounded that echoes through each piece. Surface detail plays a central role in his work, with finishes that feel ancient, as if uncovered rather than made. Michael’s aim is not simply to create beautiful objects, but to evoke a sense of balance, memory, and material intelligence.

 

Red Coral Vessel

 

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Emer Roberts (Jewellery)

With an MFA in Sculpture, Emer Roberts transitioned from large-scale sculptural practice to the creation of luxury fine-art jewellery. Her work seeks to evoke wonder through an exploration of ornamentation and curiosity, using processes of taxidermy, mould-making, and repetition in casting. The legacy of taxidermy within her practice speaks to the devastating ecological impact on the natural world, offering visual, social, and moral analogies through which to explore these concerns. Bird in the Nest marks the creative origin of Emer’s Murmuration piece, which draws inspiration from the dynamic visual formations of starling flocks and the disordered yet seamlessly interwoven movement of murmurations as marvels of the natural world.

 

Murmuration

 

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Andrea Spencer (Glass)

Andrea Spencer is a glass artist based in Ballintoy on the North Antrim Coast, creating delicate flameworked glass sculptures and ephemeral installations inspired by nature. Working at the flame, she engages in a dialogue between control and spontaneity. Using both traditional and experimental flameworking techniques, Andrea manipulates molten glass with precision and intuition, shaping and assembling components into complex structures. She exhibits nationally and internationally, including a recent exhibition at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (USA), which acquired her work for its permanent collection. Her accolades include the Rosy James Memorial Trust Award (2025) and the QEST Award (2022). Alongside her studio practice, Andrea teaches widely and offers workshops from her studio.

 

What Remains

 

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Zelouf & Bell (Furniture)

Zelouf & Bell and their small team of master cabinet makers have been making museum-quality one-off and limited edition custom furniture in their workshop in rural Ireland since 1992. Ginkgo Bar Cart honours the ancient, sacred Ginkgo Biloba, witness to sages and history, a living fossil and archive of retained memory. Inspired by the Art Deco Normandie Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the streamline moderne Art Deco SS Normandie ocean liner, the Ginkgo Bar Cart in black bolivar features a fan of delicate marquetry ginkgo leaves inlaid in white mother-of-pearl. The piece is completed with custom polished stainless steel hardware and discreet concealed castors, combining refined craftsmanship with functional precision.

 

Ginko Bar Cart