Applications will open for the RDS Craft Awards on the 5th of May, 2025. It is a competition open to all craft makers living on the island of Ireland and Irish-born craft makers working overseas. The work of emerging and established makers is judged separately, with specific prizes to support emerging craftspeople. The Awards will be made from a total prize fund of €60,000.
The Emerging Maker category is open to individuals who aren’t necessarily recent graduates, and there is no age limit. Instead, there are these requirements:
Focus on heritage, skills, and sustainable practices.
Practice commenced within the past 10 years, with the determination to grow their craft at home and abroad.
Work must be made and sourced in Ireland.
The deadline for applying is the 23rd of June. There is no fee to enter.
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To mark 25 years of supporting creative Irish businesses, The Leitrim Design House has launched the National Design, Craft & Art Awards to celebrate excellence in craftsmanship. The award stems from the organisation’s resilience and sustainability as a business over the past two decades.
As a reflection of this longevity, The Leitrim Design House invites makers, artists, and designers from across the country to respond to the theme ofReused Sustainability.
The overall winner will receive €2,500 and a solo exhibition at The Leitrim Design House in 2026. A Special Commendation Prize of €1,000 will also be awarded to a runner-up.
Deadline for submission of applications: Friday, the 27th of June, 2025.
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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On the 15th of November, Feltmakers Ireland was awarded the County Winner in the National Heritage Week Awards for the Dublin City Council local authority area. We now have a beautifully framed award to share.
Every year, the Heritage Council celebrates the work of communities and organisations that hosted National Heritage Week events, which kick off on the third weekend of August and run until the end of the following weekend. Feltmakers Ireland hosted two Open Days, where we shared the magic of wet felting with the public. One event was in Kilbeggan, County Westmeath, and the other was in Inchicore, County Dublin, at the CIE Sports Hall and Social Club, where we typically hold our monthly Sunday Sessions. In addition to sharing how wool fibres transform into felt, we displayed felted wearables and artwork created by members. A second display area had information on Irish wool, how it can be used for feltmaking, and copies of our book, ‘Exploring Irish Wool for Feltmaking’.
Thank you to the Heritage Council for recognising feltmaking as a cultural heritage. Additionally, we want to thank the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (DCCI) for supporting our guild throughout the years.
We don’t know who kindly nominated our event for the County Dublin Award, but we are ever so appreciative! Go raibh míle maith agaibh, (which is ‘Thank you very much’ in Irish).
The Awards
In addition to County Awards, there are eight other categories:
There is a category that relates to the theme of the year. The theme of 2024 was ‘Connections, Routes and Networks’
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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Feltmaker Ireland’s guild member Sandra Coote’s business, Crafts of Ireland, is a finalist for the Sustainability Champion Award supported by the Local Enterprise Office of Cavan at Showcase 2025. The awards will take place on Monday, 20th of January, at Showcase in the RDS as part of the overall event. The shortlisted companies were selected from the 105 Local Enterprise clients who will exhibit to national and international buyers from the 19th – 21st of January.
The Awards
The awards are divided into three categories: Best Newcomer, which recognises the top craft and design business making its debut; One to Watch, which highlights a business with outstanding export and international potential; and Sustainability Champion, which celebrates the craft and design business leading the way in sustainability.
Crafts of Ireland
Rooted in a sixth-generation family farm in County Cavan, Crafts of Ireland is a business devoted to preserving and promoting traditional Irish crafts and skills. Serving as both a craft studio and a heritage hub, it offers an array of experiences, workshops, and handcrafted products that celebrate Ireland’s cultural heritage. Their Irish Wool Needle Felting Kits feature fibre from their own rare Irish Roscommon Sheep, along with wool sourced from local farmers.
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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The Arts Council of Ireland has listed this year’s awards schedule. Guidelines are typically made available two weeks in advance of the opening of a scheme. Full details for individual awards can be found on the Available Funding Page – https://www.artscouncil.ie/available-funding/
Possible awards of interest are the following: Visual Arts Bursary Award, Agility Award, Young People, Children, and Education Bursary Award, and the Artist in the Community Scheme.
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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The mission of the Golden Fleece Award is to provide resources for practising contemporary visual artists and makers to innovate and develop their artistic vision. In the previous year, only 20% of the applications received for the Golden Fleece Award were made by craft practitioners. Let’s change that this year!
The annual award supports artists working in all forms of visual, craft and applied arts at critical junctures of their careers. Applicants should reside in, or originally from, the island of Ireland.
Two €10,000 awards will be made in 2025, one in each of the two categories: Visual Art and Craft + Applied Art.
The submission deadline is 5pm on Friday, the 29th of November, 2024.
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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The mission of the Golden Fleece Award is to provide resources for practising contemporary visual artists and makers to innovate and develop their artistic vision.
The annual award supports artists working in all forms of visual, craft and applied arts at critical junctures of their careers. Applicants should reside in, or originally from, the island of Ireland.
Two €10,000 awards will be made in 2025, one in each of the two categories: Visual Art and Craft + Applied Art.
The submission deadline is 5pm on Friday, the 29th of November, 2024.
Note: Just over 240 applications were received for the 2024 Golden Fleece Award – 197 for Category 1: Visual Art and 45 for Category 2: Craft + Applied Art! (This is a much smaller number than applicants to the Arts Council of Ireland’s Agility award: According to their Twitter/X, “We received a record number of 3,279 applications for our 2024 Agility Award”).One can also read past shortlisted Golden Fleece Award applications to understand the judging better. For example, here is a link to shortlisted artist and tapestry weaver Frances Crowe’s application – https://www.goldenfleeceaward.com/artists/frances-crowe
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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Due to the extremely tight number of votes between several of the category finalists, Irish Country Magazine has extended the deadline for voting in the Irish Made Awards to 11 AM on Tuesday, the 17th of September.
Two members of Feltmakers Ireland, Karena Ryan and Sandra Coote, have been shortlisted.
Karena Ryan is in the Textiles Category, which is sponsored by Foxford.
Sandra Coote’s business, Crafts of Ireland, is in the Sustainability Category, which is sponsored by Seabody.
Please help raise the profile of feltmaking and also help our guild members by voting.
Karena is pictured on the left, and Sandra is on the right.
Karena Ryan
Sandra Coote – Crafts of Ireland
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Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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The prestigious Loewe Foundation Craft Prize is now open to applicants. It seeks to acknowledge and support international artisans of any age (over 18) or gender who demonstrate an exceptional ability to create objects of superior aesthetic value. The Foundation aims to highlight craft’s continuing contribution to our time’s culture by identifying work that reinterprets existing knowledge to make it relevant today.
There is an interactive online exhibition site with behind-the-scenes images for last year’s finalists and winners – https://craftprizeexhibition.loewe.com/
Feltmakers Ireland aims to share information about awards, education, events, exhibitions, and opportunities that you will find interesting. Our sharing is neither paid for by nor an endorsement of these individuals or organisations.
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