2012-11-05 — /travelprnews.com/ — An exhibition of some of Northern Ireland’s most exciting contemporary jewellery designers has just begun in the Departure Lounge of George Best Belfast City Airport.
This new venture sees Craft Northern Ireland – champion for NI contemporary craft – team up with House of Ireland, who have an established reputation for stocking the finest local and international handcrafted products, to bring the work of seven of NI’s top jewellery designers to the attention of up to the 4,000 people – local and visiting – that depart via George Best Belfast City Airport every day.
Grace Galligan from House of Ireland at Belfast City Airport believes that contemporary handcrafted Northern Irish jewellery will be particularly popular this Christmas with passengers going through Belfast airport.
“We expect the handcrafted contemporary collections from Northern Irish jewellers will be hugely popular and at reasonable prices. We will be displaying exquisite glass pendants from Catherine Keenan, perspex jewellery from Rachel McKnight, beaded jewellery from Janice Gilmore, and unique sterling silver pieces from Eric Robinson, Jill Graham, and Fiona Kerr”.
Ruth Morgan, Communications Executive, Belfast City Airport said:
“We are delighted, with Craft NI, to welcome all the designers and look forward to the ‘unique destination’ feel they will bring to our terminal with their handmade designs. Christmas is a particularly busy time of year at the airport and I’m confident our passengers will be thrilled at the range of jewellery designs available to them to make Christmas shopping while travelling a little less stressful!
House of Ireland has proven to be a favourite among our passengers, and with unique offerings such as the ‘shop and collect’ service, our passengers can pick up locally produced craftware for their loved ones at home and collect upon their return to NI”.
An application process saw jewellery designers – Fiona Kerr, Catherine Keenan, Eric Robinson, Jill Graham, Lynsay Raine, Janice Gilmore and Rachel Knight – selected for their high standards of technical skill and design, their innovative use of materials and aesthetic vision, and designs that reflect the individual signature of each maker.
While sharing the above characteristics, the seven makers are distinguished by their unique and varied sources of inspiration and their diverse choice of materials – including traditional gold and silver, textiles, glass, plastic, rubber and domestic/industrial materials.
All share a delight in bringing something new and unexpected to the wearer and each maker selected for this exhibition is either currently well established or in the process of developing a solid reputation for high quality, contemporary design.
Alan Kane, Chief Executive of Craft Northern Ireland, said:
“We are particularly pleased with this partnership between Craft Northern Ireland, House of Ireland and George Best Belfast City Airport which will bring some of NI’s exceptional jewellery designers to a very wide audience, local and international, especially over the busy Christmas season.
The Dublin Airport exhibition was a great success and House of Ireland now stocks 9 out of the 16 exhibitors on an ongoing basis. We hope to replicate that success here.”
All those travelling out of Belfast City Airport between now and the end of February 2013 are warmly invited to view the exhibition which is located in the airport departure lounge, close to the House of Ireland shop. All work profiled is available for purchase. Further information is available from http://www.craftni.org
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Katherine Keenan, glassblowing © Adam Frew