2015
Seliena Coyle
Seliena Coyle makes jewellery inspired by Bronze Age artefacts and indigenous materials that blends new and old technologies.
Sam Gleeson completed a degree in Environmental Chemistry in 1999, and has since studied sculptural furniture making, primary education, MIG welding, blacksmithing, and various specialist metalworking techniques in Ireland, the UK and the US. His work as a bladesmith is the result of a progressive journey, drawing inspiration from centuries-old practices while integrating them into the contemporary era.
Arguably homo sapiens' first tool, the knife remains an indispensable part of daily life, connecting people across food traditions, generations, and geographical locations through materials, techniques and shared skills. As an artist and bladesmith he looks to deepen his own practice through opportunities to learn and preserve this culture, these ideas, stories and heritage through the creation of knives as culinary tools. The process is deeply elemental – earth for the raw materials, air to stoke the forge, fire to heat the steel, and water for quenching the blade. Embracing this primal understanding in the modern age is profoundly motivating. He draws from the stories concealed within his materials and each blade he creates is a culmination of the careful selection of base materials, representing an evolving knowledge of metal fusion and forging. The work also frequently gives new life and purpose to found and recycled timbers and metals sourced from – for example – old cartwheels, ships' anchor chains, storm-damaged trees and buried boglands.
Sam Gleeson applied for a Golden Fleece Award to attend a workshop of traditional Japanese forging techniques by Pierluigi Ponzio using naturally occurring ores and charcoal to produce 'tamahagane', a remarkably pure steel used for crafting blades. He also plans to work towards an exhibition at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon.
