Eileen Gray at IMMA

Visited the Eileen Gray exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Dublin today. A perfect activity for a bank holiday monday - and we weren't alone in thinking that, a government minster and a radio broadcaster also visited the museum at the same time!

We claim Eileen Gray as one of our greatest Irish architect/design/artists. But she spent her working life in France. The houses she had built are on the Côte d'Azur. But of all the copies of letters, the video recordings, imagery etc, there wasn't any in French; we didn't get a feel for the francophile aspect of Eileen's life. Even though the exhibition is supported by the Centre Pompidou.
There are beautiful pieces on display, and personal letters to someone called Pru (I never did find out who she was or what their relationship was), and articles by contemporaries praising Ms Gray's works and ideas. Le Corbusier makes an appearance. There is information about lacquering, the shop she had on Rue de Saint-Honoré in Paris and more.

Having studied architecture, I was familiar with her work and E-1027. I appreciate the effort of her design, the consideration put into finding solutions to particular problems in unique situations.
For example, a stunning dressing-cupboard. Used as a divider between the sleeping section of the room and another section (can't remember exactly).

There are shelves of different heights. Glass shelves. Wonderful hinged-drawers which swing out from one side. A full-length mirror. It's wonderful. All the more wonderful considering the precise location for which this object was designed. And the multiple functions it fulfills. The obvious functions which we can see in this exhibit - a dressing-table/cupboard; and the not-so-obvious which we can deduce from house plans and photographs - as room divider in a particular house interior.

And that's the problem I have with the exhibition overall. It's wonderful for a designer and trained architect like myself or to someone who is not coming to Eileen Gray for the first time, someone who reads plans and drawings, is familiar with the design scene of the age... but without that education this exhibition seems to be about objects of furniture, items without context, rug designs without rooms in which to put them or clients to own them.

Which is not what it's about for me. See this interior photograph - see the circular rug and circular pattern, that uncomfortable circular Michelin-man-esque chair, and the wall decoration with it's semi-circular arc. The objects are designed to be in this space. The chair is ok if it's uncomfortable - the room is a bedroom not a sitting room!
I'm disappointed. Nevertheless, the exhibition showed me some new sides to Eileen Gray - lamp designs and that interiors shop. She was great - but why was she great, oh curator, why?

Irish Sewing Blogs and suppliers

I'm off work for a few days, off sick and not up to much other than sitting up in bed with my laptop and surfing and planning projects and things to do when I'm back to myself.
Yesterday, I got immersed in sewing patterns... and blogs and fabrics... I ended up spending almost €100.
Today, it struck me that I should have a trawl around the web for local bloggers, and find out where they source their patterns and their fabrics and notions. How do they avoid paying overseas postage and packaging... etc.
I'm going to start off with a "disclaimer" and that is my disinterest in quilting and patchworking so I have quickly left blogs on those topics that I have come across rightly or wrongly. Wrongly, undoubtedly, because there is something to be learnt from everything but the sheer amount of blogs and postings causes me to impose some kind of 'rules'.

A great start: Etsy Ireland Crafty Team - but they seem to be quite beady and cardy and crafty orientated as opposed to sewing specific. Hmm. This sourcing is tough.

Fiona in Dublin has an Etsy shop called Threads2000 selling 100% egyptian cotton threads sourced from Greece.

Fabric Shops in Dublin:
Hickey's on Mary or Henry Street (can never remember where on starts and the other ends)
Murphy Sheehy's near the Powerscourt Shopping Centre and Grogan's Bar
Woolen Mills, near Ha'penny Bridge on North Side (upstairs for the big range of fabric)
TWI, 24 Mountjoy Square East - I haven't been here yet.
Ikea

Other crafty shops in Dublin:
The Yellow Brick Road, Bachelor's Walk (though I think it may have closed down?!)
Trimmings shop on quays near beside Crown Alley / Temple Bar / Ha'penny Bridge
Rubenesque in Powerscourt Shopping Centre (used to have shop next to the music shop but may have moved from there into bigger premises)

Knitting shops:
Craft Cottage, Ratoath, Co. Meath
Trim, Co. Meath
Winnie's Wool Wagon, Woodbine, Booterstown (near UCD), Co. Dublin
woolshop in Swan Centre, Rathmines, Co. Dublin
This is Knit, Powerscourt Centre, Dublin
The Gingham Duck, Sligo

Lots of info on Knitting Classes in Ireland. I keep getting distracted by information that is available as opposed to the information that I want.


The Crafter's Basket, North Sligo - have the facility for selling patterns but none in online shop as I look today. Sells fabric, vilene, a dressmakers dummy, sewing machines and other items.

Yay! I've found Pippablue. She's blogging from Galway, Ireland. Further investigation... there's an online Pippablue Shop - hurrah! The list of products is potentially very exciting... but the stock is very low. One to keep an eye on, I suppose. The real shop is on 1 Middle Street, Galway City.

Just Judith is in Belfast - a quilter though, not my métier!
A room in a cottage - sewing homewares made in Ireland
Sarah from Cork is also a quilter
Fluffy Sheep Quilting is based in Ireland... but I think the clue is in the name! She has blogged a brilliant list of quilting fabric stockists in Ireland
Emily lives in Ireland and she likes to make things... here's hoping there'll be a link or two to a whole world of Irish bloggers in her blogstream....
Linda Coleman is in Dublin. Her projects seem different to mine but I might steal a friend from her blogging community.
Cuada are a textile designer in South West Ireland... website seems to just sell finished products.
Millie (the same name as my Gran!) lives on a dairy farm in Ireland and she SEWS. Just like me. My hopes are raised again.
The Roma and Mary blog is kept by Amanda in Ireland who likes a variety of handiwork and crafts, including sewing, she says.

A lot of these links were found using the "Sew Irish" group on flicker. But many of the members of that group are not based in Ireland. I just think in terms of sourcing materials and fabrics and patterns, and sew alongs (for practical time-zone-related reasons!) that it would be nice to be part of a community of Irish amateur dressmakers. But maybe my expectations are too high. I have a few leads and will follow them later.

The Bridge in Ireland inspired by a Harp

I've always been quite cynical about the idea that the Calatrava bridge at Macken Street was inspired by a harp. How fitting?! How handy! The harp is a native symbol of Ireland. Strings are cables. And curved steel can imitate curved carved wood.
Santiago Calatrava has designed other bridges in similar style:

• Serreria Bridge in Valenica, Spain
• Footbridge Puerto Mujer, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Light Rail Train Bridge, Jerusalem, Israel
• Katehaki Bridge, Athens, Greece
• Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, California, USA
• an early design for the Alamillo Bridge, Seville, Spain

But today, listening to Morning Ireland on Radio One, I was alerted to Love:Live Music day. One of the many free performances involved 12 harpists, strewn across the bridge playing music.
When I arrived at lunchtime today (thankfully) there was no strew-ing. On the south-side, there was a cluster of harpists strumming Carolan tunes harmoniously. And I thought (I love Carolan's music) that perhaps this connection might not be a bad thing... and might possibly, I conceded, be intentional. Because the Beckett bridge does join the mast and the flat bridge at a particularly graceful angle and the steel given a particular design treatment at this point.
However, I am far from convinced - mostly because a harp on its side is a daft symbol!
Similarly, the bridge in Greece claims to be inspired by Athenian sailboats - perhaps part of the designer's charm is making these tenuous links between a generic, international bridge design and the native culture.I've tried rotating an image of the bridge and comparing it to a harp - the most noticeable difference/mismatch is that the strings on a harp run from the flat towards the top which is concave. If we are to look at the cables on the bridge running from the flat - they go towards a convex curve.
Too much analysis always spoils the fun so I'll finish by admiring the heavy steel at the base of the mast again - that shape and angle and mould and curve does bring a harp to mind.

National Print Museum

The National Print Museum of Ireland is located in an old barracks which now houses, amongst other offices, the Labour Court. It's on Haddington Road in Ballsbridge. I have intended calling in there for a long time and finally, I paid my visit. I think I found the location a bit daunting. After passing through that great stone gateway, would I be able to find my way. A check beforehand of the website helped. A sign in the window of a building in the yard anouncing "Free Exhibition" didn't. The sign and the building had nothing to do with the Print Museum.

The Museum is in the former Chapel.

Passed through the coffee-shop/tea-room, greeted by a girl at reception/shop, given an individual guided tour while an elderly man used the machinery - he was printing a poetry book, I think. All the machines are in working order.
One definite thing I learnt, was that the letters we often associate with old print presses - be they in wood or copper (maybe) - those letters are only moulds. Each time a document is printed, new letters are formed - from a silvery metal, using those moulds. So one of the machines in the process is just making little letters from moulds - either monotype (each letter is done singly) or linetype (where a line of letters is formed stuck together and this of course can be justified - an amazing rotary thing figures out the gap required when all the moulds in the line of print are in place).
Wow! An education! And no doubt, much more to be learnt.
If I brave the yard again!

Calatrava's Dublin Bridge #2 arrives in Dublin

I missed it!! I was away for the weekend and not up to scratch on the goings-on in Dublin. The second of Calatrava's bridges arrived into the Liffey yesterday. It was sitting outside the East Link Bridge in Dublin port since Monday, waiting for ideal tidal and wind conditions.
Apparently, the opening of the East Link was only just wide enough to let the bridge (at a particular point) pass through and so the tide had to be at its highest point.
I wrote an article about the two bridge designs in Blianiris, an Irish language publication in 2004. It almost felt like a friend I hadn't seen in a while had returned again when I saw the bridge coming into the city on the news yesterday.
The bridge is moored in the Liffey and will be anchored in place in June. I mustn't miss that date!

Planning the Red Cow

The Red Cow intersection changes every time I see it. I visit Clondalkin about once a month and each time the road layout is different. How a project manager can keep track of it is astounding. It must be by far the biggest project we've done in Ireland. There are temporary roads and bridges and signs. Construction is happening for the next stage of the final road as well as the next stage of temporary road.

It looks nothing like the picture at the moment.

I'm not claiming the project is without fault, I don't know (and did notice two roads diverging with no clue as to which went where) but the sheer size is mind-boggling. To think someone plans it!!!

The Jewish Museum

At last, I made a visit to the Irish Jewish Museum. I've seen signposts for it in the Portobello area but never quite found it until I made the effort on sunday.
We were greeted at the door by a very helpful man, who later checked if we were doing a project for which he could answer questions and followed us upstairs to ensure the heating was on and the room was warm enough.
The objects and information had a family feel to it, more than community based even. Pictures of people on wedding days, groups of girl guides and boy scouts.
The most interesting panel I thought was about anti-semitism in Ireland, more for the other info that was on the newspaper clippings - an ad from the Dun Emer guild caught my eye.
The panels and display cases were packed full of objects, items, artefacts, newspaper cuttings, passports, documents, photographs, certificates....

Spaces and ground surfaces

The bluish colour of the above picture is awful, sorry about that. My phone was on funny settings when I took it. It's the plaza in front of AIB bank headquarters in Ballsbridge. They've done a beautiful job. I think it's a really nice space now.
There's something that just clicks when the correct ground surface is chosen. Another example is Collins' Barracks. I'm sure people don't even pay attention to the pale salmon finish there - it's the perfect surface. Subtle, unnoticeable and succeeding in placing the emphasis on the buildings surrounding the space.

Radiohead graphics hijacked

While browsing online for train timetables. I spotted this poster and couldn't help posting it here!
I *love* the way they've used radiohead's graphics on the poster!!!

Cycle Lane or Footpath?

I cycle to work via the docklands in Dublin. If I'm on the path at around 8:50 it's a nightmare - pedestrians walking on the clearly-marked and well-used cycle path.
Why?!I think I discovered one of the possible reasons the other day. The dustbins!
I was walking along that route and had an apple core in my hand. I spotted the bins and started walking towards them - lo and behold, I'm walking on the cycle path. The bins are located adjacent to the cycle path.What a stupid location! They should be accessible to pedestrians, or to pedestrians and cyclists but surely pedestrians as a priority... I throw my hands up in despair!

The Smoking Ban

Walking home this eve, I noticed a white chalk line drawn around the doorway of the pub. I assume it's to indicate that "smoking is not allowed inside this box" but there was nothing written on it. It gave me the idea for more boxes outside pubs:

The Spire does what it's supposed to!

When I originally heard about the Spike, before it was built, I was very excited that this huge, tall steel pin (12o m in height I think) could be seen from all over the city and we would know where the main street of the city was. This doesn't happen. Fair enough, I can see the spike from the front door of my house, but I live centrally and there's no obstructions (Dublin is a low-rise city). And the view from my doorstep is definitely an exception, I haven't spotted the spike from anywhere else.
Until tonight - I went walking behind my house and it must be a slight hill because there was a fantastic view. Exactly what I had hoped for when I first heard of the idea. X marks the spot on Alphie Byrne road where I took the photo.
The Millenium Spire stands at the junction of O’Connell Street and Henry Street/North Earl Street. It's about 5 years old (prob should be 7 going by it's name but this is Ireland, though I'm not sure how long it's there; doesn't seem like more than 5 years...). We call it The Spike. It was designed by Ian Ritchie and engineered by Roughan O'Donovan.
I wrote this a while ago with the intention of writing a wee article to inform people a little of the background of such an idea:
"In Rome during one of the busy bout of urban planning obelisks were widely used. On a map an obelisk appears as a dot. They act as landmarks; to mark particular important points in the city or to conclude a vista. They also act as memorial statues to a particular event. Previously, on O’Connell Street, stood a pillar - Nelson’s pillar. It was bombed by the IRA."

Peig Sayers projected onto Bus Áras

This is a picture taken on my phone as I walked home past Bus Aras in Dublin a while ago.
It was a Wednesday evening. This image of Peig Sayers (an woman who lived on an island off the south coast and wrote a book about her travails that many students had to read in Irish class in school) was moving on the wall, winking at passers by, haunting the street.

TG4 were broadcasting the first tv show in the Paddywhackery series. Good publicity!I don't imagine Michael Scott foresaw this use of the blank wall!

Dublin Bus

Here's the newly designed bus-stop that Dublin Bus are planning to bring out. I spotted this one on O'Connell Street outside their offices.

I like the clear way the numbers of the buses servicing the stop are displayed (the white bit at the bottom of the top part). A little white square for each bus and as many as is required can be added.

The four-sided info bit got me very exited. There's a little blurb about "new design" of info and stop etc. It could be good. But unfortunately the other sides just have the same ol' stuff about what time the No 46A leaves Dun Laoghaire - no indication about the time it's due at the stop you're waiting for it. Rubbish! I think this is a basic requirement.

If my memory serves me correctly there's some kind of an attempt at a map displayed on the stop.

There was something uniquely Dublin about the old bus stop. A new arrival at the stop would arrive up, spin the info 'cylinder' around as if it was going to tell them something, then they'd join the line, with hope in their hearts that a bus would come soon. Ah Dublin Bus! And this is the week of controversy when the drivers are on strike about new bus routes...

As you can see, I've found the cable ;O)

HWCH

The Hard Working Class Heroes Festival took place in the Pod complex in Dublin last weekend. It's a 3-day affair to give unsigned bands a chance to perform in front of a wide audience, ideally consisting of people from the industry too. There were 6 rooms - in order of size: Working Man's Club, Lennon Lounge, Odeon, Pod, Crawdaddy, Tripod. The Odeon was for chilled out, sitting on comfy seats type music.

In terms of design:

• the logo is pretty poor methinks. Indecipherable. No sense to the colour scheme.
• the brochure and info was fine although the map was unhelpful. A rip-off from architect's drawings without considering how they would be useful to patrons.
• The layout of the rooms, the one-way system, the signage was well thought-out. (Apart from access to the Odeon being via the street and therefore not being able to bring drinks.)

Here's my scribbles on the bands I saw over the three nights. I did up my own timetable again so I could see where the overlaps in the schedule were.

Bands I enjoyed: Tribal District, Not Men But Giants, Le Bien. The attendance at most gigs was disappointing.

I met a friend who is in one of the bands and he had been busy throughout the day at mentoring sessions with PR people and others which he found very beneficial.Design, music, creativity - I suppose it's a valid posting for this blog! And I did try and involve the idea of "designing a festival". Another example that I was at was the Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures. It's interesting the info that is handed out to the public, the way the thing is laid out etc. I think it's related to Design!

mpark. Mobile Phones & Parking Meters

O2 have a sevice in Dublin city centre whereby you can pay for your parking ticket via your mobile phone. I just read about it on the http://www.o2.ie/ website; haven't tried it. Apparently there's a code on the machine and you type it into the phone and say how much and the machine prints a ticket. Wow! I could only find out about it on O2, checked vodafone and meteor - no mention of it. The http://www.mpark.ie/ website says it's available in Dublin and Dun Laoghaire. But that you need to register beforehand and that it's possible "with any mobile network" - however they only display the vodafone and O2 logos - no mention of meteor. It also says it will "be billed to your credit card or phone provider bill" - does this mean a credit phone (speakeasy, pay-as-you-go) user can't avail of the service? At any rate I think it's amazing and very useful! The demo on the mpark website shoes your NAME displaying on the machine after making the phonecall!!!

Our phones really are more than just phones:

• mp3 player
• camera
• video
• sound recorder
• amusement - games
• diary/ calendar/ reminder/ secretary
• radio
• phonebook/ addressbook
• torch
• crime buster (when the guards use gps to track a suspect's location)
• alarmclock
• watch
• hard cash (as good as! when you're at an mpark machine)

and they're only the uses mine gets put to - what about the raspberries with email and internet access etc.

Car Free Day

Today is car free day the world over and Dublin is no exception.
I came across this website which I thought was very informative and interesting:
http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/
The Dublin City Council press release is very badly put together. Free events at Merrion Sq, Parnell Sq and Herbert Park. Unfortunately I'm sick in bed so won't be joining in!
I remember being abroad for one of these car-free days. I think it might have been Paris, and it was fantastic. Families and all kinds of people were roller-blading, cycling, skate-boarding through the streets. A few years ago I think the buses were free in Dublin on this day.
My family aren't setting a good example though I'm afraid. Both my aunt and my mother came into town today - by car, and they would be users of public transport. Convenience and time constraints made up their minds today.

Fringe Fest 2007 - Free Events

I've been making graphicy timetabley things again!

Temporary Public Toilets

Twice over the past weekends I noticed temporary men's toilets signs hung up around College Green in Dublin. They pointed towards the portico at the Bank of Ireland. Beside it was a mini marquee, apparently with urinals inside!
I've checked the Dublin City Council site (their logo was on the signs) - no reference. And I've googled, and blog-googled and nothing. Has anybody else noticed them? Is anyone using them?! I'll try and get a photo of them.

The Sea Stallion of Glendalough

Yesterday at lunchtime I went down to the Eastlink bridge to see the "Sea Stallion of Glendalough" arrive. It's a reconstructed Viking ship that has been sailing for the past 6 and a half weeks from Denmark. At first I was standing at the office block on the Ringsend side of the bridge, there were some mothers with their kids and a guy with a camera and a fancy lens. Nothing was happening for ages and then we heard the noise of the ferries hooters. I went onto the bridge and waited another few minutes until at last the LE Róisín spraying water out its sides came into view, and right behind it the viking boat. It was beautiful as it drifted in along the Liffey. There were loads of other boats around it. Little rowing boats, one of them a currach with 3 old men rowing away! And some boats from rowing clubs I imagine.

Chatting about it with people since I've learnt that there's no cover on the boat, the crew had to sleep in the open, there's no loos so it was just a bucket and the crew apparently learned quickly that "everybody is in the same boat..." so just get on with it.

The Sea Stallion is being moved to Collins Barracks til next year.