Liadh Connolly
Meet the makers and growers bringing warmth to winter
Amanda Kavanagh introduces up to the makers and growers bringing warmth to winter through handmade ceramics, fresh foliage, organic vegetables, and traditional candles.
Karolina Grudniewska
Ceramicist, KaroArt
Even in the darkest of short days, Karolina Grudniewska’s Dolphin’s Barn studio is a ray of sunshine. After walking through its mustard yellow door, visitors are greeted by a menagerie of colourful, small plates adored with farmyard animals in gleeful movement and anthropomorphic scenes.
KaroArt’s shop and studio is dotted with a diverse collection of pieces, from tennis-themed platters and penguin figurines made by her pottery students, to half-glazed cookie jars, plant pot holders, mounted and framed plates, house number tiles, and a large water jug that depicts a grand row of a Georgian houses.
There are some of Karolina’s signature gold-imbued pieces still lingering, but the maker is leaning more into organic materials these days. Right now, she’s loving black clay, and is experimenting with terracotta stamps and rollers to add texture.
In the last months of the year, it’s all systems go on her much-loved Christmas decorations, the design of which changes every three years or so; their current iteration is red and black hand-painted cats, dogs, reindeers and names on white baubles and discs. “I start in summer. I started especially early this year, in mid-June, working on Christmas stuff two days a week.”
You’d be forgiven for thinking she’d be all set quite early, but Karolina is experienced enough to know that “something always comes up”. October and November are her busiest months, as that’s when shops want their orders in, and the remainder of the year can be a blur.
“I like January,” she says. “I can take things easy and plan ahead. I spend a lot of time out of the studio and outdoors.”
Stuart Williams and Ursula Walsh
Foliage farmers, Wicklow Foliage Farm
As a single man in the early 1980s, Georgie Williams went around to florists in Dublin on a motorbike selling holly. When they asked him to try growing foliage for fillers in their arrangements and bouquets, he decided to go for it. He was a sheep farmer originally, and typically sold a lot of hay, but more and more he started planting, and so Wicklow Foliage Farm began.
Georgie went on to marry Muriel, and had a family, who all pitched in to the family business. “It was all hands on deck. After school, everyone helped, and after dark, the work continued in the sheds. This is still the case for us with our own family,” says their son, Stuart Williams, who took over the business aged 23, and now runs it with Ursula, who he married in 2008.
“To ensure freshness of our products, on our farm we only cut to order. We literally never have anything in stock,” explains Ursula. All of their foliage is hand-clipped and bunched at the tree in the field, regardless of the weather.
From August onwards, eucalyptus is grown and strong enough to cut. This is when things start to get busy, and from September, everyone is busy filling orders. Wicklow Foliage Farm supplies to wholesalers across Ireland, the UK, and also to a Dutch company, as well as florists nationwide.
“October gets busier and the crescendo builds in November. It is crazy for us. As a family we work seven days a week to meet the demand. Our shed fills and empties daily.” While florists and crafters host cosy workshops for wreath making and festive flower arranging, pressure builds on the farm. “Winter is so difficult for us. The weather is often so cold and so wet,” Ursula says. “When Christmas arrives, we are always running on empty and utterly exhausted. It takes us weeks to catch up on sleep and to recover.”
In the new year, customers are quiet, but on the farm, it’s time to harvest willow and birch crops before they bud in spring, and before the demands of Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter begin again. “This is an extremely labour-intensive job, and at times a very high-pressure way of life, but we know how blessed we are and we are filled with gratitude for the abundance and beauty of our earth.”
Jenny McNally
Grower, McNally Family Farms
“This season’s going a lot better than last year, thankfully,” says Jenny McNally. “We’ve better growing conditions. It was cold and wet to start, but it dried up and improved quickly.” At McNally Family Farm in North Dublin, 40 outside acres and 55 polytunnels are dedicated to growing, while 30 acres are green manures, and ten cattle roam the remaining hills and slopes.
After a tricky few years selling to supermarkets, and with five kids to feed, Pat and Jenny switched to their current model in the late 1990s after a friend suggested they try Temple Bar Food Market. “We went out there one Saturday with our Volvo estate, filled it up, and came home with nothing in the car except our table. We thought, ‘happy days, maybe this is the way for us to go’. It’s a niche market, but for us, it was the perfect fit.”
Aside from supplying The Fumbally and Strandfield, McNally is a direct-to-consumer business, selling at Temple Bar Food Market, Glasnevin Food Market, Naomi Olaf GAA Club in Stillorgan, and their own farm shop. McNally sell what they grow. “We don’t import or buy in; we just grow and sell our own produce. It’s worked wonderfully.”
Jenny’s favourites this time of year are carrots and potatoes for warming stews, followed by “Flower Sprouts” [a cross between Brussels sprouts and English kale], which can be flash-fried. “Winter is a time of bountiful harvest. You’ve got beetroot, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, “Flower Sprouts” and sprouts. Shredded sprouts are gorgeous in salads, too.”
At restaurants like Allta, Library Street, and Uno Mas in Dublin, McNally produce takes more unusual forms. “They’re great innovators, making things like Jerusalem artichoke ice cream. We’ve quite a few lovely restaurants on our books. I just don’t have the time to visit them all the time unfortunately.”
With all five children involved in the business, the plan for 2025 is simple: “Keep going, and hopefully we all make a living while giving good-quality food at a good, affordable price. That’s what we’ve always wanted to do, and I think we’ve achieved that.”
John Smith
Candlemaker, Lalor
Thirty years has flown by for John Smith, the longest-standing employee in Lalor, now owned by Rathbornes 1488, who began his candle-making career in their East Wall factory in Dublin. He started out on the votive machine, making candles for prayer intention in Christian churches, before being mentored by Bobby Leppla, then master chandler with over fifty years’ experience.
Around 1999 when Bobby retired, John took on his role, and soon after the company landed a significant commission. For the millennium celebration, four, six foot tall and 7.5 inch wide candles were to be made and lit on New Year’s in four corners of Ireland. One of these corners was in the Áras.
“I was watching the president on telly, hoping it would light,” laughs John. “I’d never made a candle that size. I was terrified that the wick wasn’t straight.” Thankfully all went well, and these days, he’s more likely to be spotting his work in his local church in Donaghmede or on RTÉ’s mass broadcasts.
The process in Lalor is the same as the day John started. “To make a 6×3 pillar candle, you have a machine called an extruder that you put the wax into. The machine presses the wax beads under pressure to produce lengths of about 34 inches, then we bring it to the tipping machine. We tip one end, and then the other, then back to the saw, and it’s cut to six inches. Each candle is over-dipped to give a nice, smooth finish and then wrapped.”
So how do you know if a candle is handmade? Well, if you cut it open, it’ll have rings, similar to how a tree tells you its age, but you don’t need to take out a knife to see. “Handmade candles are a different shape, because they will be made on the carousel. So you’re dipping the candle into the wax, and when you lift it up, the wax is sliding down the candle, and as it’s sliding down the candle, it’s getting colder, so the bottom is always thick and the top is always thin.”
A machine can produce 200 candles in half an hour, for handmade it takes days. “Because we are such an old company, we’ll stick to traditions. If you want a handmade candle, you will have to wait.”
Photography by Liadh Connolly
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of IMAGE.
IMAGE Winter 2024
The Winter issue of IMAGE is here, and from luxe layering to stylish staycations and easy entertaining, you’ll find everything you need for the months ahead. Plus: * Daytime sequins * Merlot moodboard * In studio with Irish designer Jennifer Slattery * Irish storytelling * Winter joys * Curating your tribe * Futuristic beauty * Modern motherhood * Festive feasting * Maximalist stays * and so much more…
Find IMAGE Winter in stores, or click here to buy online. Have you thought about becoming an IMAGE subscriber? Our Print & Digital Magazine subscribers receive all four issues of IMAGE Magazine and two issues of IMAGE Interiors directly to their door along with digital access to all digital magazines and our full digital archive plus a gorgeous welcome gift worth €75 from Max Benjamin. Visit here to find out more about our IMAGE subscription packages.
Also Read
