Kilkenny makers transform one colour across ten craft disciplines
Free collective exhibition opens at Mayfair Library, Kilkenny on August 8, with six opportunities to meet the makers
A single colour will take on many different forms when MADE in Kilkenny opens BLUE at Mayfair Library in Kilkenny City on Saturday (August 8) at 12.30pm.
The free exhibition brings together work by members of the acclaimed multidisciplinary craft collective, with blue interpreted through ceramics, jewellery, textiles, furniture, glass, basketry, leather, candle making and woodturning.
Running until Saturday 29 August, BLUE opens during Kilkenny Arts Festival and is also included in the 2026 AKA Festival and August Craft Month programmes.
From indigo-dyed textiles and cobalt-glazed ceramics to glass, timber, wax and precious metals, each maker has approached the colour through their own materials, processes and traditions. Across the exhibition, blue shifts in character as it moves from one material and making process to another.
For some makers, it evokes water, landscape and sky. For others, it suggests memory, stillness, depth, ritual or transformation. Seen together, the works reveal how one shared starting point can lead to very different objects, ideas and emotional responses.
“BLUE began with a simple question: what happens when makers working in very different materials respond to the same colour? The answers range from quiet and reflective to bold and unexpected. Together, they show how much knowledge, imagination and feeling can be held in an object made by hand,” said Claire Molloy, Chairperson of MADE in Kilkenny.
The exhibition offers a snapshot of the professional craft being produced across County Kilkenny today, bringing heritage skills into conversation with contemporary approaches to material, form and function.
BLUE continues MADE in Kilkenny’s annual presence in the city during the August festival season. This year, visitors will also have regular opportunities to meet members of the collective and hear directly about their work.
Meet the Makers sessions will take place in the exhibition space every Tuesday and Thursday from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. These informal sessions will introduce visitors to the materials, techniques and ideas behind the work on display.
BLUE is suitable for all ages. The exhibition space is wheelchair accessible and has public toilets. There is no on-site parking.
The exhibition will open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10am to 5pm and on Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 8pm and is closed on Sundays. The Meet the Makers talks will take place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6.30pm to 7.30pm on August 11, 13, 18, 20, 25 and 27.