Ann Lowney

[annlowney]

Coding For Art

Drawn To Visual Art

With his thick beard, long hair and softly spoken voice an immediate parallel to singer Devendra Banhart circa 2008 springs to mind when you meet Adam Gibney. However he lacks his intensity, he is more playful and speaks with a wide smile with regular bursts of laughter. He’s just a really happy young man in love with where he is in life.

Gibney is a visual artist. He works from Richmond Road Studios in Fairview Dublin. ‘I always loved making things, when I finished school I did a post leaving certificate course in Ballyfermot, with a view to go and do model making and special effects. That was my career goal I guess. The course was great but as it went on it became more apparent to me that the way I work is more artistic as opposed to technical. I got much more into the ideas and concept, so visual art was more for me!’

After Ballyfermot he studied visual communication at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and upon graduation he’s been extremely lucky to have always found work. He started off with a year residency at the Independent Museum of Contemporary Arts on Baggot Street interspersed with residencies in France as well as a year spent lecturing new media at Dublin Institute of Technology.

Electronics

‘If you look back at my work there is this common thread that comes through. I’m fascinated with how language and technology function.’ His pieces of work exhibit a clean design that hide an impressive manipulation of electronics and coding. ‘There is a massive technical aspect to the pieces but I like to make things that you can’t see what I actually made. I don’t want you to see my, my brush strokes so to speak.’

He completely downplays the effort and skill that he uses to make these projects come to life, he is self taught in electronics and programming. ‘For my first solo show I needed more control so I started teaching myself electronics. A lot of the software and hardware are from the open source project. In the forum they share codes, there is a vast amount of knowledge there. If I haven’t made the programme from scratch I can mash it up, it’s a big bucket of language there!’ The open source movement is based around the idea that many skilled programmers working together for free is the best way to produce sophisticated software. It is an altruistic community, one that Gibney says helps him with his art.

When he talks about language he means code that has been created to instruct all devices around us.  ‘I became really interested with how technology can manipulate and control objects. But when I explored this area more I realised it was the language behind it all that really intrigued me.’ He is obsessed with these new languages and their power and demonstrates it in his work. For a show in the Royal Hibernian Academy he had a piece called  Synthesiser 7, ‘a large synthesiser sculpture was controlled by ultra sonic sensors. People could manipulate it by their proximity to it.’

Perl

‘My favourite programming language is called Perl, its open source. It is a visual programing language so it has lots of wires and boxes as code.’

Larry Wall came up with Perl, he’s a fascinating character. A devout Christian raised by a pastor father he sees Perl as a way to change the world. In an interview with Linux Journal he explains the slogan of the language and in so doing highlights why Gibney loves it. ‘The Perl slogan is “There's More Than One Way To Do It!” The reason Perl gives you more than one way to do anything is this: I truly believe computer programmers want to be creative, and they may have many different reasons for wanting to write code a particular way. What you choose to optimize for is your concern, not mine. I just supply the paint—you paint the picture.’

One picture Gibney painted was inspired by the  Hare Krishnas  ‘I’ve always liked the Hare Krishnas! I don’t believe in what they believe in though. But I find it fascinating that they devote their whole life to a mantra. That was the inspiration behind Indecisive Loop.’ The artwork is a beautiful futuristic looking record player that recreates a mantra by playing a sequence of records over and over again.

Side Projects

‘Last year I did a project, called Behind The Dark. I was doing the visuals, lights and design.’ It was one of the rare times that his laidback nature abandoned him and he became anxious for the safety of the performers. ‘The show was really cool, the trees had to be rigged for their ropes etc. One of my favourite parts was the double trampeazee but I was simultaneously excited about the act and terrified for the performer. But they just teased me about my worried face they have no fear; they really don’t give a crap! They just laughed at me.’

Currently a project that he worked on last year with actress Caitríona Ní Mhurchú called Eating Seals & Seagulls Eggs for the Dublin Fringe Festival has been invited to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. ‘It will keep me busy!’

Financial Precariousness

‘My Mam was like don’t pick art as there is nothing in it! I didn’t do it till my fifth year in secondary school.’ However it was his mother that pushed him towards it eventually as she could see his talent for it. ‘It’s a bit of a commitment of a career, seldomly are you going to be in position that you are going to be financially comfortable. It really isn’t about the money.’

For Gibney being a visual artist means that you are on the outside of Irish society as there isn’t a huge audience for this particular genre of art. But for him this is what he will always do, it satiates his inquisitiveness.

Physics

‘We can’t expect to uncover any fundamental truths about the world just by the abstract manipulative of words and concepts,’ said Werner Heisenberg. Gibney cites Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle as his new preoccupation. Delving into quantum physics is not exactly light bed time reading and Gibney admits that, ‘it’s mind boggling and interesting, I don’t understand it all and maybe that comes through in my work, my reactions to the equations.’

One would be forgiven for thinking that Gibney is a serious soul that has a low tolerance for the trivial. Someone who sips brandy whilst poring over equations in a dinner jacket, it would be too easy to typecast him like that. He is the antithesis. He is full of positivity and expounds a joie de vivre. His curiousity brings him to these big questions. There is one thing all this has taught him, ‘sometimes when you read things you realise what life really is.’ When prompted he reveals, ‘you have to look at the flukiness of your existence and enjoy it.’

You can see Adam's work here.

[annlowney]

Beer Is Ireland's Wine

Country Life

Getting stuck behind a tractor on a narrow country road doing 20 kilometres per hour can be frustrating, especially if they have silage dripping from a trailer. When that happens you would be forgiven for indulging in self pity about the symbolism of excrement landing on your car and how it is a reflection on your current status in life. But if you are driving to Blacks of Kinsale that thought is quickly replaced with awe for the beauty of Kinsale’s countryside. On a sunny June day bursts of different hues of green explode everywhere. Lanky trees do jazz hands overhead causing strobe lights of sun to surge through sporacically. Life is good especially when the tractor pulls in and you have open road and blue skies ahead.

The brewery is at the bottom of a small hill called Farm Lane. It’s home is in an average sized warehouse and a boat yard takes up some of the space in front. Even though the area is called an industrial estate, it does not feel like that in the traditional sense, it feels very personable.

Love At First Sight

Maudeline and Sam Black met each other for the first time in Sydney, ‘I went  over to do that Irish thing of working in Australia for a year. Myself and a few friends moved into his house on a Friday and he moved out the next day, it was love at first sight! Then we just spent the year working and traveling around together.’ Maudeline sky-dived for the first time whilst there, an experience that, ‘was pretty upsetting, there’s a fast drop but it all came good in the end!’

Sam’s visa eventually ran out when he was in Australia so he returned home to the UK but they kept in touch and one thing was clear that if the relationship was to continue Maudeline was not going to leave Cork. ‘I had already lived in London for four years, then a year in Dublin and then a year in Australia. I was ready to come home!’ So they picked Kinsale as it was near their jobs in Cork City and as Sam says, ‘it’s just so lovely here, it’s the longest I have ever stayed in one place.’

Career Changes

One thing that strikes you about this pair is their laughter, they both laugh with ease and radiate contentment with their lot, it’s fitting that the tag line on their branded t-shirts states that they are, ‘living the dream since 2013.’ ‘I was a theatre nurse focused on orthopedics, it was a great job and a great career but it was stressful. After nineteen years of nursing I felt that I had done my time!’ Sam worked in engineering for medical devices but he adds, ‘that we both were looking for a change of career and lifestyle.’ He was wary of repeating a situation of working for someone else through a partnership or taking investment. One thing they both knew is that they wanted to own it all, ‘you will never work as hard for someone else as you will for yourself,’ the next step was figuring out what that would be.

‘For Valentines I got him a home brew set.’ As Sam puts it, ‘I have a love for good flavoured beer and I started making some excellent beer. I really enjoyed it more then anything I ever did before.’ It was Maudeline’s gift that brought the business to where it is today, ‘since we started professionally in 2013 we are on our fourth expansion. We started with one 2,000 thousand litre fermenter and now we are at 48,000 litres.’ It’s that acceleration of growth that highlights the demand from people for quality beer. In customary fashion they take it all in their stride, ‘this was a really easy transition for us, it was a hobby that turned into a career.’

A tractor makes an appearance in the yard and Sam jumps to his feet to greet the farmer. At incredible speed he manoeuvres a forklift expertly, lifting and lowering barrels of spent grain into the back of a trailer, ‘everything here we recycle, the cows love that stuff.’ This sense of cooperation with the local environment is evidenced by using the the workers in the boat yard to taste their recipes for feedback, an enviable duty! The local restuarants also are great supporters and have helped promote the pairing of food with beer.

The Beer

‘Our flagship beer is the Kinsale Pale Ale, it’s recipe has not changed since we started and it continues to go from strength to strength. It’s an American style pale ale not too bitter not too sweet. There’s a nice balance of cascade and citra hops, it gives it a fruity finish. It’s 5% so it’s not too heavy going.’ They have a little tasting bar on site, it’s for the weekly tours that they hold. It also is proudly displaying their new 330ml can of Kinsale Pale Ale, ‘that’s a project we have been trying ot get off the ground for a long time and the beer is fantastic in the cans.’

A crowd pleaser especially with women is their Black IPA, it was the first commercial one in Ireland. Sam calls their Session, which has low alcohol content, ‘a perfect lawnmower beer.’ Then there is Rocket Ship, a 6.5% beer that tastes like marmalade. From January to February they brew stout and currently they have a double IPA called Hi Viz that’s still in the kegs as they finalise the labels. Their goal is to have more space to experiment with new flavours but for now it’s a balancing act of keeping up with demand. ‘Its pretty surreal, its like a child, it’s a different stress because its yours, we are completely independent, any pressure to perform is from us.’ Speaking of children they both have two young boys, ‘the five year doesn’t want to work in a brewery, he thinks the hours are too long! He wants to be a bin-man!’

A Crow

One thing that strikes you about their beer on first meeting is the branding, it’s extremely distinct. They called it Blacks obviously because of their last name however Maudelines orginal last name is Crowley. They took the name literally and decided to have a crow in the logo. ‘When we first started we brewed with Eight Degrees Brewing. We did three batches there, we took a run at the branding ourselves because we had a limited window to get labels printed in order to get a production slot. The first labels were very corporate. When we sent the beer to bloggers and journalists to review they loved it but they all said that the label did not match the beer.’

The logo has a lot of white in it, which was a conscious decision as they wanted it to stand out in a fridge. The font is bold but fun, it commands attention. The crow swoops over a map of Kinsale with wings outstretched. It’s interesting to note that in Celtic legend a crow would be buried with its wings outstretched in order to symbolise the connection between this world and the otherworld as the crow was seen as a messenger between the two. It was also said to represent the balance between life and death and the creation of the new. It’s a fitting representation of Maudeline and Sams change of career not that they were aware of that meaning when they decided on the branding.

Whiskey & Courage

The business continues to grow, at the moment they are increasing the amount of bars that stock their kegs. They are also expanding to foreign markets and their long-term goal is to distill whiskey on site. ‘If it wasn’t for the kids we’d live up here,’ they quickly add cheekily, ‘we love our kids!’

Maudeline and Sam know what they want and act fast as their meeting in Sydney shows. They thrive off adventure. Their buoyant demenour radiates a confidence that knows where they are and where they want to go. Risk to them is freedom to control their own future. ‘I nearly drowned once when I was surfing here in Kinsale,’ says Sam, ‘I saved myself, I kinda had given up but suddenly there was kick of will to survive.’ It’s that incredible determination that they both have that has brought them to this point, which is celebrating their current feat, their new 330ml cans as the sun beats down on them and a crow caws in approval from above.

  You can find Blacks of Kinsale in all good off-licenses & pubs.

You can take a tour of the brewery Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday for €10.

You learn more through their website http://blacksbrewery.com/

[annlowney]

Nairobi To Celbridge With Love

The Baobab Tree

‘Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it,’ from an African proverb. The baobab tree pronounced bey-oh-bab can grow to thirty metres in height and eleven metres in width, in fact in South Africa you can find a pub inside one. In latin the baobab tree is named adansonia digitata which means an outstretched hand, an image that is inkeeping with one of it’s most important cultural functions, that is to provide a meeting place for people to share ideas, stories and to simply catch up.

Alex Thorpe and Luigi Fanzini are the owners of Baobob Coffee Roasters. They are childhood friends that grew up in Nairobi, a city that became the centre for coffee, tea and spices during the colonial period due to the an African rail network that headquartered there. Nowadays it is the base of several multinational companies in Africa as well as the UN. It is also the only city in the world to have a game reserve border it.

A Medley Of Cultures

‘I guess everyone wants to live the dream in someway and there is no better dream then starting a business with your buddy,’ says Fanzini. His Italian father was an engineer, when he got a contract to work in Africa he met his wife and they settled in Kenya. Fanzini’s mother is from Cyprus. Her parents fled Cyprus during World War II to Egypt but when things became unstable in North Africa they moved to Ethiopia were she was born and raised. Fanzini stresses that an exotic mix of nationalties is very typical in Kenya, ‘I know some people with three passports.’

Fanzini has an infectious laugh and a face with no apparent lines. His long hair suits him, just as Thorpe’s short hair suits him. They sit in opposites not only in hair but demenour. Thorpe is the person that keeps the business on target, ‘I look after most of the business aspects, I’m not sure I enjoy it but it’s a necessity, I have to keep Luigi’s spending on track,’ he grins. Fanzini is the artistic part of the equation even though he studied biotechnology at DCU which surpised Thorpe at the time, ‘but he’s just one of these people that succeeds at anything he applies himself to.’ Thorpe’s career has, for the most part, always been in the hospitality industry, he used to work in the Conrad hotel in Dublin, only once did he have a job outside that industry, ‘I wasn’t happy there simply because I wasn’t working with food.’

Fanzini is exuberant but not in an overbearing way, he is the host at a party that makes everyone feel welcome, Thorpe is quieter but defintely not shy. He has an air of calmness and focus, he is the person at the party that you get locked into fascinating conversation with. They both are young, ambitious, excellent listeners, modest and self deprecating. You can’t but smile in their company, their chemistry is like that feeling you get when you remember your best childhood holiday, that is a mix of excitement, wonderment and adventure.

Australia & Ethiopia

‘Going to school in Kenya meant the best geography trips,’ said Fanzini. ‘I remember walking through coffee plantations as a child,’ adds Thorpe, ‘I loved it. I always loved the taste of Kenyan coffee.’ Thorpe was born in Mexico and raised in Kenya. He went to England for boarding school and at the age of nineteen moved to Australia to study hotel management. ‘I worked part time in Australia for a café, I just loved being behind an espresso machine, I thought it was cool!' The seed for this business formed in his mind during that time of study, 'whenever I went to eat I always thought the coffee was so bad at the end of the dinner. I knew for several years before we started this business that I wanted to change the coffee ideology of restaurants.’

For Fanzini the love affair with coffee started through his mother. In Ethiopia they practise a coffee ceremony which involves drinking coffee and eating popcorn, please watch this short video to learn more. When he was four years of age his mother’s Ethiopian friend Ade showed him how to roast coffee using a frying pan and also taught him how to conduct the coffee ceremony. As he grew older he experimented roasting coffee using a popcorn machine and table roasters.

‘If Nairobi was a person I would describe it as open and amazing,’ beams Fanzini. They grew up with people from all over the world and their flesh is made from different worlds colliding therefore it’s only natural that one of the missions of their coffee is that it’s made up of many different varieties, ‘to keep it from getting boring.’

No Agenda

The business is based in Celbridge, County Kildare. It’s cobalt blue façade leaps out from the street. Once inside the one thing that strikes you is the warm ambience. Nearly everything in there was made or given to them. A friend constructed some of the furniture, Fanzini’s mother sent over beautiful Heidi Lange paintings that depict Kenyan people, ‘nearly every house in Kenya has a Heidi Lange.’ Everything about the café sits in contrast with the experience most people have had with speciality coffee. That is, interiors and staff that are uncomfortabley cool. It can be like the personification of that clique of obnoxious people at school that thrived on making it quite clear that you didn't fit in. Baobab is not like that, ‘we want the brand to be open and friendly. Due to our upbringing we discovered how to talk to different people.’

Roasting Coffee On Site

It is that openess that motivated them to have the roastery on site, they want people to be curious and look at the roaster. ‘We wanted to knock through the wall so that people could see it from the café but it was not possible structurally.’ Instead the door to it is made of glass and people can look in, which they do. It’s wonderful to see the intrigue on peoples' faces, initially they aren’t sure if they are allowed to peer in but the smiles of encouragment from the owners is all they need, and suddenly that feeling of childhood wonderment takes over.

‘We went to The Netherlands to purchase the Giesen in 2014.’ Part of it looks like a locomotive train, they are in awe of it, it is after all the heart of the business. 'We want to keep the focus on quality. We want to get to know our customers, that’s why we are starting with a small client base. We want to get to know them by name and train them for free.’ They are just seven months in business and already they are a guest coffee of The Happy Pear in Greystones, they are available at Bear Market Blackrock and at Clement & Pekoe. ‘Dairine of Clement & Pekoe is great. I remember going in there to try and sell our coffee. It was full of customers and they were so busy but instead of turning me away she said take a seat, have some food and drink on us and I will speak to you in a bit. She tried our coffee and loved it.’  You can tell the memory of someone making time for their coffee, humbles them.

Insomnia & Guns

For Fanzini the ‘scariest thing I’ve ever done is this.  My sleeping patterns have gone down the drain but I get to unload the stress by chatting to customers. We’re just two regular guys who don’t have a huge budget, so financially it is very scary. Alex convinced me to start this business with him, I had a great job as a quality control analyst but I had an opportunity to go into business with my best friend.’ For Thorpe the push to start the business came from losing his job, ‘my girlfriend was pregnant at the time so going on welfare was not an option but I just didn’t want to start searching for another job, that’s why I decided to do this.’ He now has a six month old son and the support of his Polish girlfriend that he treasures, ‘I would not of been able to do this without her.’

‘I had a gun pulled on me in Dublin, I was walking down a laneway near St Patrick’s Cathedral. This random guy pulled out a gun and pointed it to my face as he was walking away. He didn’t try to rob me, I guess he just wanted to scare me. Then there was the time in Nairobi when my parents and I nearly got carjacked. Three guys with guns started to surround the car and my Dad just floored the accelerator. It does change your perspective on life.’ It would be naïve to not acknowledge that these violent episodes also thrust Thorpe into realising his dream of working for himself.

Friendship

Perhaps it’s the speed at which things have moved that has not afforded them the time to pause and give themselves a huge pat on the back. They have achieved so much but you get the impression that they won’t allow themselves to bask in it, perhaps it’s their modesty or fear of standing still for too long. Like any good relationship they keep each other going when overwhelming feelings kick in because they have bigger goals for their delicious coffee. There is African proverb that is very apt for this pair of entrepreneurs, ‘a friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.’

  You can visit Baobab’s coffee shop and roastery here.

You can order their coffee online here.

The number 67 bus can take you there from Dublin City Centre.

[annlowney]

Stamp Creator

Old Street London

Duane Dalton sits over his morning coffee in Ozone Coffee shop off Old Street in London, he rests his hands on the polished counter and drapes his long legs over the stool. The cooks are working like ants in the open kitchen, industriously pumping out breakfast orders as the southern hemisphere floor staff flit about  sporadically asking if you need anything with a tone of reservedness that any blue blood would be proud of.

Fresh sweet coffee wafts up from the roastery in the basement. Customers pile in for their flat whites to go, early morning business meetings are being held in booths, freelancers type furiously in front of the huge windows. They are too absorbed in their keyboards to notice the blue sky above and bright summer clothes passing by. One sharp dressed man sits adjacent and is eavesdropping in on Dalton’s words.

Dalton is dressed in a white shirt and black jeans, his black boots slip effortlessly from under the hem of the jeans, an ode to the 1960’s polished style of Mick Jagger. He looks startlingly like a young Christian Bale. Minimalist electro beats of The Knife are playing in the background as Dalton pores over his sketches in his notepad. By his own admission he is shy however when the subject moves to design his words are considered and his face lights up as clichéd as that sounds – but it really does. He is a man obsessed by design.

Lucky Breaks

He is originally from the Dun Laoghaire/Killiney area of Dublin. He has been living off Holloway road in London for just over a year and a half.  He found his apartment serendipitously through a previous client. The client owned the apartment and offered it to Dalton. A symbol of generosity that clashes with the perception that all Londoners are intensely individualistic. No doubt the client could see brilliant talent in Dalton and wanted to help foster that.

He also found his current job with Sea Design through chance. He discovered their book Sea 10 in the library at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology (IADT). The book was to mark the studio's 10th anniversary and consisted of all their work. ‘It was limited edition, you could barely get your hands on it in the library. When I discovered this kind of work, I could not believe people were doing it. It completely turned me on to graphic design.’

From Fine Art To Visual Communication

He spend seven years studying at IADT. He first started out in fine art and then decided to take a second degree in visual communication. At the time he questioned his decision to get a second degree. ‘It was scary going back to graphic design after fine art. I was happy after my first degree. I envisaged myself having a little studio to paint in and having a nice life. I was on a set path so to deviate from that was risky financially. But I’m glad I did it, it felt right.’

It’s on twitter where he saw the job for Sea Design, ‘it took me a week to respond I wanted to get a portfolio together and curate it especially for them. I didn’t want to show any old stuff. I was kinda afraid that maybe I left it too long, anyhow I submitted it off and they got back to me immediately. I was chuffed!’ As he he should be, Sea Design work with incredible brands such as Jaime Oliver, Selfridges, Regatta and many more.

Influencers

‘I look back to the past a lot especially designers from the 1960s and 1970s. You can see trends coming through again and again.  Back then there were no limitations. They were quite ballsy, the client trusted the designer more. Nowadays a lot of companies need so many people to approve something,’ which means being risk averse.

Sean Scully, Bridget Riley, Sol Lewitt and Damien Hirst are artists that he admires. In a Guardian interview Scully talks about how the fields of his Irish childhood inspires his work, to him the fields are ‘flags of imaginary countries not yet discovered.’ All of them embrace geometry, pattern and melancholy. Here's a quick question for you that is on topic but also off topic,  which one of them put a cigarette up his penis after an alcohol and cocaine binge?

The common theme in Dalton’s work is clean design, ‘it’s probably reflective of my personality, its an aesthetic I like.’ In the graphic design world he is a fan of International Typographic Style which is also known as Swiss style. It has a strong focus on clarity, order, cleanliness, readability and objectivity. Sans Serif is their preferred font as it is for Dalton, ‘a type style believed to express the spirit of a more progressive age.’  Other influencers include Wim Crouwel, Jean Widmer, Total Design, Geigy and Lance Wyman who did the Mexican 1968 Summer Olympic Games logo.

‘I was doing a project called Album Anatomy. It was a poster series. I did eighty A1 posters about my interpretation graphically of an album that I love. The style was very rigid, it had the band name, track length and in between is my graphic response. I did that for three years but after a time it got very restrictive. There is graphic design out there that is very loose and witty like Stefan Sagmeister. He is a rock star of graphic design, his stuff is very organic, with bold statements. For him it’s all about the idea. I get a bit annoyed that I can’t be as expressive.’

Stamps

‘Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste,’ said William Butler Yeats. Dalton has been designing stamps for over a year now. It’s a personal project that has attracted a large following on Instagram. From listening to Dalton’s story you could easily point out that he has become more bold with his design which sits in contrast to what he thinks.

As a child he would draw every formula one car with their logos for each season, an exceptional feat for a child and an early clue to his love of order. It seems that this stamp project is harking back to that time in his life, a time of new possibilities to explore.  ‘I wanted something that I can express myself more with. I can use any pattern, colour and font. Stamps have been around for so long, I love looking at the 1970’s modernist stuff. The format is appealing from landscape to portrait and square. The scale challenges you to communicate effectively.’

No Limits

The founder of Sea Design Bryan Edmuson said in an interview with Design Boom that, ‘designers are magpies.’ Dalton is no different, he is constantly collecting ideas that he uses for his stamps project. He averages at creating one stamp per week. ‘I have a notebook, I believe in drawing stuff first. I always try to have a meaning.’

His most popular stamp to date is of the American moon landing. He points to an image of the stamp on his phone, ‘This was for the moon landing. It’s literally one dot made of blind emboss. That means it comes out of the paper. That’s the fun of this project no one can tell me what to do. It looks easy but to strip everything back is challenging. You need to be aware of the stuff you don’t need, the excess stuff. I want to communicate something in a glance.’

His project has resonated with many people and his next goal is to make the project into a book. ‘I want to make a nice book with nice colours, a nice dust jacket and section dividers.’

Partially Colour Blind

He seems unaware of his talent but thankfully most people notice it. He is modest and has boundless creative energy that not even his colour blindness can halt. ‘I’m partially colour blind, I struggle a lot with it.’ His girlfriend who is also an artist made him a colour chart, ‘now I’ve a set guide of colours that I know will work.’ It’s the ease at which he sees answers and solutions through the haze of visual noise that have people telling him that he now influences their design, ‘it’s a really nice feeling that people think that’. 

  You can look at Duane's work here duanedalton.com

You can check out his stamps project on Instagram: duane_dalton

[annlowney]

Bring In The Clown

Stand Up Comedy

‘There are a lot of  clowns in my work. I sit in the middle of being scared and liking them. They are the truth tellers of society,’ smiles Pierce Healy.

Healy is an artist, engraver, jeweller, musician, poet and stand up comedian. Let’s  first touch on his time spent on comedic pursuits.  When he lived in San Francisco he did a course called how to be a stand up comedian and upon graduation he made it in to Hank Hyenas Comedy All Stars. He laughs at the zany memories of it all, ‘I still have the how to be a stand up comedian ring binder,’ he adds sardonically.

His favourite comedian is Steve Martin and it’s apt that Martin says the following in his autobiography entitled Born Standing Up, ‘I just believe that the interesting time in a career is the pre-success, what shaped things, how did you get to this point?’

Healy did not continue down the comedic path, however he has always been intrigued by dark humour and it continues to encapsulate his work. Great humour is always on the knife age of hysterical bliss and skin-crawling despair and it’s that balance that Healy naturally is drawn to.

Let There Be Music

He sits at his work station above Drury Street in Dublin. Beside him are his tools which he has been collecting for years, they look like a huge bouquet of flowers, each with a bright handle. His hat and beard stirs up images of Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, he smiles big and laughs heartily. There is also a gentle delicateness to him. It’s comparable to a shy thoughtful child. It’s contrasts that seem to inspire and define him.

He grew up in Templeogue. His father worked as a printer and did taxidermy in his spare time, his mother worked in a newsagents. It was the comics that she brought home from work that started it all. In particular the short lived English comic Scream, Simon Furman creator of Transformers used to write for it. It was horror themed and he loved it, he was mesmerised by the illustrations. His grandfather’s brother was Michael Healy, the famed reclusive stained glass artist. As a child he was unaware of his genetic predisposition towards art it was music that captivated him first, ‘and fire. I loved lighting fires,’ he chuckles. Both his parents are also musical. Healy is a trained classical guitarist.

‘Music was my first love.’ In the 1980’s he formed a band with his childhood friends that went through a few name changes; Vocal Disorder, The Daisy Thorns and their current name The Dirty Pictures. His voice on records like The Motivational Effect Of Hope exhibits a wonderful juxtaposition of warmth and brightness mixed with a gravelled weariness of a crooner that’s seen it all before but is still fascinated.

With hindsight he finds it amusing that he never took art or metal work in school even though they were available to him, he was absolutely ‘consumed with music.’ After school he became a draughtsman and today the idea of him doing that job jars with him. ‘I started it before computer aided design (CAD) came in so I guess I was drawn to the fact that you had to work with a pen on velour but eventually CAD got introduced and I became a CAD monkey.’

San Francisco

He moved to The States when he was twenty-four but he never wanted to go, his friend applied for a visa for him and he got it, so he decided to just go with the flow. ‘I lived in America for twelve years. The only drive was to have an adventure and to continue to make music.’  He and the two other bandmates got a job in a youth hostel located in Fort Mason, San Francisco. They stayed in a military house on it's grounds, it was the best job he ever had because it allowed him to continue to make music. ‘We were ambitious but lacked ability in marketing, it just didn’t come naturally. We’d spend a year making an album and then squabbles would start because we would put so much work in and then nothing commercial would happen.’

After a year of working in the hostel Healy returned to draughtsman roles, it was a steady income to helped facilitate his new interest in metalwork. It started innocently enough when a shop drew him in with their tools and then over time just like the metal he manipulated, he found that he, ‘was just melting into it.’

He got a space in the Sharon Art Studio which is located in Golden Gate Park, a place he describes as ‘looking like Hansel’s and Gretel’s ginger bread house.’  Richard Leaf is someone that he cites as a great mentor but there also were many other people along the way that he learnt from and he soon began to get his work shown in galleries.

Whilst he was exploring this side of himself the music making still continued. ‘The band went to London over a record deal we were so close to signing but it fell through. I was heartbroken, we’d put some much time and effort into making six albums that I decided I needed to do something for myself.’ 

Art School

It was also at that time that he choose to return to Ireland, he wanted to be closer to his family. ‘I applied to NCAD whilst in The States and got accepted.’ That was the catalyst that he needed, he had tried to move home before, staying a year to half a year at a time but he knew the course would help him with the visceral qualities of culture shock, ‘which sometimes can make you feel nauseated, college helped dilute those feelings.’

He feels lucky with ‘the luxury’ that that opportunity gave him. He graduated with a degree in metals and then went on to do his masters in Stockholm’s Kontsfack. The department was called Ädellab, which translates as alchemy and magic. The meaning alone hints at the fact that the teaching was a lot more experimental which he thrived with.

Setting Up In Dublin

‘Twice a year I run beginner hand engraving workshops, there are not much hand engravers left  in Dublin and no one is teaching it, it’s pretty secretive.’ It was during this time that he met follow artists and they decided to get a studio together.

As a jewellery designer what interests him is the fabrication of the metals, the layering of it into a shape just like he does when creating songs through layering sounds. ‘For me its about playing with textures, drawing on the metal.’ The detail in his pieces is striking, the effort is extremely time consuming but it’s his addiction. ‘I work six days a week from ten till seven, if I’m not working I’m thinking about it! My greatest fear would be to have no money, I've come close. It's an awful feeling, you just feel so useless. I guess I could always busk if this doesn't work out!’

‘Rathmines is the New York of Dublin,’ he quips with a belly laugh. It’s in walking through the city’s neighbourhoods that Healy finds his inspiration. His next project explores bathroom graffiti, humour being a constant thread in is work.

Necklaces With Udders

‘I’m also part of the art jewellery world, yes I make sellable work and wedding rings etc etc, but I’ve another name called Otto Van Winkle Peterstein,’ he pulls out a piece of body jewellery that looks like a furbie with a clowns head on it and squeaks his nose or it could be it’s udders. ‘This collection is called the clown jewels, I’m part of that unwearable wearable world! I wanted to use humour to connect people who aren’t really interested in art, an attempt to get them to participate more. But it didn’t really work because people just thought that art is shit!’ You have to admire how Healy can embrace the bizarre but also laugh at it.

This individual practise of making suits Healy very well, the band are still together and making music but oddly he hates performing in front of people.  A fact that sits in contrast to the activities that he has done in the past. But that’s what makes this man tick, he grasps opposites and somehow makes it work in an inviting way. The clown is a frequent character in his work, it’s a silent performer that he controls.

You can buy Pierce’s work here  & here... 

You can also find his art jewellery work here...

Follow his Instagram here...

[annlowney]

Working With Dogs

Earthquake

‘There was an earthquake twenty years ago in the south of Italy, you couldn’t reach the particular area anymore by road so we had to take a helicopter. I was a deployed with a dog and another earthquake came in. I was already not on steady ground, a house had collapsed, then I fell another twenty maybe thirty metres in just a few seconds. I was by myself and all I could do was hope that someone would see me.’ That experience changed Alex Petrilli’s life. He was twenty five and thought that he was invincible but in that moment he realised the cliché that life does go by so fast.

The Eurasian Plate and African Plate meet under Italy which leads to a lot of seismic and volcanic activity. Most of the incidents happen in central and southern Italy. ‘My main job with the dogs was to find missing people from earthquakes.  There could be three thousand people missing and at that stage you know it’s dead bodies that you will be finding.’

For people that have never experienced devastation on that scale it’s impossible to comprehend how grim and terrifying Petrilli’s task was. Just him and his dog in areas that had been annihilated,  ‘80% of time you are finding a dead body,  I enjoyed working with the dog but it’s terrible to find a body. The working dog doesn’t care what he is finding, it’s a game to him. He just cares about the reward of playing after he completes his task.’ Petrilli knew it was time for a change.

Petrilli is from Turin, he has a grin that is infectious. His physique is strong and self assured. When he speaks he leans over his espresso on the table, when he listens he sits back and observes intently. His words fall with ease but not in a hyper babble, it’s employed with a quiet authority.

When he was seventeen he was conscripted into the army, a practise that ended in 2000 in Italy. ‘I was already training dogs as an assistant trainer in a private school. For the year of military service they asked me to be a dog handler, I ended up staying there for ten years.’ He studied veterinary science for a while but he hated it, he wanted to work with the dog's mind. ‘Vets don’t do one exam on animal behaviour so its very difficult for them to give advice.’

Love of dogs

‘My parents always had mastiffs as a young child I would ride around on them!’ Somewhat on topic, it is said that Venetian traders brought the first strain of mastiffs to the UK. The mastiff used to be his favourite breed but that has now been replaced by a golden retriever, he loves their energy, trustworthiness, friendliness and intelligence. These are qualities that Petrilli personifies himself however he would be too embarrassed to admit it.

When he was seven he used to spend his summers on his Grandad’s farm. Petrilli’s parents are from the south of Italy and for the school holidays they would send him to where they grew up, the rural Italian countryside. He would avidly watch as his Grandad used the dog to herd sheep. Unfortunately for Petrilli boredom fast grew over him due to the isolation, the nearest shop was ten miles away. He soon found friendship with his Grandad’s dog, they would roam the land for hours on end, he was his best friend and that bond cemented his future with dogs.

Enough Of Dogs

His original goal when he relocated to Ireland in the early 2000’s was for study. ‘I wanted to do my masters in animal behaviour and welfare, there was no course in it in Italy, there was some in the USA but I was twenty five and had no money. I had six months free to learn English in order to do my masters. It was between England and Ireland, I picked Ireland because I had spend three weeks living there when I was fifteen and this time around I never left!’ However Petrilli decided to shun his original plan of further study in animals and embraced company life instead. And so began a career that saw him work for Facebook, IBM and Sony Ericsson to name a few. He managed teams and developed sales strategies for foreign markets.

As a natural leader with a commanding presence, it was only natural that he excelled in that world, simultaneously he started up a not for profit dog training company called King of Paws, he continued to have this part of his life simmer along as he secured more senior company roles.

Several years later the dog world started to draw him back in. In 2013 he graduated from Queens University with a masters in animal behaviour and welfare. The King of Paws started to demand more of his time, it got to the point were he was doing seven day weeks and his wife said that something had to give. ‘It was a very difficult situation, I was working for Facebook and they  paid very well and really looked after you. My wife just wanted me to be happy but made it clear also that bills would still have to be paid! In the end I decided to commit to King of Paws. I’m glad I did, I wouldn’t go back.’

Dog Training

‘Training a dog is easy it’s training people that’s difficult!’ King of Paws is located on the grounds of the DSPCA in Rathfarmham. It has fifty five full-time employees, over two thousand volunteers and twenty-five dog trainers. They also hold dog training internships of six months to two years. 

‘I only take trainers that are coming from a corporate world, the problem with trainers that come from a dog only world is that they are great with dogs but not people, the dogs are not paying the bills! You need people from marketing and sales backgrounds, they understand how people work, and how to get them motivated.’

He feels that there is a lot of people who just treat a dog like a commodity, they leave it at home all dog with few walks which leads to bad habits and depression in the dog. ‘In Europe most people live in apartments, they walk their dogs two to three times a day. My father is my inspiration, for forty years he always came home every lunch break to walk the dogs.’

Petrilli is a man that believes in statistics, he is constantly reading behavioural journals to learn more, he believes in facts. It for that reason that he gets very annoyed at some of the training concepts he sees on TV, ‘some trainer said that a dog is trying to take responsibility, another one said you should poke a dog to get it’s attention!’

He doesn’t believe in training the perfect pet, that’s more the remit of working dogs. His goal is to get the dog to obey you and not destroy your house. ‘Dogs don’t want to be a boss, they have the same intelligence of a one or three year old child. A kid doesn’t want to be the boss! A kid just wants to do what he wants to do! It’s the same with a dog, it’s down to education to teach him right from wrong.’

‘I select a lot of dogs here for the Gardai unit. Training to find those types of dogs is not easy.’ It consists of eighteen weeks of basic training and if they make it through that they go into twelve weeks of  advanced training, there they specialise and hopefully get a job. It's not just humans that face the wrath of unemployment!

The Future

The next step for his business is to take his method global, the first market he will go after is the UK. He already gives sold out seminars and finds it an excellent way to educate dog owners.

It’s fascinating to listen to how Petrilli’s life has spun full circle. His love of dogs began whilst watching his Grandad’s dog herd sheep over the southern Italian fields. As he speaks you can hear the constant yapping of happy dogs playing outside, a fitting soundtrack to Petrilli’s journey to date.

[annlowney]

Copywriting Work

It’s been hectic with projects (both work and personal) the past few weeks so it was a welcome respite to work on a copywriting project. 

The direction given was short, snappy, humourous copy to entice students to start creating events.

Here are the results - what do you think?

[annlowney]

Rebel With A Cause

No Fear

On first meeting, Sean Papenfuss locks you with a steely gaze. His build is strong and imposing, he radiates a confidence that tolerates no bullshit. When he starts to talk it can be disconcerting as a playfullness comes out. He is that cheeky wild kid in school that everyone loves, you know the kid that has no fear and jumps off huge walls? The type that acts now and deals with the consequences later – that’s the type of energy Papenfuss emits. Here’s a random piece of information the surname Papenfuss is a German name and means priest foot.

‘We were the bane of the UCD security guards lives.’ Papenfuss started off stakeboarding when he was thirteen but, ‘kept falling off my skateboard and realised that I would be better off on a bike.’ So he jumped stairs, jumped off roofs, skidded across ledges – all on his bike. He also had accidents on his bike like when his tooth went through his lip. Or when in later life he crashed his motorbike at Harold’s Cross, ‘a car just came out of nowhere.’ But that didn’t stop him from getting on a plane the next day to Australia to work in the outback. Papenfuss has no fear, he just always gets back up.

Travel

‘I left school when I was eighteen and moved to Barcelona. I needed to leave Ireland and experience life.’ Papenfuss got a job working as a mechanic in a bike shop whilst over there as trying to get a job as a mechanic in Dublin meant ‘your brother’s cousin has to be related to someone’s left shoe.’ Basically nepotism was rife so like many before he plied his trade abroad first.

So then began several years of traveling, interspersed with flashes of time back in Dublin where he was a courier. He took the Trans-Mongolian Railway which follows an ancient tea-caravan route.  He got on at Moscow went through Siberia and stopped at Mongolia. The only motivation with his exploring was to experience life as he said earlier.

When he got to Asia one of his standout adventures was when he got a boat from Shanghai to Japan then cycled from Kyoto to Tokyo.  He fell in love with China and ended up spending five months there. The countryside was mind-blowing and the people, ‘are honest and down to heart, they are just awesome.’ They are tenets of character that he admires unlike what he experienced in Queensland, ‘they have a strange view of life. There was a lot of racism and sexism in the outback, it really was not cool.’

Papenfuss lived in Australia for two years. He spent months in Queensland working in cattle stations, building roads and welding. He also couriered in Sydney, a city that was 'horrible to cycle in.'

‘I always returned to bikes.’ He was sure that he would stay out in Australia but his love of two wheels pulled him back to Ireland. Papenfuss didn’t have a grand plan with goals, tactics, strategies and all those corporate buzzwords that are perceived as modern symbols of guaranteed success.  What Papenfuss has is a strong instinct and he’s let it lead the way. At that time it was telling him to start something in Dublin. He hasn’t tried to analysis it so that he can get maximum return on profit, that’s just not him.

Home

On his return home he had a series of false starts that would make most people just give up and settle for any job. He opened a business but it didn’t work out so he started working in another bike shop and assembled bikes also. He find the work boring so set up a bike mechanics school in the bike shop. The owner saw the potential in it so decided to up the rates which can only be seen as a mixture of greed, begrudgery and poor business acumen. ‘I got a little hot headed and went on Done Deal, saw a unit for rent and went and opened my shop that night.’ That’s Papenfuss, he doesn’t play games with players he sees as dishonest. ‘Sometimes I get a little out there but it works for me.’

He’s three years in his shop, The Bike Institute on Dorset Street. It’s reminiscent of the barber shops in The States that act as community focal points such as this barber shop in Harlem that NPR chronicled. All through the day kids from the area cycle in to have a chat. Their small bodies struggling to balance the weight of their bikes as they try to make themselves look bigger, they want to be taken seriously. They observe, enquire and love the fact that they are treated as equals.

It’s like stepping into someone’s home, his dog Einstein sleeps in his bed by the door, stirring every so often to investigate new visitors and then wanders off quietly to nap once again. ‘I got him on Paddy’s Day from The Dog’s Trust, I remember that because I took him to the pub,’ he laughs.

Mechanics

There is a steady stream of customers all day, business is good. But Papenfuss is quick to point out, ‘we love bikes. A lot of people are getting into bikes because they think there is a lot of money to be made. There’s just too many bike shops and not enough business to go round.’

There are so many nuisances to bikes, you have to be crazy about them to figure out the problems.  ‘A lot of bike shops send their difficult cases to us and get us to train their mechanics. I'm shocked at the level of some of the mechanics, it’s gas!’ The only time he got annoyed with a customer was when he insisted that he, ‘adjust my brake pad 4 degrees anti-clockwise,’ he rolls his eyes recalling it as the mechanics in the shop laugh.

For someone that is just twenty-seven years of age he's already achieved great things, his next adventure is to open up a mechanics school and is currently looking for a unit.

Family

In 2012 he met his girlfriend Kim and in 2014 they had their first baby. It’s not uncommon to see Papenfuss recommend bike pumps to customers as he holds his one year old aloft in his embrace.

‘I thought I’m going to ride bikes loads when I get a bike shop but that’s not the case, we're just so busy.’ His bike of choice is a mountain bike but all that’s changed with the baby, ‘I’m getting a cargo bike so I can put the baby in front but it’s going to be a fancy one with nice hydraulic discs,’ he smiles.

‘The cycling infrastructure should be safer for kids, taxis are inches away and buses come up too close. I was cycling with the baby the other day and a bus pulls up and beeps at me. He tells me to get off the fucking bike! That’s just fantastic, great job lads!’ If he was to hold a city up with a good biking environment he gives Barcelona a shout out, ‘Amsterdam is just too boring to cycle in.’

When asked what was the scariest thing he ever did, he said after having a baby, it was ‘when I swam daily in Sydney harbour unaware of the sharks!’ That image sums up Papenfuss. His fierce passion for bikes and for human decency helps him float above the fickle players that try to mirror him but aways fall up short.

You can check out The Bike Institute here.

[annlowney]

Seattle To Dublin With Coffee

Baristas Can Be Intimidating 

Rashel Winn gives bone crushing hugs which sit in direct contrast to her petite stature. Her style is like Audrey Hepburn’s character Jo Stockton from the film Funny Face. She used to have long hair but now she sports a stylish ruffled crop cut completing her light elfin presence that hides an anaconda like cuddle.

‘Spro-sisters and spro-bros, that’s what I call my people that work in coffee.’ Spro being an abbreviation of espresso. ‘I am the only one that is lame enough to say that, it’s due to my lack of tattoos,’ she laughs.

Winn has a huge smile and endearing personality that radiates positivity, like a smiling sun that a child would draw. She is also self deprecating and is quick to say that she might be seen as a fake barista not only because of her lack of tattoos but also due to not having a beard. When challenged as to why some baristas are quite frankly rude, Winn surmises that ‘our speciality coffee scene is still very young, it’s at the teenage stage. Like a teenager there are some in it that feel like they have to prove themselves and are simultaneously self conscious. That toxic element of the scene will pass.’

Seattle To Dublin

Originally from Seattle, Winn moved to Ireland in 2010. The obvious summation is that Winn first cut her teeth in beans whilst in Seattle but that was not the case. ‘I wanted to be involved but the Seattle coffee culture had developed to a level that you needed two years minimum experience for a barista job, the only way to break into it was if you put in time at the big green mermaid (Starbucks) or found a place outside of Seattle.’ So instead she continued her studies in psychology and embraced the coffee shop culture. ‘When you’re younger a café is a place that is an extra space outside of your home, a place where you can relax and figure yourself out.’

She met her husband Séamus Lawlor online but not through a dating site. She heard his band’s song on an internet radio station and was hooked. She quickly got in touch with the band to let them know how much she loved their music, Lawlor emailed her back and so began a long distance relationship culminating when Winn moved to Ireland in 2010.

‘When I moved here I didn’t have friends or a community of my own. I started working in coffee purely by chance and over the past few years it’s really enveloped my life.’ How Winn fell into coffee was indeed not planned, her drive first and foremost was to get a job. Not having a solid network in a new country is a challenge but not having employment on top of that is isolating.

Making Chicken Baguettes To Coffee

She got a job working in the Spar deli in Ranelagh, ‘making chicken fillet baguettes was not the most life affirming task.’  Her influential mix of positivity and pluckiness made a great impression on her then boss. When they remodelled the store they put in a coffee counter, ‘Anita, my boss, basically said you’re smiley and good with people you should go and learn how to do our coffee, I practically ripped off my hair-net.’ She was encouraged to take classes from the SCAE (Speciality Coffee Association of Europe). It was those classes that started to ‘unfold and unfurl,’ something in her, ‘the more I learned the more restless I felt there. I wanted do gas espressos, filter coffees just something more explorative.’

With hindsight it is clear to see that Winn was starting to find her identity through coffee as that culture she embraced in Seattle was starting to bubble into her adopted city. Her magnetism caused a domino effect with several coffee job offers peppering her short timeline in Dublin.

She worked in Coffee Angel and The Woollen Mills all of which happened because of her meeting with Ger O’Donohue. ‘I met Ger on a SCAE course he was helping with, I had known of him in coffee circles, as he’s well regarded. In our first meeting I wanted to impress him.  It was just after lunch and I asked him if he needed any help, he said he was fine and pointed out that I had sauce on my face, nicely done!’ O’Donohue became her mentor, finding her current position at Fumbally as well as First Draft Coffee. He also is her trainer for coffee competitions, ‘he’s endlessly patient with me,’ which really can’t be too difficult with someone as affable as Winn.

Teaching & Competitions

First Draft Coffee is an affordable training school run by independent baristas. They run courses teaching you how to make great coffee at home to teaching you how to do latte art and more in between. A beard is not a pre-requisite. O’Donohue owns it and Winn helps, for example she created the website as well as helping with training. ‘Im incredibly happy and I’m still learning so much. Becoming a trainer is thrilling in its own right, you can see people just get it. Seeing that curiosity develop is really exciting.’

Back to the competition element. The World Barista Championship started in 2000. To get to the world final you have win the national contest. The competition consists of preparing twelve coffee drinks in fifteen minutes. Four espresso, four cappuccino and for signature drinks, no booze is allowed. You have seven judges watching you, yes seven, and you are mic-ed up like a salesperson on QVC as you talk people through what you are making. It sounds hellish for anyone that hates pressure and the sound of their own voice but Winn loves the showmanship of it all. ‘I find it really enjoyable! With the signature drink you can get creative with it, for mine I made date syrup and combined cascara, a coffee cherry tea made from the dried berries of the coffee plant.’ Most recently  Natalia Piotrowska represented Ireland in the world championships in Seattle.

Where To Find Great Coffee

The more Winn talks about coffee the more you see someone akin to a born again Christian, ‘it is a rabbit hole as to how you bring out the best in coffee. Before you get your cup of coffee so much can go wrong. It’s quality can be affected by the way its stored, shipped and that’s before it hits our shores. Then the roaster could under or over roast it. Then once it hits a café someone that has poor barista training can fuck up six months hard labour and work in thirty seconds!’

When prompted for recommendations of people that won't mess up your coffee she waxes lyrical about Roasted Brown and her alma mater Coffee Angel. Karl Purdy owner of Coffee angel,  ‘is one of the most straight forward honest, kind people you can work for. In the same breath it's never at the compromise of the coffee with I deeply respect.’

Fergus Brown, owner of Roasted Brown is another coffee maker that Winn believes is doing things right, ‘He is building his own roastery in Bray, in the meantime he roasts his own coffee in Notes roastery in London then flies back with it.’

One thing you observe when you travel to London or the bigger cities in The States is that they have a roastery on site which is something that is also not lost on Winn. She is keen to see the roastery and café be in one place. If you’re ever in London check out Ozone to see why that is a great thing.

Polished Blue Collar

As mentioned earlier Winn was studying psychology in Seattle and saw her life was to stay in third level institutions. She struggled for a while to accept that her new career was to be in coffee. ‘So much of my sense of self worth was based around intellectual, academic glory and finding that I have this great passion and love for coffee was personally scary to admit to myself.’

A pursuit of learning can be an isolating journey which is in contrast to the camaraderie she has now found in café culture. ‘I was brought up in a society that said you are worth something if you have a degree. Anything that is entry level like this is a more polished form of blue collar, but I’m so much happier now that I’ve let it go.’ 

 You can learn more about First Draft Coffee here & follow Winn here.

[annlowney]

From Bean To Bar

It’s not about the money

To borrow an excellent phrase from the Scots, it was a dreich day that Shana Wilke opened her factory door to The Makers. Her modest business is located in a small industrial estate a short distance from the bustling town of Midleton.

Wilke exudes a childlike energy and enthusaim for what she does – it’s infectious. Her small frame weaves in and out of machinery pausing every so often to explain how a machine she just got delivered from Amsterdam works to why certain chocolate tastes different. Her complexion hints at an exotic mix, she was born in Barbados. On her father's side, her grandmother is South American, her grandfather is from the Caribbean and on her mother’s side they are English, German and Irish.

Her big smile betrays her gregarious nature that no doubt has helped her grow her business from a home based experiement to her present factory in just three years. People just seem to want to help her and perhaps that is down to her honesty, ‘I probably should not say this but I’m not a business person. I would not work just for the money if I was trying to do this as a job I would not last a day.’

It was chocolate’s story not taste that drew her in

‘I wasn’t a huge chocolate fan.’ Wilkie studied communication and design in Athlone Institute of Technology and after that she spent ten years as the production manager for the Tribune Newspaper.

Her love of learning led her to take short courses as a type of hobby. From health and safety courses to sculpture to a chocolate making course in Dublin. It was that course that really piqued her natural curiousity. She started to research all things chocolate, ‘I could not believe what I was reading! From the different variety of beans to how their regions affect the taste. And then I started tasting them and it was amazing,’ she smiles as she reflects on that revelation. ‘I had no idea how many people make chocolate! I had never seen a cocoa bean or pod. I just became fascinated with it’s history, everything about it.’

Chocolate is a compelling subject, it used to be a currency and some argue that it was instrumental in the invention of the microwave not to mention it’s relationship to the slave trade.

She started experimenting through tempering with different regional varieties of beans in her kitchen. There are there types of cocoa beans the criollo, trinitario and forastero. The forastero bean is usually used for mass production, over 90% of the world’s cocoa is made using bulk production.

It’s all about the criollo

When she was made redundant she had hardly any money and like most people during the recession owed money. However her obession with chocolate helped guide her to her current vocation.

‘The criollo has regional flavours,’ she snaps some chocolate bars to explain the difference in smoothness even though they are the same bean, one smashes the pallete with berries whilst the other hums subtley along with mild fruitiness. It’s incredible the difference and already you can sense Wilkies chocolate evangelicalism working.

Only 5-7% of the world’s chocolate is made from this bean. It mainly grows wild in the forest and is mostly organic and fair trade. The cocoa pod comes in all different colours from orange, to dark blue to brilliant red. They grow on the trunk of the tree and about ten to fifteen pods grow in a year versus the forastero which has about forty to eighty pods per year.  This one bean has thousands of unique flavours.

Wilkie’s choclate has two different criollo bean amounts, 75% and 89%. It is dairy free, gluten free, soy free and nut free.

Bean To Bar

Bean to bar is when you make everything in house as Wilkie does. She sources the beans from a farmer in Peru that she has a good relationship with, that means that he is not being ripped off but is being paid a fair price for his crop and in return he continues to grow a quality product for Wilkie.

Wilkie is a one woman show. She roasts the beans, then runs them through a funnel which cracks them at the base, how does that happen? Wilkie winds a hand crank which crushes the beans. Then she is left with the cocoa nibs which she sorts through by hand first, picking out stones and flat beans. Then she winnows them through another small machine. Beans go out one end and shells go out another, the process takes hours as she runs them through several times. Once finished she adds them to the grinder.

Huge impala granite stones grind them for forty-eight to sixty hours. Then it becomes the base chocolate, she then adds cocoa butter and cane sugar. Then she tempers them into the chocolate she sells.

It is a week long arduous process and it's mind bogglingly to think that Wilkie does it all herself, ‘I don’t think about it too much or else I would have a heart-attack!’

Sustanability

The farmer in Peru that Wilkie gets her beans from recommended that she ship them with another chocolate business based in Amsterdam to save herself money. That tip lead her to form an ongoing mentorship with Chocolate Makers Enver and Rodney, their company is the most sustainable company in Amsterdam, they even delivery their beans to their factory by bikes.

They are four years further along in the chocolate business and that fact continues to benefit Wilkie. It was them that put her in touch with factory that made her bespoke chocolate grinder, ‘my friends in Amsterdam got this prototype made for me,’ she touches the machine proudly, as it just arrived this month.

For Wilkie it was a revelation to learn that, ‘small groups of cocoa farmers realised that if they grow a sustanable, organic and quality crop then they don’t have to sell it for have next to nothing to the bigger chocolate producing guys. They can sell it to small producers like me, who actually care about how they are growing it and in turn they can then make a future for their family and sustain the land.’

‘I want this business to be about the connection with the famers that grow the beans and my local community’. She is still exploring how that translates into working with her local community.

She needs a more efficent winnower so the mechanical engineering lecturer from University College Cork is going to see if his students can solve this problem as part of their studies. She also is talking to schools about programmes around sustanability and the environment. It would involve helping them think of how a business should give back if it benefits from the community. One can’t be help think of the parallel with the Victorian and Quaker values that we unfortunately forgot in favour of uncontrolled modern capitalism.

From a product point of view she is experimenting with using the cocoa nibs as mulch as well as creating log fuel brigettes from the cocoa shells and waste paper. It is honourable that she is motivated not by money but by conscience however she does not suffer from Pollyanna syndrome. ‘I do question if it is possible to have a business like this nowadays.’ But as she said before she is not motivated by money, if she could have anything she would like more time to do another short course in oil painting.

‘The approach that I take to business is not very conventional, but money would not keep my interest. Everybody has a point at which they think that’s enough money. For some people that’s a lot but I think that if you can make just enough you can then pursue your interests which I think is way more exciting then having loads of money and working forever!’

 If you would like to try Shana's chocolate you can order it online here or contact her directly to find a local stockist.

[annlowney]

Gin Maker In London

“Beloved, we join hands here to pray for gin. An aridity defiles us. Our innards thirst for the juice of juniper…” — Wallace Thurman.

The train hurtles overhead as Dr Anne Brock settles into her chair in her small airy office above Jensen's Gin distillery. Everything about the gin is made inside the arch in Bermondsey London, from creation to production to marketing. Brock and Hannah Lanfear, who heads up business development, are the only full time people in the business. Brock has been the distiller for Jensen since 2013. She oversaw the installation of the still, the distillery build, the distillery license and she brought the production of the gin in house.

Jensen's Gin

‘The brand of Jensen's Gin is understated confidence. We create a pared back style. We make two great gins and we are happy with that. We don’t do clever marketing ideas.’

Christen Jensen, a stoic but equally charismatic Dane founded the company.  ‘In 2004 the quality of gins just weren’t there so Jensen created Bermondsey Dry Gin, a classic London style gin, he created it to emulate the taste of historical gins.’ What lead him to this decision was when he tried a vintage gin in Japan in 2001. He came across a batch of gins from the 20th century, ‘that were a bit less juniper centric, less perfumed but more floral and rounded.’ On return to London he worked with Charles Maxwell, the founder of Thames Distillery, on reverse engineering a vintage gin style. Maxwell’s family have been making gin in London since 1680. Thames Distillery helps people develop their gins, a tailor for the gin world if you will. They created Bermondsey Dry.

The other gin they sell is Old Tom. It’s an older gin from the 19th century. They took the recipe from the public records, it was written in 1840. ‘We make a genuine Old Tom gin. We don’t put sugar in, as it’s know for being a sweeter gin, however we put in a lot of liquorice root which gives it the illusion of sugar sweetness.’ Bermondsey Dry is great in a martini and Old Tom is great just with just tonic.

Wild Versus Controlled

The process of distillation is a controlled act as one would expect, taming the wild ingredients into a tasty ratio. The main ingredient of gin is juniper, a wild shrub. Botannicals is the term given to the other ingredients in gin. You can have a single botanical gin which will just consist of juniper, typically a traditional gin will have eight to twelve different botanicals.

Brock has her laboratory of flavours beside the still. A crisp mist of lemon zest hangs in the air as rinds of lemon lay severed on a chopping board. Jars of mushrooms and other infused fruit and vegetables float in the background. Her slim frame moves with dexterity amongst the apparatus, pointing out ingredients with a warm enthusiasm. ‘We just operate the still twice a quarter and export to USA, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Belgium, Denmark and Italy.’

Here’s a random piece of information, did you know that the Philippines has the highest consumption of gin in the world? Well they do. They also pour a shot on the ground to share with their ancestors every time they open a new bottle of spirits.

Goodbye Medicine

‘I walked away from a medical degree when I was eighteen.’ Brock said that she can remember when she was fifteen sitting an A Level exam, she got 98% but was horrified that she didn’t get that extra 2%. ‘I walked away from being that type of person. It was a decision that took a long time to make, but I made the decision by myself and accepted the reality after I made it.’

She then spent four years working in the hospitality industry, bartending in winters and travelling the world in summers. ‘I loved every country I've been to, choosing a favourite is quite difficult. Recently I spent some time in Vietnam which was amazing. The country is so diverse and I travelled the length of it from Hanoi down the coast and into Ho Chi Minh city. The food, the people and the landscape were all brilliant. Closer to home I've also been exploring Scandinavia a bit more.’

Willingly turning away from control towards the random highlights the pioneer spirit in Brock, a trait that eventually led her to gin making.

Chemistry

Brock decided to return to university and attended Oxford whereupon she got a Phd in organic chemistry. After several years she knew that she didn’t want to stay in academia but she didn’t know what she wanted to do.  ‘Being a scientist I was targeted by investment bankers and management consultants because with a science background you have logical reasoning. They like the way that your mind works, I left every single meeting with them wanting to stab my eyes out!’

It wasn’t till she went to a friend’s wedding in Austin that she found her calling. ‘At the wedding a friend said to me that he met another chemist who is a distiller. A light bulb went off,’ she laughs. ‘I was really lucky that I discovered this calling as distilling is going through a massive Renaissance, if it was ten years ago I may not have been able to get into it.’ 

She always knew that it was gin that she would distill as it was always her drink of choice, when she taught in Oxford her students would give her gin as a thank you.

Ironically, the origins of gin can be traced to medicine. It used to be administered by the Dutch as medicine for upset stomachs and other ailments, they used juniper to make it more palatable.

Female Distillers

‘People think that it’s unusual for women to be distillers but actually it’s not. If you start looking at very traditional brewing and distilling it was always the woman’s job, it’s not till it became commercial that more men got involved.’

That is from a historical standpoint but in the modern gin world there are some very prolific female distillers. Joanne Moore is the master distiller of G & J Distillers, Lizzie Bailey is the master distiller of Hayman’s Distiller and Leslie Gracie is the master distiller of Hendrick’s Gin.

She cites the East London Liquor Company and Cotswolds Distillery as companies that she contacts if she wants to discuss work. ‘I just came back from the annual spirits conference and vendor expo in Louisville Kentucky, I got to meet people that do what I do! I came back enthused and inspired.’

Your Local Gins

The steady babble of excited voices can be heard below. On the weekends they open up the distillery to coincide with the Maltby Street Market. At the end of the short stretch of food vendors the distillery opens up it’s library of gins, speckled with vibrant colours of limited edition gins and infusions that you can only get in person. They don’t do big marketing campaigns as Brock said earlier but they do create an exclusive sense of community.

‘The love of our gin started in London. The bartenders got behind it ten years, we just made sure that we were in the right bar, we got them enthused.’ They in turn passed that on to their customers and they in turn spread the word. If you would like to Jensen's Gin for yourself you can order it in Ashtons in Clonskeagh or The Dew Drop Inn in Kill, County Kildare.

Brock is keen to point out that if you are new to gin you should start with your most local distillery. ‘I would go to your local gin distillery so that they can talk you through it.’ She highly recommends Shortcross Gin in County Down and Dingle Distillery in County Kerry.

Brock embodies the Jensen brand, understated confidence. Her journey to a distillery in Bermondsey is a colourful one, it is aching for a gin based cocktail to be created in homage.

[annlowney]

Cruising To Dublin Town

Starting in Leopardstown we follow an Electra cruiser as it makes it's way into Dublin on a beautiful sunny day.

[annlowney]

Bespoke Jeweller

Aesthetic

‘I fell in love with Patrick Scott when I was in school, there was one of his prints that was up for auction and I was raging that I didn’t take out a loan to buy it!’

Niamh Spain is a jewellery designer and maker who’s aesthetic is geometric, simple, contemporary and architectural. Spain exudes measurement and conviction with every word she choses coupled with a lightheartedness which can been seen in her work. It’s no surprise that she is drawn to Scott as well as traditional Irish and Japanese design. 'I rather take inspiration from exhibitions in museums like Cheapside Hoard rather then look at modern stuff and risk being influenced by my peers.' She wrote her thesis on the Tara brooch and spent three weeks travelling by train around Japan immersing herself in their style of design. Kinkaku-ji has now become her screen saver she laughs. On return she designed a koi necklace and made a koi pond in front of her workshop.

Kinkaku-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto that has a skin of gold leaf, which was something you did back in day because why not. Hopefully someone will take inspiration from it and make the enlightened step to cover their semi-detached house in gold so that it can become a UNESCO world heritage site and put for example Walkinstown on the global map of culture. But let's get back on topic. Interestingly Patrick Scott had a deep interest in Zen Buddhism and took inspiration from Japanese architecture, something that Spain was not aware of.

‘Japan has such an amazing ethos with their crafts, their apprenticeships are so long, about 5-10 years.’ The rational being that you will repeat the routines over and over again until your body knows it, you can then fully steep yourself into deep concentration easily.

Starting a business

‘I have been working for myself for almost five years,’ which is an incredible achievement for someone that is just twenty-nine years of age. ‘I loved school especially maths and art and I knew that I wanted to work in something creative.’

The combination of maths and art seems odd but when you delve into it more you realise that they compliment each other wonderfully.  ‘There is a lot of weighing grams, calculations and excel sheets!’ Her time in Japan also reinforced her appreciation of order. ‘Logic is high up there in describing my thought process.’

After leaving St Mary’s College in Naas, Co. Kildare, Niamh attended Ballyfermot College and did a portfolio class. She was convinced that she would be a print maker and threw herself into it but when she went to to the National College of Art and Design she didn’t like the print department so she went to the metals department. ‘I found the metals department lovely, they were down to earth and there was no bullshit. It was there that I found my calling in jewellery making.’

Then came the search for funding for her business. ‘I never wanted to be the type of business that relies on grants also it’s so time consuming filling out those forms. They also tend to have their chosen people that they support.’ Armed with that realism Spain decided to keep it local. ‘I started doing courses with the Local Enterprise Office in Kildare, one in particular was a course for women in business. I had great support from the class and tutor, it helped me write a business plan but also how to work commercially instead of to my aesthetic needs.’

Even though she's been at it for five years she still succumbs to fret every so often. ‘I had panic attacks on the days leading up to starting the business, I still get very anxious every month but its worth it. I’d hate to do anothor job, I like being in charge and taking risks. With hindsight it was terrifying but it’s all about believing in yourself. I’d rather have a bit of self doubt rather then blazing through, humility goes a long way.’

Undervaluing yourself

Sarah Silverman has joined the campaign started be Levo called Ask4More, she recently made a video about her experience of getting paid less then her male counterpart for doing the same job. It’s really a chronic issue and an attitudinal shift in women’s self worth needs to change. ‘With hindsight I undervalued myself, I think it’s an Irish thing, lack of confidence.’ In every single economy women have lower capabilities perceptions than men. In every region, women have, on average, a greater level of fear of failure than men. (Global Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM 2012).

Bespoke

Spain owns two business, Smudge & Boo and Niamh Spain Jewellery Design. Smudge & Boo has a fixed line and Niamh Spain Design is were she creates bespoke pieces for clients. Making everything bespoke usually takes four weeks but Spain loves the variety and challenge that it brings. Clients are mainly from Ireland but she has had some from further afield. One client from London wanted an engagement ring for her girlfriend, ‘I spent weeks sending emails back and forth with Grace and Edel, you really build a relationship with a client, I just got to meet them recently in person which was great!’ Another client from America sent her a photo of herself and her family, ‘she was like, I’ve seen loads of photos of you online and I feel really voyeuristic so here’s a photo of my family!’

Spain has been featured on several glossy magazines and TV3's Éxpose but no business came from them directly. ‘I’m sure they planted the seed for some people but my business is mainly bespoke so business comes through word of mouth, I don’t advertise.’

The culture of individualism is Nirvana for bespoke designs, we all believe that we are different and want to have that reflected. Jewellery is a very accessible platform for people to do that, good luck trying to convince the county council that you should be allowed to individualise the exterior of your terraced house because you are different.

The future

Spain holds her tea on her lap as she glances out the window of her workshop, a wooden cabin in her parents back garden. The shy koi are still in hibernation and one gets the impression that Spain is on the cusp of even bigger success but she’s too modest to admit it. Her goals for the future are down to earth, a quality she seems to value highly, ‘I guess my goals are to promote Smudge & Boo more and continue doing bespoke pieces for Niamh Spain Jewellery Design because it’s the nicest work. Far down the line it would be great to have my own shop and employ people.’

Spain is a designer that continues the Irish natural inclination towards geometric design but with a unique twist that has and is captivating her growing customer base.

You can explore Niamh's designs here at Smudge & Boo and here at Niamh Spain Jewellery Design.

[annlowney]

Going To Ghana

Corruption

‘People said to me when the corruption of Charles Haughey broke, "you don’t seem that surprised." And I said you forget that I spent six years living in Africa and I’ve already seen terrible corruption!’ In 2014 Ghana was ranked 61st, joint with Croatia, in the Corruption Perception Index, Ireland was ranked 17th, joint with the United States.

Teaching

Joan Stokes was born in 1929 in Dublin. She grew up in Sandymount but her family moved to the Northside of the city after a few years. Whilst on the Northside she got her higher diploma in arts in secondary education from the Dominican College on Ecceles street. Some notable past pupils include broadcaster Marian Finucan, particle physicist and professor of physics, Anne Kernan and politician Róisín Shortall. 'There was nothing for girls in those days except to go into the civil service, nursing or teaching.' Only the musically gifted were welcome in primary school teaching but as Stokes shared that was not a path for her as, 'I couldn't sing for toffee.'

Her passion for education was born out of her love of the written word. She still reads a book a day, a habit that began when she was a child, ‘I used to sneak books up to bed with me,’ she playfully laughs. Shakespeare captivated her and Hamlet triumphed as her favourite play. A story with two female characters that must exist in a society that is created by men and stifling to them, it could be argued that 1950’s Ireland and Ghana perpetuated that theme.

Upon graduation she took her first teaching role in Maryfield in Drumcondra, she taught Irish and English there for six years. During that time she heard about the missions in Africa and decided to go. In 1960 the Minister for Education, Patrick Hillary, allowed the time that teachers took abroad to teach to be counted as years of service upon their return.

Ghana

Getting to Ghana in 1958 was arduous. Air travel used to be very expensive and slow, not forgetting the smoky interior courtesy of being allowed to smoke cigarettes. Stokes had to fly from Dublin to London before making two more stops to get her to the capital Accra. There she was met by a truck, the only viable internal transport at the time, it would bring her further inland to the school that she would be teaching at.

In 1957 Ghana became the first African nation to declare independence from European colonization which at the time was under British rule. Kwame Nkrumah became the first Prime Minister of the New Republic, his politics was influenced by Marxism. Nkrumah himself went to a missionary Catholic school, his educational pursuits took him to Harlem and Pennsylvania were his belief in an Africa free from Europeans started to take a deeper formation. In the late 1940s he returned to Ghana and formed the Convention People’s Party, he invited women to participate in the political process, at a time when women’s suffrage was new in Africa. In 2000, BBC listeners in Africa voted him their "Man of the Millennium".

Women's Rights

Stokes taught A Levels, she loved Ghana and found the people highly intelligent. ‘The girls really valued education in particular, it was their way out of virtual slavery. For a women life was so very tough, they were 4th class citizens. Even if they got education and a job nursing for example, their husband could and would take her wages. Most of the women we taught emigrated to England to work and would marry second generation Africans that treated women better.’

Despite Stokes’ age she still betrays a childish sparkle. She recalls with mischievous laugh about how she and a friend used to drive an ambulance at night when it was the summer holidays and school was out, ‘We used to help out at a hospital, they had an ambulance that we would drive at 30 miles per hour around the dirt roads for various call outs.’ Their secret thrills are still alive in her voice.

When she returned to Dublin in 1964 things had changed for her.  She recalls a time when a friends house had a mice problem, ‘Mary asked me why I wasn’t bothered by mice, well when you had to shake snakes and scorpions out of your bed sheets everyday mice are the least of your worries!’ Then there was the cold, Ghana is geographically closer to the centre of the earth then any other country so it’s pretty hot compared to Ireland.

She went on to become the principal of Saint Raphaela's in Kilmacud and with hindsight became aware of the power of education. She is too modest to take credit for her part in the global story of women’s rights but what she will share freely is that, ‘you should work at what you like regardless of the pay.’ For most women that philosophy is only possible due to the risk she took when she boarded a plane to Ghana for the first time at the age of twenty-eight with the simple goal to teach.

[annlowney]

The Taste Of Original

The Individual

Talking Head’s Remain In Light could be Brian Short’s soundtrack. A cacophany of noises that are strange to the ear at first listen, but quickly melt into a unique sound that makes you realise that there is so much new to be experienced.

Like Talking Heads, Short started off studying art specifically sculpture. He then shifted focus to art history, ‘my focus was European Art History, specifically Spanish 20th century. My major research focussed on Guadí.’

Antoni Gaudí was a Catalan architect whose work transcended Modernism, he had an individual style. Gaudí had an intense attention to detail and also founded new techniques in the treatment of materials. He took inspiration from naturally existing structures in nature such as the human skeleton and the caves of Mallorca. Basically he built really cool stuff that no one had tried before.

At the age of five Short wanted to be a comedian, ‘I just thought Jerry Seinfeld was hilarious. My Mom still has a picture I drew detailing me performing on stage in front of an audience,’ he laughs with embarrassment. It seems unconsciously Short has always been drawn to the artistic pioneer and it it seems apt that his storyline is echoing what he’s always sought out. 

Travel & Taste

‘I spent some of my childhood in London but Atlanta is where I’m from.’ Atlanta, the home of Coca Cola and a city that is twinned with Newcastle in the United Kingdom, you may wonder what the commonality is there, well it’s 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI). 4-MEI is a caramel colouring in Coca Cola and Newcastle Brown Ale and due to cancer concerns both companies have reviewed their recipes to either reduce it or get rid of it.

Whilst in college he worked in kitchens and that’s how he got into beer. ‘These restaurants had massive beer selections and it just piqued my interest. My goal then became to work in a brewery in Amsterdam after graduation.’

‘Beer making is about creating something delicious. I always try to create a sense of place with brewing, whether it’s a place I’ve been or people that I’ve met.’ A parallel could be drawn between Short and the character Jean-Baptiste Grenouille of Perfume, not the murdering part, but the fervent pursuit of finding new flavours and building a new taste experience from one strand of flavour. ‘If you taste only what you get in Ireland beer wise you will be stifled.’ Short travels frequently trying new beers and food  and noting it all in his flavour notepad, ‘I was in Sweden and there was a place that had these delicious cardamom pastries, the flavour was so intense and I wanted to replicate it for beer. I start with a flavour and try to build a beer around it, a lot of people start with the finished beer but I like to build to that.’

Brown Paper Bag Project

Although Short enjoyed studying history, he knew he didn’t want an academic lifestyle. He wanted the physicality of sculpture and kitchen work coupled with exploring tastes so brewing beer seemed the perfect fit for him. After his stint in Amsterdam he moved to Dublin, he has been here four years now. Brown Paper Bag Project started in 2013.

Short believes that there is a need for a city centre brewery in Dublin, ‘Dublin is crying out for a city centre hub of brewing, there used to be twenty odd breweries around the city.’

‘To buy and set up a brewery involves a lot of hurdles but we didn’t have the patience for that. Kindly Eight Degrees Brewing in Cork let us use their brewery. We started of with a 7.5% strong Belgium ale, at the time in Ireland it was considered very strange.’ The world of different is always what has inspired him so the brewery kept in that direction.

There are your basic trio of beers, stout, blonde ale and lager. Brown Paper Bag Project wanted to create something that did not fit into those three styles, it wanted to be the David Byrne of hops, yeast and water. ‘Our first couple of beers were difficult to define into stylistic categories which has been a a worthwhile struggle. Take stout for example, people make stout for a reason because they sell and obviously people enjoy them as do I, but I want to demonstrate what beers can be, the entire spectrum such as sour beers. That is our goal.’

‘Part of our identity is lack of identity. We don’t have a set range, we do one offs and that was part of the idea. We wanted to reject the concept of standard beers.’ His drive to discover new alchemy is very like the Catalonian restaurant El Celler de Can Roca,  they use crazy cooking techniques such as using liquid nitrogen to freeze calamari or basing desserts on perfumes like Calvin Klein’s Eternity.

It could be asserted that Short is adding to the pretentiousness that some associate with that awful term craft beer. ‘I take beer very seriously but that’s my job to do so. All beer is, is a medium to bring people together, it’s fun. As a producer it’s my job to put all the thought in so that the customer can enjoy. It’s just like someone eating at a restaurant, they don’t need to know the exact detail of how something was made and how it got to that point. Most people don’t care about the nerdy stuff but I do.’

Responsible drinking

‘I read an article in the Irish Times about irresponsible drinking and they had an image of Eight Degrees Brewing and that annoyed them and a lot of craft beer makers. Eight Degrees Brewing wrote to them and said how we are all about the quality over the quantity. Craft beer is an expensive product so by it’s nature it’s all about the taste experience.‘

They don’t have the same money muscle to promote their product so their tactics are local such as beer tastings with food. They rely on on the care and dedication they put into sourcing ingredients to make new flavours to transcend to the drinker of their beer.  Do the huge breweries do the same? There is a game called the Shit Beer Challenge. You take four mainstream beers such as Budweiser, Coors Light, Heineken and Carlsberg and you do a blind taste test on them. A Coors Light executive could not even pick out his own beer which is unsurprising. The beers are brewed to be homogeneous in taste, their beers are made of bland ingredients called their marketing and advertising.

New adventures

Short is only twenty-six but his words betray the superiority of someone that has confidence to know his next step. Everything he does is to experiment with the established. The only time he ever faltered from his current career was when he flew a plane whilst his wife sky-dived out of it, ‘I went up in a rickety old plane and watched my wife, an avid sky-diver, jump out and then the pilot let me fly the plane which was simultaneously terrifying and exciting. I wanted to be a pilot for about 15 minutes.’ Short gets more adventure through the hunt and creation of flavours then he ever would with a flight map.  

[annlowney]

Cork boy!

I had to pop down to Cork recently to do a reconnaissance mission for work. My Dad is from West Cork and Cork City was always the half-way point for us when we would travel down to my Granny's farm. Two things I always remember were the big brightly coloured houses above the railway track as you drove in and the pungent aroma of fresh fish in the English Market. I always loved it there, it always signalled summer holidays for me.

Even though I was working it was fun work as in I got to meet a lot of extremely friendly and witty people. I also met a lot of cute puppies and babies - I am not a politican or have political aspirations, I'm far too honest for that jazz.

This is just an observation that I have not taken the time to back up with facts but it feels like a great place to be creative in especially if you don't have too much money, but I could be romanticising which I have an affliction for.

The coffee shops lack pretence and remind me a lot of the spaces down in New Orleans where you can take your time and not have to sit on uncomfortable over-designed seats, or enter a pissing contest with a stranger over your bean knowledge that you then in turn pay to make you a coffee with a bean from a region you never heard of but should know - apparently. 

I had a great chat with Damien Mulley about Nathan Barley and bearded people making door knobs to be painfully ironic.

I also got to meet Rebecca Cronin, manager of Lit Fest, in Ballymaloe. I was given the most amazing orange cake and cream and got to meet Pluto the dog who has an unhealthy affinity for stones.

If only there was a high speed train connecting it with Dublin...

[annlowney]

It all started by a roof-top pool in Nashville. As like many times before I stood in the shallow end with the toddlers however the toddlers floated by whereas I stood up-right like a pole trying to blend in.

Anyhow after many years of saying that I would learn how to swim, last summer I said it and meant it. It's just no fun standing like a constipated moment whilst everyone else splashes about.

I'm about four months into learning how to swim. I go once a week and last month I went into the deep end for the first time, I can't describe how proud of myself I am over that feat.

The common reaction I get when I tell people that I am learning how to swim is, 'wow, I can't even think how that most feel, I mean I learned as a kid so it's just so natural to me.' So in a lot of ways it's pretty cool learning at this later stage in life, I'm still blown away by all the sensations from the aural and visual to simply feeling the water. My teacher always tells me to work with the water but it's only recently that I can actually feel it's contours and mould it with my slices and it really is so exciting to me, a whole new world.

Some day I will write about the pool I learn at and my teacher because that deserves it's on post or even documentary in my opinion.

But for now I will continue to try to master the breast-stroke as it eludes, although I do feel like James Bond when I practise it. Also for now I want to encourage anyone who can't swim to give it a try, it's just such a wonderful gift waiting for you.