Meet the Tutors

Sharon Wells

Sharon is a fibre and textile artist working with wool and silk fibres to produce unique and individual felted pictures. She teaches all aspects of wet felting and needlfelting. She sources, washes and dyes Irish wool direct from farms for her own work and other crafters. She has been teaching and making for 20 years.

Sharon has Masters degree in Archaeology and Archaeological Illustration and is very keen to revive old traditions of using wool and natural dyes and to promote the use of traditional crafts and ancient skills.

Sharon has participated in a number of group exhibitions and has had her work featured on RTE’s Nationwide. She is a TAP (Teacher Artist Programme) trained artist in residence. She is the owner of the Muddle and teaches a large amount of different crafts including felting, embroidery, wool processing, coiled basket making, decoupage, eco printing, dyeing and artefact illustration.

Sharon has worked in online training as a project manager.

She is also included on www.madeinwicklow.com new craft trail. A member of Feltmakers Ireland and Wicklow Craft Foundation.

www.sharonwellsart.com

Fiona Ní Ghliasáin

Fiona is a Professional Artist and Photographer. Her Artwork is in private and public collections. Her work is mainly nature based. This love of nature comes from a youth spent in the Wicklow
countryside and her work with animals. Fiona is a Merrion Square Artist, A professional member of the VAI. , The Made Local Campaign and recently published her first book.
Fiona studied in Crawford College of Art and Design, and Grennan Mill and has Frist Class Honors in Fine Art and Craft Design. She holds a J.E.B. Teaching Diploma in I.T.
Fiona has T.E.F.L. Accreditation in teaching English and has done teacher training with Yoga Therapy Ireland and has also studied Philosophy.
Fiona Teaches Fine Art (Acrylic, Soft Pastel, Watercolour), Photography and Design, Glass and Tile Painting, Indian and Alcohol inks, Mixed Media, Card Making and Meditation.

Fiona is a TAP trained artist with Blackrock Education Centre and works with schools on the TAP and Blast programmes.

Website: www.fionanighliasain.com

Nicola Sedgwick

Nicola worked as an animator in Emerald City Productions in Dublin for five years and then worked for Mentor Books publishing company as a designer and illustrator for nearly ten years.

Now self-employed, she utilises her skills in various roles. She has exhibited paintings in several exhibitions over the years, including the Signal Arts Centre, Bray, Leinster Gallery, Dublin as well as group shows.

Nicola teaches drawing and painting at Ballsbridge College of Further Education, Dublin. She has also run drawing classes and workshops in Bray, in local libraries and community centres and has held several online drawing courses.

Her commercial art commissions include storyboards, comic strips, illustrations and cartoons for schoolbooks, general books and individuals. Design work includes promotional material, logos and book design and layout.

She is the author of You Too Can Draw, a book which shows how anyone can draw.

https://www.nicolasedgwick.com

Nicola Faull

Tamara Fiabane

Textile & fibre artist originally from the Italian Alps. Her upbringing in nature has greatly inspired her to create textile art & crafts using mostly recycled or locally sourced materials.

During the pandemic/lockdown as many others, Tamara had to try to find new ways to keep connected to other humans and the most natural was teaching online or through an open air craft group she started up. It was a way to gift to others new skills that they could use and progress in their own ways, keep sane & to express themselves through their creations. Teaching has became vital to her.

Margaret Goulding

My name is Margaret Goulding, A craft tutor of over 30 years, specially in needle craft: knitting, crochet/Irish fine lace crochet, Tunisian crochet, hairpin and mosaic, cross stitch and embroidery.

I have lots of experience facilitating craft sessions and workshops with children and adults, in different settings, classes run by South Dublin County Council, in local libraries. Crosscare, Resource centres, community centres, Tallaght Travellers.

During covid lock down I was invited by South Dublin County Council and by Springwools, wool shop to provide zoom crochet and knitting classes which were a great success and continue to do so. I also facilitate an evening crochet class in Old Bawn Community School, Tallaght.

Nicola Faull is an artist and lifelong knitter who specialises in book making, gell printing and mixed media collage. Using readily available materials and traditional techniques Nicola creates simple handmade books that combine art, paper and print into unique and personal journals and notebooks. Nicola also works with a number of Gel printing techniques to create art pieces as well as materials for bookmaking and mixed media collage. Nicola loves to teach and her classes are designed to build on layers of skills so that each student is able to create their own unique art.Nicola runs regular workshops for children and adults teaching drawing and painting skills.

Nicola also designs and writes patterns for knitted accessories. She is intrigued by both the design process and the technical details of pattern construction. Her aim is to produce knit patterns that are both interesting to knit and easy to follow. Her knitting patterns have been published in print magazines in the UK and in online knit magazines in the US.

Nicola has taken part in a number of group exhibitions, including The Signal Open Exhibition in Bray where her work was shortlisted in 2021. She is an experienced teacher and is a regular tutor at The Muddle and in Wicklow libraries as a member of the Wicklow Craft Foundation. https://www.instagram.com/nicola.faull.art/

Susie Kenny

Susie Kenny is a self taught mixed media artist living and working in County Wicklow, Ireland. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin and worked as a fine art agent for ten years curating and promoting exhibitions in the Lad Lane Gallery and The Solomon Gallery in Dublin. It was through her work curating eclectic exhibitions that her passion to pursue her own artistic path was ignited.

Whilst working in mixed media a passion for creating sculptural forms in wire and stone emerged thematically based on the intricate patterning of bare winter trees. Using found objects of rocks, gemstones crystals, driftwood etc. Susie entwines these in a symbiotic relationship with the wire, reflecting the symbiotic relationship of the trees' root system with the earth.

Susie is a crafter with diverse interests in many media. From various printing forms, papermaking and leatherwork to soapmaking, jewellery and painting. She has taken part in regular group exhibitions.

Miriam Brady

Miriam is a textile and fibre artist living in the foothills of Black Hill overlooking the Blessington lakes. She specialises in felted landscapes and seascapes and abstract work created using silk, wool and other fibres. She makes unique vessels, scarves and baby booties.
She takes her inspiration from the beautiful surroundings of Lacken and from her overseas travels to India, China and Kenya.

Miriam worked as an actor in theatre and televsion for 25 years and was known as Julia Connors in the rural Iirsh drama Glenroe. She worked as a volunteer in Kenya with young mothers and babies. Miriam then studied Horticulture with the Royal Horticultural Society. She works as a Garden design consultant specialising in Herbaceous Borders.

She currently teaches Feltmaking in her home studio in Blessington, in libraries across Wicklow, Dublin and Kildare. She is a member of Feltmakers Ireland and Wicklow Craft Foundation. She exhibits solo and regularly with Cruthu, a multidisiplinary art group. Her work is stocked in Crafty Craic Gallery, Knockanaragan, Co. Wicklow, The Dunlavin Arts Festival, Blessington Tourist Office and The Home store, Blessington.

Mary Daugherty

Mary grew up in Northern Ireland and attended Fermanagh College of Further Education to complete a City and Guilds Hairdressing and Business Course.

She progressed to managing a salon in Dublin and then worked freelance for a number of years before opening her own Hair Salon in Ranelagh. She trained to be a colour consultant and Interior Designer and was featured in two RTE segments as a specialist in the art of colour. Two of Mary's clients were Anne Doyle from the RTE news and Brenda Fricker from the movie “Home Alone".

A family move to the USA for 18 years brought new pursuits in handbag and jewellery design where Mary launched her own range of products, retailing online and in selected retailers. The work incorporated using recycled leather to promote more sustainable purchasing.

During that same time abroad Mary became a Reiki Master and trained in Life Coaching.

On her return to Ireland In 2019 she began to incorporate her creative skills with healing therapies - Jewellery making for teenagers and adults with intellectual disabilities in community centres, and online for Rathdown Council libraries and Sunbeam house services.

Mary now also offers workshops in Self discovery & Healing through Art and Meditation. She is qualified as a HICAT practitioner (Healing, integrated, creative art therapist) and plans to incorporate dance and movement into her practice.

Mary is a TAP trained artist with Blackrock Education Centre and works with schools on the TAP and Blast programmes using all her many creative skills.