If you ask Lynsey de Burca about the tools of her trade, she’ll tell you that she loves using her forge and that her favorite hammer comes in a close second.
Lynsey is an award-winning jewelry designer working from a small workshop in Moycullen and making a very big name for herself.
“I always use this hammer,” she says tapping at a silver ring she’s making into an oval shape. “I have others, but this is my favorite,`’ she says with a smile.”
And she admits that while there may be easier ways to do things, she is set in her ways of old school tools and processes.
“I’m a devil for technology,” she says with a grin as she works the silver ring in her hands using a hand file.
Having grown up on the water, which figures into all of her work.
Everything I do is inspired by the sea,” she tells me. “I grew up in Kinvara, which is a fishing village near Galway, and everything from the ropes and the lobster pots to the nets and the water are reflected in everything I do.”
Everything she uses, she chooses for a reason, from the silver she likes the feel and look of, to the various stones she selects.
She works surrounded by working sketches and photos of the coastline. And while she may start with an idea in mind, it often changes as her projects progress.
She says it isn’t until she gets a piece in hand and plays with it a bit that what she sees in it begins to take shape.
“I mean sometimes I see something that inspires me to create a certain shape or use a certain type of stone, and then when I start, it may all go in a completely different direction. I really am never sure until I’m done.”
Hear Lynsey describe her process herself.
Her award-winning collections have graced catwalks for design shows, have been seen on television anchors in the U.S. and are a part of Kilkenny Designs.
You can see her collections in the shops in galway and at www.lynseydeburca.com.
Erin Meehan Breen is a freelance writer based in Galway. You can find her other work on Erin’s Isle at www.ErinMeehanBreen.com
