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Artisans of Ireland - Kate Oram
by Bridget Haggerty

On the Crumlin Road in the center of the bruised and damaged city of Belfast, Co. Antrim, Kate Oram quietly plies her trade. "As a child I should have guessed I was going to be a craftsperson rather than a painter. I never stopped making things, usually door stops and paper-weights out of painted stones and mud pies."

Though born in Galway, Kate moved to Belfast from England. Her studio is a spacious workshop on the third floor of a huge solid, gray building erected in the early 1800s and recently transformed into an enterprise park. There she works with a number of other craftspeople from various disciplines. "We help each other and learn from each other- a perfect arrangement."

  It was during her foundation year at the Plymouth College of Art and Design in 1987 that she realized that she wanted to pursue a career in craft design. "The medium allows me to fully express and develop my creativity," she says, "I can only go so far with drawing, I need to get the material in my hands for the theme to progress further and come alive." So in 1991, she gained a BA Degree in 3-Dimensional Design at Brighton Polytechnic, majoring in metal for her degree show.

Kate's work involves the design and manufacture of contemporary metalcraft objects, marrying technical ability with artistic creativity. She uses reclaimed materials to create a diverse range of artistic metal bowls, wooden candle sticks, bronze castings and silver spoons. Copper is her favorite metal, "It is very soft to work with, very malleable and when you are finished, the colors are beautiful. Few people work with copper so it is quite unusual. It is not a precious metal but I think my work makes it precious. She hand-cuts strips of copper into different shapes and braises them together with brass using a welding technique - the brass melts into the copper and fuses it all together. Kate beats the shapes by hand, smoothing the surfaces with a high-powered polisher. Then she treats the pieces with a heat patina which generates a variegated, luster effect on the piece's color - at once burnished orange, gold and cherry. "The forms and colors come from what is in my mind at that moment," she explains, "The finished work is a translation of the sketchbook in my head. Each piece is a one-off because I never use templates for the design. I like each piece to develop as it is worked on, making it more spontaneous."

Although the process is time-consuming- "one piece a week is probably too much," - it is one she becomes intensely involved with. "Once I start working the day flies by so quickly. People always say I must be very patient but it is more a case of enjoying what I do. I have always been very passionate about my work."

Kate first designs her prototypes on paper, but she prefers a hands-on approach transferring the outlined ideas to a three-dimensional model. "Even though I have always loved art, drawing is not what I am about," she says, "it is the practical creation that I love so much." She experiments with these paper models until the framework and dimensions begin to take shape. Then with a strong, mental image of the finished work, she knows exactly how it will develop. "I know what each piece looks like, feels like and what it will weigh."

  "I am keen to pursue the corporate gift market and explore in particular the potential of trophy commissions," Kate says, pointing to the made to order presentation and award pieces she has created for corporations .

These include a steel and silver award for the Guinness Fashion Show, a brass daffodil for the Ulster Cancer Foundation, a copper door-knocker for the Irish House and Home Magazine and an award recently presented by President Clinton when he last visited Northern Ireland. Asked about her future plans, she replies, "I will persist with this current range of bowls and vases until a new idea captures my imagination."

Resources This article and images are reprinted with the kind permission of Irish ArtShapes. To learn more about the artisans who are part of a very special Irish arts and crafts community, please click here: Kate Oram.