Many Hands – One Place

Garrett Mallon Design House presents Many Hands, One Place, a month-long showcase running throughout August 2026, bringing together a curated collection of works created in close collaboration with Irish makers; each piece developed in direct response to the landscape, character, and spirit of Carlingford Lough.

The showcase collection has its roots in a simple but powerful idea: to work directly with makers across different disciplines, giving each a clear creative direction rooted in one place, and watching what they made with it. Garrett Mallon, award-winning goldsmith, maker and curator, collaborated with a selected group of Irish craftspeople, co-developing pieces that respond to Carlingford Lough through their own medium and their own skills. The result is a showcase that spans jewellery, ceramics, wall art, textiles, soaps, and candles: many disciplines, one place, and as unique interpretations as there are pairs of hands involved.

Place is not a backdrop here; it is the subject. Every piece in the showcase was made because of Carlingford Lough. In response to the particular quality of light on the lough in the early morning, the textures of the shoreline, the palette of the Cooley and Mourne Mountains, the layered history of a medieval village that has been shaped by its geography for centuries. What the showcase reveals is how differently a place can be experienced and expressed depending on the discipline through which a maker approaches it. A goldsmith focuses on the stones of the shoreline and works them into silver. A ceramicist finds the colours of the lough water in a glaze. A textile maker traces the movement of Carlingford Lough; a soap maker distils the scent of sea air and mountain heather and gorse into something you can carry home. Same place, same direction of travel with entirely different outcomes.

Garrett Mallon’s own Cloicín collection- jewellery inspired by the pebbles, water, and landscape of Carlingford Lough- anchors the showcase and speaks to a practice rooted in this place.  Garrett’s guiding philosophy has always been that craft is at its most powerful when it carries a story- your story, through his hands. In Many Hands, One Place that idea expands outward. Garrett brought both a creative brief and a curatorial eye to each collaboration, suggesting what was made, while leaving room for each maker’s individual craft and voice to shape the outcome. The selection deliberately reflects the breadth of creativity within the Irish craft community. Knitwear and textiles sit alongside ceramics and wall art. Scent and sensation sit alongside form and surface. The result is not a collection of similar things; it is a demonstration of how richly varied craft can be when makers are given both direction and creative freedom in equal measure.

Throughout August, Garrett will host informal maker talks within the Design House, walking visitors through the collaboration process and exploring how each discipline found its own way into the landscape of Carlingford Lough. The talks are open to all, and times will be advised on Garrett Mallon Design House social media.

The works will be available to purchase year-round in the Design House. For August, the evolving collections are gathered together for the first time as a single showcase. A conversation between makers, disciplines and one extraordinary place. Your story, through many hands.