Kilmeaden artist shortlisted for national design and craft award
Camille O'Connell with her 'Cleite' piece, a handwoven silk and steel garment created as part of her children of Lir inspired fashion textile collection
Kilmeaden native Camille O'Conell has been announced as a nominee for this year's Future Maker 2026 Award, following her final year at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD).
The awards, organised by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland, recognise the talent of the next generation of makers, designers, and craftspeople across Ireland by providing them with the financial support needed to take the step from training into enterprise.
As one of the largest prize-funded design and craft awards programmes in Europe, Future Makers awards each winner a mentoring package valued at €1,000 in addition to the award, with this year’s award fund reaching €63,000.
On the announcement of her nomination, Camille told the Waterford News & Star that she was both delighted and surprised.
"Doing projects like this for a whole year, you're kind of trapped inside it," she said. "You work so much and you work so hard and it's all coming from you so that when you finally put it out there and everyone comes to see it you're so proud obviously, but it's a little vulnerable too."
Camille said winning the prize would be "amazing on a practical level", adding: "It would allow me to buy a loom, which would be so insane because I can really develop my practice completely independently then. It's a huge support practically."
"Even just the nomination is so inspiring," said Camille. "We have so much to offer in Ireland in terms of the creative world, we have such a beautiful history with textiles when you think of Carrickmacross Lace, Aran Knitting, and the insane weaving traditions."
It's really amazing to recognise that and also be supporting this new generation of creatives, so I'm really honoured to be with all the other people on the shortlist."
Camille's entry into this year's Future Makers awards is her Lir collection, a handwoven fashion textile collection designed and handmade by Camille as her final year graduate project at NCAD.
"I was inspired by the story of the children of Lir," Camille explained.
"I wanted something that felt really personal to me and I guess to kind of set me apart as an Irish designer," she added.
She went on to comment: "I think our folklore is super unique and is such an important part of our culture so I really wanted to do a project that was rooted in that and celebrated it."
In her months of research for the project, Camille said, the swan was often depicted as a symbol of hope and liberation in Irish art and literature, which she found interesting considering their more somber meaning in the tale of the children of Lir.
"I thought it was really beautiful," she said.
"The fragility of that bird but also the strength and resilience. That's what I wanted to capture in the collection."
The wispy, moody visuals captured in her collections come both from an effort to mimic the swan, but also from the Waterford landscape.
"Because I grew up in Kilmeaden, which is right by the greenway, I think almost unconsciously, the nature of Waterford has formed a huge part of my identity as a designer," she said.
"It's what I really look to for inspiration with textures and colours, and everything really."
Completed over the course of her final year, the collection started with background research, photography, small batches of weaving and knitting and some trial and error, ending with four months of handweaving the final pieces in silk and steel thread, what Camille described as a "tiny core of steel wrapped in silk".
The steel in the thread allows the material to hold it's memory and texture, despite being soft and lightweight.
"Folklore is kind of like our nation's collective memory, so then to have something where the fabric also holds memory I thought was really powerful," she told this newspaper.
Camille had a love of the arts her whole life but didn't find textile making until her first year at NCAD.
Whilst exploring different mediums as part of her first year, she took part in some textiles modules and fell in love with weaving and knitting different materials almost immediately.
Since completing her final year earlier this year, she has been working at the Botany Weaving Mill in Dublin, one of Ireland's oldest running mills.
Although the work there is different to that in her Lir collection, she is a huge fan of her new post, she told the Waterford News & Star.
Camille and the other nominees shortlisted for the Future Makers 2026 award have been invited to attend an awards ceremony in Trinity College Dublin on Wednesday, September 9, where the winners for both the Design and Craft Council of Ireland's Future Makers Award and David Shaw-Smith Legacy Award will be announced.
