‘In the Making’ one of the many events organised as part of Ireland the Design Island was held in the Coach House at Dublin Castle. I managed to get to this very interesting design exhibition on its last day!

This exhibition showed the making process of many everyday objects including anything from pencil to chairs, musical instruments as well as banknotes and coins. Each unfinished piece featured at the exhibition was beautifully displayed against a black background, revealing both colour and shape and it was fun to try to imagine what the item was from the unfinished material.

Seeing each item at the very start of the manufacturing process was fascinating: the abstract shapes in materials used along the way looked beautiful in their own ways. The exhibition was curated in a way that allowed you to make a mental and visual connection with the finished piece. I found it totally fascinating to see the evolution of the objects and to realise that by the time the final product is completed, it has gone through so many different stages of moulding, shaping, cutting, stitching to the point when it is finally polished, checked, tested, re-checked and branded.

The tennis ball is paused at 50% of its production; dumbbell shaped blanks are cut from the fluorescent yellow fabric by an automated stamping machine. (P.1) Glass marbles paused at 70% of their production just before the cutting of the cane and the strengthening of the  glass marbles in a very high temperature. (P.2)