About Gráinne  

Gráinne Kenny is an Irish Textile Designer from Gorey, Co. Wexford.

Gráinne is originally trained in Woven textiles and studied Textile Design at University College Falmouth, Cornwall in the UK graduating with a Masters in Design specializing in Woven Textile Design in 2007. 

Grainne creates colourful and original mixed media textile wall art and other products such as lampshades, inspired by shoreline’s to sunsets and the surrounding landscape along the south east coastline and the Wild Atlantic way.  All of her work is hand done and the pieces are original works of textile art, with no two the exact same. She continues to weave but has a background in mixed media textiles also. 
A keen eye for photography, Gráinne captures the beauty of nature and of the sea. The colours change with the effects of weather through the seasons. Colour, attention to detail and texture are key qualities of her work . A love for colour really shows through in her art . The Sea is always offering her the ‘gift’ of endless inspiration that continuously inspires her artwork. 
Her aim is to ‘bring a little piece of Ireland into your home’ by creating beautiful gifts inspired by a love of the sea. 

Gráinne set up her business and started selling her work professionally in 2012, starting with small local artisan craft markets, taking part in art exhibitions and group shows alongside other craftspeople to then selling at large trade events such as Showcase Ireland in and is now recognised as an established Irish Textile Designer. She sells her products online through her own website and from craft and design led shops and galleries across Ireland . 
Gráinne’s work has appeared in various press over the years from top Interior to fashion  magazines to newspaper articles, online blogs and appeared on RTE 1 Nationwide in 2019. (See press) She is also a registered craft maker of the Design and Crafts council of Ireland, Design Ireland and Made Local. 

Method/Techniques

Gráinne uses Irish and merino wools, spun silk, bamboo yarns, linen and cotton fabric, beads, seashells, metallic threads and other materials in the creation of her mixed media textile wall art.  This is hand applied using heat tools, subtle stitch work and relief surface fabric techniques.
Grainne see's her fabrics and fibres like a palette, painting with the materials using only her hands and a few other items . Her work is made using combined materials from fabrics to fibres amongst other media to create her sea inspire textile art pieces. She loves to create interesting surface textures using processes such as layering, fusing, distorting, dyeing of some fabrics and yarns to manipulating fabrics and fibres as best as she can. Her work is not felted in the traditional ways of soap and water or by using needles . It is all hand applied with subtle stitching, fabric manipulation and embellishing techniques. 
From afar her textile art looks like paintings, but up close there is a sense of movement in the way she brings the pieces to life in an almost three dimensional yet painterly way that her work is widely known for. She has developed her own unique style by combining fibers with fabrics using various methods and going beyond that of felted works.. 

Each stage of the design process is built in a series of layers from the background to the foreground using lots of colour and building interesting surface textures.. No two pieces are identical, and this is what makes her work so attractive, unique, and special to the end customer.

All her work is framed behind glass in white wooden Irish made picture frames. There are five different frame sizes to choose from minis to long textile seascapes . Taking inspiration from her original textile art she has also developed designs for lamps and other items. 

Gráinne is a past student / Alumni of  University College Falmouth, Cornwall Uk, Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology & Grennan Mill Craft School , Thomastown, Co.Kilkenny

Gráinne Kenny Design | Design Ireland | Design Ireland