Workshop | Material and Time with Helle Helsner and Róisín Foley

Material and Time: An experimental metal workshop, using contemporary approaches to ancient techniques with Helle Helsner and Róisín Foley.

This day long workshop will introduce participants to basic metal casting techniques that are environmentally sound in nature. Technical processes will act as containers from which to engage with the materials on a meaningful level, where experimentation will be facilitated and encouraged.
Participants will learn how to make a simple furnace and crucible, and cast using open face clay and cuttlefish moulds, working with tin as a gateway material for casting a range of other metals. Participants will engage with collective modes of working, as will be demonstrated through methods such as sharing in the mixing of materials, furnace preparation, and bellow pumping.

Facilitators:
Helle and Róisín have been collaborating on various metal related projects since 2014. The latest 2024 where they worked together on Helle’s workshop TEK to Tech; Ancient Bronze Casting Workshop at The National Sculpture Factory – as part of Metal Fest.

Helle Helsner is a visual artist and lecturer in Crawford College of Art and Design. With a foundation in ancient methods and materiality, Helle’s work is a continued exploration of intuitive material understanding addressed particularly through her sculptural work, and her understanding of the metal casting process. Landscape, Materiality, and Memory is what drives her work.
She is the recipient of various awards including Co Cork Arts Office, Arts Council funding and residencies. Her work can be found in the Danish State Collection, The OPW and the RTE Collections.
My practice have deep seeded roots in material use, social politics and extractive practises going back to prehistoric times. This has taken me to the West Cork community of Allihies on the Beara Peninsula – where I have spent a great deal of time working both from and in the landscape of this disused mining landscape responding to myth and memory, personal and cultural.
Helle is currently an PhD candidate from Burren College of Art: Landscape, Materiality, and Memory. Reimagining New Narratives for Old Stories.

Róisín Foley is a Creative, Curator, Writer and Permaculturalist who works across many disciplines. She is interested in strengthening local connections and building pride of place through creative ecological means. Recent projects include a reading group within a native tree nursery, curator with Capacity Ireland and Backwater Artists Group, an experimental casting workshop with artist Helle Helsner at The National Sculpture Factory, and curating an environmental film club. She is a co-director of BioFest West Cork, a member of The Glitter Heap Collective, and a regular contributor to VAN Irelands national arts newspaper.
Róisín graduated from CCAD in 2014 with a B.A in Fine Art, specialising in sculpture and glass casting processes. She received the Ciarán Langford memorial bursary with a 6-month sculpture studio at Backwater Artists, and the Crawford College Graduate Sculpture Residency Award. Róisín has worked on large scale metal casting projects such as participating in the first two Iron Research (IRONR) Projects at the National Sculpture Factory, and commercial and fine art bronze foundry production at Kilnagleary studios as an assistant to Mick Wilkins. She regularly collaborates with Helle Helsner on experimental and earth-based forms of production, and is a fringe member of Umha Aois (Bronze Age Casting Project). In her own research she has taken residencies at The Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Allihies Copper Mines Museum and Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre. Róisín will begin a Masters in Art and Environment in September 2025 through TU Dublin on Sherkin Island in 2025, where she will develop her research on Perennial Thinking and Hyper Locality.

For more information and to book email hellehelsner@gmail.com