Meet the Maker – Martina Hamilton
Martina Hamilton has been designing beautiful jewellery for over 25 years. Her designs are inspired by the ever-changing coastal landscape in which she lives. Martina sells her jewellery collections in her shop, The Cat and the Moon, 4 Castle Street, Sligo, where she also stocks Irish artisan design and craft. If you are looking for a special gift you are sure to find something in The Cat and the Moon.
Martina opened the Hamilton Gallery in 2011, the gallery hosts a continuous programme of solo and group exhibitions by Ireland’s leading contemporary visual artists.
Most recently Martina has collaborated with Leonie Cornelius, to design ‘Precious Matter’ for Goal – What On Earth which is a collection of 100 resin globe sculptures which are painted and decorated by artists, celebrities and crafts people from all over Ireland. The Globes will go on public display as a series of Art Exhibition’s around the country. Then they will be auctioned off in November to raise vital funds for GOAL, enabling the charity to continue its work, easing the plight of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
Precious Matter is a beautiful golden globe decorated with thirteen custom designed sterling silver daisy flowers around the globe. Each one grows out of an exact location where GOAL is currently working and Martina and Leonie hope they symbolise the striking growth and impact which GOAL’s work has on those regions. Martina has also produced a GOAL Daisy Pendant with all proceeds going to the charity. You can find out more about that here.
Martina has also just launched a brand new jewellery collection: Croi Sliogan. Sliogan in Irish translates as shell. Croi Sliogan is the shells heart-core. Sligo is the Shelly Place. It was the beloved landscape of poet W B Yeats, who on the grey pavements of London spoke of Sligo as “the deep hearts core”. This is the inspiration for our Croi Sliogan collection. The secret of this shell motif in hallmarked sterling silver the heart space it encircles.
As if all that wasn’t enough Martina Hamilton is the National Women’s Enterprise Day Sligo Ambassador. The Sligo enterprise day event takes place on October 18th in the Radisson Blu Hotel. This year’s theme is ‘From Local to Global’.
Martina also designs bespoke pieces, the most famous of which was presented by ex-Taoiseach Enda Kenny to former US President Barack Obama at the White House on St Patrick’s Day in 2013.
If anyone is a good example for the Local to Global theme it certainly is Martina Hamilton, we’d like to wish her all the best with her new jewellery collection and her future designs.