Richard and Catherine Daly

Living in Kells Ireland's heritage capital located in the royal county of Meath, and, we are so lucky to be doing what we love every day

When asked what do you do for a living? We say...

We bring smiles to faces; we make gifts that people are proud to present to those who are special to them, gifts that have a unique link to Ireland and solve that age-old problem; what do you give to the one who has everything? Well, they don't have a handmade writing instrument crafted from Irish wood that pays homage to Ireland's literary heritage and acknowledges the purity of our country's ecological landscape, a gift from the forests of Ireland.
A bit of a mouthful, but that's how we feel about the pens we craft.

2014 events gave us a fantastic opportunity to leave the corporate world and pursue our dream of working together to make our living as a team of 2 with the support of our children.

I am the 3rd generation in the Daly family, making his living from woodworking. My Grandfather and Father were master cabinetmakers, and my brother continues that tradition, so I guess wood and woodworking are in my blood!

As an award-winning hairdresser, Catherine has an artistic flair for style and colour, which she now brings to her art and the design of our pens and gift packaging.

We started our business turning wooden bowls and other wooden crafts; however, the pens we made gave us the most satisfaction; we love making them, and that love shows in the finished product, or so our clients tell us!

We spent the last eight years together refining our turning and finishing processes to produce the best writing pen we can make. We have styled our pen gift presentation to enhance the gifting experience for our clients and the gift recipient. Our pens make sustainable, engaging, thoughtful, and personal gifts and that is why our clients have chosen them.

After eight years of working together ( yes we are still talking! ) we are still in love ( with each other! ), smiling, and enjoying every day.

A special thanks our clients because they have made Irish Pens the success it is today through their support.

If you would like to char email Richard at richard@irishpens.ie

What goes into making one of our Irish Bog Oak pens

 

Where the crafting takes place

 

In the workshop!

Selecting the most interesting grain in the wood for our pens

We cut the wood into pen blanks on my Dads bench saw, I used to clean the sawdust out of this machine every Saturday in my early teens and sell it to the local butcher for his floor, great days.

We store our wooden pen blanks in this old parts rack that came out of a local garage which closed over 20 years ago.

We drill the wooden blanks and glue in the brass tubes, its vital that the tubes are centered and the correct size for the pen its is to create

And now for the fun part, it's time to sculpt the pen on the lathe.....

Not that way Catherine! and its safety glasses you need not sunglasses!! 

Let the professional at it!  :-)

We turn, sand and finish all our pen in the workshop, assembly and posting is done in the office

Finished pen ready for its new home

Thanks for taking the time to review what we do, as we say

Loving what we do everyday

 

Ireland has some beautiful forests to enjoy and to inspire

 

The workshop is located in our garden, a great place to be creative