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RENOWNED FOR THEIR beautiful nature-inspired collections featuring everything from stunning art prints to meandering candleholders, Superfolk is run by husband and wife team Gearóid Muldowney and Jo Anne Butler. Here Ruth O’Connor speaks to Jo Anne about inspiration and collaboration.
What inspired you to start your business? Tell us more about yourselves.
Gearóid and I both spent time studying abroad during our degrees. He went to Finland during his craft studies, and I went to Denmark as part of my master’s in Architecture. Seeing young designers there working freely – not boxed into ‘art’, ‘craft’ or ‘architecture’ was a big inspiration for us. We knew we wanted to work together, to combine our backgrounds in art, architecture and craft design and we also wanted a life in the west of Ireland where we both grew up. When we moved back to Mayo and started our family, we realised that creating our own products, rather than making one-off commissions, would give us the freedom we were looking for. By selling online, both in Ireland and internationally, we could reach customers all over the world while still building a life and a business here in the west.
Where do you look for inspiration?
What inspires us most is the desire to get more people paying attention to nature. It’s a cliché, but it’s true – nature is our biggest motivator. So much of what we make is designed to gently encourage people to be creative themselves, to spend more time outdoors, and to notice the small, seasonal changes happening all around them.
We really believe in the idea of know, love, protect. This is the idea that when we take the time to truly know the place we live – its plants, birds, weather, light – we naturally grow to love it. And from that love comes the instinct to protect it.
We’re also inspired by the work of other artists, musicians, writers and designers. For example, a recent series of large wall-panel ink brush drawings we made for Form & Fable at Wilton Park grew from two sources: the incredible murmurations of starlings we see over Lough Carra near our home, and the Irish artist Louis le Brocquy’s ink drawings for Thomas Kinsella’s The Táin. Those influences – the natural world and the creative work of others – meet and merge in much of what we make.
Tell us about your range of products – and do you make everything yourselves?
Yes, we make everything ourselves here in Co. Mayo. It can be a bit of a juggle, but it has shaped us as designers in the best way. When you know you’ll be making the product it forces you to refine your ideas and think deeply at the design stage.
What is your starting point when it comes to a new product such as your lovely new Acorn Sprouter?
We’ve been collecting and sprouting acorns for a few years now. It’s a lovely thing to do with children – I remember doing it with my own father. He has passed away but those trees are now thirty years old. Of course, you don’t need a sprouter to grow an acorn, but we wanted to create something that symbolises hope, courage and the circle of life and death. Something people could gift to one another – parent to child, friend to friend – as a way of sharing that message and experience. Nature has so much to teach us when we slow down and pay attention.
Our Woodland series of prints was inspired by the little things we often find in our pockets after a walk in the forest with our children. They’re at the age where they’re constantly discovering tiny bits of feathers and berries and acorns and handing them to us to mind and bring home. There are so many studies these days that show that children are losing touch with nature, they are more likely to be able to identify brand logos than name leaves of different trees. We wanted these prints to elevate and draw attention to these small beautiful pieces of nature that you can find in a forest.
What have you learned so far in business?
So much of business is about building relationships with people over time. Over the past five years, between the pandemic and then having small babies, we’ve been staying close to home, working in the studio and online, including running our classes, developing our products and working with clients. In January of this year, we decided to make a big effort to get out and meet more of our customers and clients in person. We took part in exhibitions, workshops, ran print-making demonstrations and had a small pop-up shop in Dublin. It has been so rewarding to connect with people ‘in real life’ again.
What sets your products apart from other home/ interiors items in the Irish market?
I suppose that we are unique in that we make our products ourselves and also design and make across a number of different materials and processes – printmaking, metalwork, woodwork and so on. What ties it all together is our drive and inspiration to connect people with the world around us. We also aren’t specifically focused on the Irish market – about 50% of our sales are international.
Describe your workspace.
We work from a studio on the grounds of the ATU Mayo Innovation Hub. It’s a hardworking space where we make all our prints, where you’ll see the printing blocks we use and where freshly made prints hang to dry. We also pack and ship our products from there, and we have a small area set up for photoshoots, along with shelves of reference books, material samples and product prototypes. We do some of the assembly and polishing of acorn holders and petal vases here too. But the noisier, messier work usually happens in a small workshop at our home. Being based in the ATU iHub is a real bonus — we’re surrounded by other people running their own businesses, so there’s a lovely sense of camaraderie and support in the building.
How important is collaboration to what you do?
One of the best things about collaboration is how it pushes you out of your comfort zone and into new ways of working. Recently, Ava and Anike from J. HILL’s Standard asked us to create a large piece for their Form & Fable exhibition at Wilton Park in Dublin. The scale was far bigger than anything we had made before, but they trusted us, supported us, and encouraged us to stretch ourselves. The result is a new series of drawings called Murmurations that we are genuinely proud of – work I don’t think we would have created otherwise if not for Anike and Ava.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
My background is in architecture and art, so in another life I could be working in an architecture practice. But I know I’d struggle with the long hours that are expected in many offices, especially while trying to balance family life. Running our own business has its sacrifices too, of course, but it gives us the flexibility we need for our family. I also think it’s genuinely hard to be a practising architect in private practice in Ireland while being a mother – the demands are intense, and the system still isn’t set up to make it easy.
What has been your proudest moment/ favourite project so far?
There isn’t one single defining moment, but the past few years – with the pandemic, Brexit, inflation, tariffs and having small children – have been a real rollercoaster for anyone in business. I’m proud that we’re still here, still making work, still getting the chance to be creative and express ourselves through what we do. And I feel very lucky that we have such lovely customers who support us along the way.
What’s next for you and your work?
We have a few new projects lined up for January that I’m really looking forward to – I love starting new work. One is an illustration project for a book, and another involves developing a repeating pattern or surface design. We have done a number of bespoke wallpaper designs for private clients, but we are working on designing a line of wallpapers that we can offer for sale ourselves.
Address Book:
Superfolk will be showing new and existing artworks and products at Form & Fable and craft and design pop up at Wilton Park, Dublin 2. Curated by J Hill’s Standard, the immersive retail experience showcases the work of 40 Ireland based makers introducing new designs in ceramics, crystal, textiles, homewares and print featuring a series of limited edition pieces and one off works. Form & Fable is open Wednesday to Sunday until December 21 and features a programme of events and workshops. Further details on formandfable.ie.
Find out more about Superfolk here: superfolk.com.
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