Passion For Wood

For more than three decades Fred O’Mahony has been turning handcrafted, functional and artistic pieces by using sustainable Irish native hardwoods from renewable sources.

- Claire Craig

What started off as a hobby for Fred O’Mahony quickly turned into a passion and then a thriving career.

With more than 30 years’ experience as a woodturner – the craft of making symmetrical wooden objects using a lathe and hand-held tools – Fred found his niche almost by accident.

‘I was always interested in wood and working with my hands and I was forever saying ‘if I had a lathe I could make this, that and the other’. Then in 1991 I had a slipped a disc and couldn’t do what I was meant to be doing so, with the extra time on my hands, I decided to bite the bullet and make my own lathe.

‘From there I taught myself to turn wood and realised I was more drawn to this than general wood work.’

As he honed his skills Fred then began doing local craft fairs, using his sales to buy more equipment as he went.

‘For years it was just a side-line and something I loved doing. I was working full-time at this point with a chemical company, but then in around 2008 they closed the plant so it gave me an opportunity to go out on my own.

‘Of course we were in the middle of a recession at this time and everything was suffering – especially the crafts. It was quite disheartening at times but we stuck with it and gradually started supplying to shops which led to commissions and things really grew from there.’