I am the sole owner of my business, Peat Fire Jewelry by Éireann, and count myself blessed to do what I love.
The summer of 2008 was when I sat in front of my first peat fire. It was on the grounds of Craggaunowen Castle in Ireland on a very cloudy, rainy day and one of our first stops on that trip.
I can still feel the anticipation and wonder that I felt when seeing Ireland from the window of the plane as we were about to land. We were flying into Shannon airport and the incredible green patchwork of grass and stone walls out the window were just like all the photos I had seen my whole life. It was like a storybook and almost surreal. All around me in the landscape of that trip, I saw ancient symbols carved in rock, and in the stone and wood work of churches, as well as the cheerful signs of pubs and little shops. To sum it up, I fell in love with Ireland on that trip after having been enamored of it in theory my whole life. The soft rain, the greenest grass I’d ever seen, the sheep, the rock walls, the wild ocean, the Gaelic signs, the music, the people, all of it.
When I sit down to make a piece of jewelry, it is those memories that inspire me. It is a joy to burn peat in my studio, drink Irish tea, and work with my hands on jewelry that I hope will inspire those who wear it to remember their own family history and their own love of the Celtic lands.