Lady of Lough Hyne

Materials: Clay forms the Head & recycled sterling silver forms the head dress & wave brooch
“I know a lake where the cool waves break,
And softly fall on the silver sand –
And no steps intrude on that solitude,
And no voice, save mine, disturbs the strand” Lough Hyne by Fitz-James O’Brien
Nestling within a fold in deepest West Cork, Lough Hyne is a place of peaceful serenity, steeped in folklore and home to a unique ecosystem.
The lake is connected to the Atlantic Ocean and tidal flows from fill Lough Hyne twice a day, running over the Rapids at up to 16km per hour, and create in the lake a unique habitat of warm oxygenated seawater, which sustains a huge variety of marine plants and animals including 72 species of fish.
Lough Hyne is one of the most important marine habitats in Europe and was made Ireland's first Marine Nature Conservation Reserve.
At night the lake glows in the dark! Bioluminescence is the sparkling blue light that can be seen in the water and is caused by chemical reactions inside the bodies of organisms such as plankton that live in the lake.
The sculpture explores the spirts & mystery around the lake and imagines the lady of Lough Hyne that moves throughout the cool waters of the lake with a headdress made from sliver that flows through the water like seaweed, the sliver trailing through the water and glimmering in the moonlight.
The headpiece replicates that feeling of swimming through thin slippy cool seaweed, made from recycled pieces of sterling sliver jewellery and off cuts, which were meltedinto large sliver pebbles, rolled very thin to create the sliver seaweed this was then formed into a headdress.
The lady of Lough Hyne form has been created in clay