Maggie O'Hea

I was honoured to win a competition in college to design an award for the Tech Industry Alliance awards 2023. TIA are a non-profit member driven organisation in the southwest region of Ireland with 250 tech-organisations as members. The commission was to make 12 awards for TIA’s annual competition. The brief related to various technological sectors such as Agri-tech, Marine-tech, IT, Fin-tech, and Med-tech. I designed a glass piece with a circuit board on the surface, a wave shape running through it, and it can stand on itself. It relates to water as a sustainable source of energy in hydro energy, wave energy and it also relates to Irelands sonar mapping programme. It responds to the agricultural sector as the circuit board was from my father’s farm. The award has the movement and stillness of water created by the wave and clear glass. The circuit board surface creates interest and a fire polished texture. The process known as slumping was used and I slumped the glass over a clay mould to create the wave and shape I desired. I sand blasted the surface using rapid mask to put the circuit board image on the surface and I then fired it in the kiln. The award is minimal, sleek, and functional piece. The brief challenged me in new way as I worked outside my comfort zone to adapt conceptually to the award design. This was my first commission, and I am grateful for the experience and the support of the college and the TIA organisation to make this happen.