West Donegal company Donegal Pens is the only company in Ireland selected to be part of a unique event featuring craftspeople from all over Europe.
German company Experience GmbH is involved in exceptional driving events and they are currently travelling with a film crew throughout Europe in a Volkswagen Crafter van bringing the ‘Crafter to crafters’ as part of a documentary.
One craft person/company has been selected in each of the thirty countries they will visit and pen-making brothers Rónán and Conor Mc Garvey were selected in Ireland.
The entire event is expected to take until February next and the crew expect to clock up over 40,000km on their travels. The documentary will show what different and interesting craftsmen work around Europe as well as showing the reliability of the new VW Crafter van.
The crew commenced their travels on November 5th and as of Wednesday night they had travelled through nine countries meeting up with six craftspeople and clocked over 11,00km on the Crafter van.
This morning, Friday December 2nd they will arrive in Loughanure where they will meet up with and film the Mc Garvey brothers making their renowned wooden pens in their workshop.
Andreas Renz from Experience GmbH said they are delighted to be meeting up with the brothers and filming their pen crafting skills.
“Between November and February next our team will cover more than 40.000km and visit thirty countries between the Arctic Circle and the borders of the Sahara, and between the Atlantic Ocean and the Bosporus. In each country we will be visiting one selected craftsperson to learn more about the craft, the products, the challenges and the approach to the trade. The documentary is focusing on exceptional craftspeople specialising in a traditional or historical craft, mastering a rare or curious craft, renowned experts in a complex craft, pushing the limits of their crafts or interpreting the idea of craftsmanship into the future,” he said.
Ronan Mc Garvey from Donegal Pens said they were surprised but delighted to learn that they were selected as the Irish company to be part of the event.
“There are lots of very talented crafts people throughout Ireland in various fields so be selected as the Irish participant is a huge honour for us. The documentary will no doubt help bring news of our products to an even wider audience and we’re very thankful to Andreas and all the crew for selecting us,” he said.
The progress of the trip can be followed at www.crafter2craftsmen.com
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