Learn to make.Make to last.
From Letterfrack woodskills to a workshop in Renvyle. Explore furniture making with a craftsman who has spent a working life making, restoring and guiding others.
His Renvyle workshop · 2023 Watch Joe’s film
Rooted here.
Built by hand.
Joe Ribbon began training in Letterfrack in 1982, as part of Connemara West’s pioneering three-year programme in woodskills.
Cabinetmaking, joinery, carving, marquetry and woodturning were the starting point. Work in listed-building restoration and construction followed, then years supervising practical community projects with FORUM Connemara. Furniture making has remained part of that story.
Read Joe’s full story
The Irish
dresser.
A place for the everyday.
A piece of the family home.
Joe makes and restores Irish dressers: working with natural timber, considering the finish, and adapting a familiar form to the room it will live in.
Look closer at the craftWhat would you
like to make?
A first piece of furniture. A better understanding of joinery. A new lease of life for something old.
Joe is developing hands-on training around his furniture-making experience. Tell him where you would like to begin.