A Mitchelstown 1st year CBS student intrigued visitors at the recent Christmas Market with his fabulous hand made products.
Richie Lillis designed and made beautifully wooden pens and candle holders, carved from wood, hundreds of years old.
Explaining how he developed his product and brought it to market, Richie said there is a history of woodwork and woodcrafts in his family.
“My dad did woodwork and he learnt from his dad. I would spend time at the weekends working with wood with both of them and that’s where I learnt the different wood types and how to use the machines and tools.”
Richie said he started making wooden pens in January of this year and really enjoyed using the lathe.
“Last month my friend Eoghan and I got the idea to make candle holders for the Christmas Markets. Eoghan also has a strong interest in woodwork and the two of us made up some samples from different wood types.
“I had seen similar candle holders before but I got the idea to make snowmen and Christmas trees out of wood that fitted into the tealight holder. This would mean that after Christmas you could take them out and use it for the rest of the year as a normal candle holder.
“When we agreed the design we decided to sell them at the Christmas market in Mitchelstown. In order to make them more unique, we used native timbers from the locality and also reclaimed pitch pine that was hundreds of years old. We also brought some of my pens which were made from bog oak that could be up to 5,000 years old.”
Richie said they had a great day at the market and had loads of people asking about the different wood types.
