Welcome to the 2023 season of Nature Magic.

It is hard to believe we are on episode 68 and have spoken to all those incredible nature advocates. This year we are changing it up a bit, we are focusing on crafts as a medium to connect people to nature. This series was sparked from a new project that is in progress at Burren Nature Sanctuary. We obtained a Leaser grant towards some audio artworks to help interpret the biodiversity of the Burren around the walks. The three sculptures are a 7 foot Ladies Tresses Orchid at the Meadow, a large dragonfly at the Turlough and a stone badger in the karst limestone habitat. Each sculpture will be accommpanyied by a wind up audio feature in five languages.

As the new series topic is so visual we are adding a you tube video to each episode so you can immerse yourself in world of the craftspeople and see the process. We are moving from fortnightly to monthly episodes to accommodate the extra work in editing the videos.

Our first guest is Davin Butler from Butler Sculputre. Davin is the youngest sibling in the butler family. He started sculpting in his teens and continued to do so part-time throughout college where he studied web development, before realising he wanted to do sculpting full-time. He draws inspiration and techniques from the rest of the family and focuses mostly on nature, the ocean, and people. He likes tribal and mythological art, and tries to blend this into the medium of copper.Davin has also been experimenting with applying different coloured enamels to his sculptures.

His work has been displayed in galleries across Ireland, as well as in the 2 Michelin Star restaurant; Aimsir, in Kildare. We have loved Butler sculpture for many years and are delighted to launch our new series with Davin Butler as our guest.

Please check out the you tube video on the Burren Nature Sanctuary channel,

https://youtu.be/f21tsAmnO8M

as it is a lot of fun to see how Davin is building the large Ladies Tresses and also to take a sneaky look into the workshop and see the other pieces in the exhibition room. And call to see us when we reopen on April 1 and hopefully we will have up to three new sculptures installed!

Contact Davin Butler at www.butlersculptures.com

Contact Mary Bermingham atmary@burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Contact Martyn or Lindsay at Lima Design Studio at

www.limastudio.co.uk

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Support the Nature Magic Podcast athttps://www.patreon.com/naturemagic

Show website www.naturemagic.ie