There are not many blacksmiths working in rural Wexford. There are even fewer whose gates, railings and staircases have ended up in galleries, private homes, and architectural installations across Ireland and beyond. Dainius Varnelis is one of those few. Lithuanian-born, Wexford-based for over a decade, he works with iron, stainless steel, copper, and brass from a home studio at Edermine, near Enniscorthy — making things by hand that most people would assume could only be factory-produced.
The Work
Varna Studios specialises in hand-forged gates, decorative railings, garden sculpture, candle holders, and architectural metalwork. The scale ranges from the domestic and intimate — a wall-mounted candle holder, a set of fire irons — to the ambitious: elaborate entrance gates, bespoke staircases, structural ironwork for period properties. Dainius works alongside his wife Lina, a goldsmith, who brings a jeweller’s precision to the smaller-scale work. Together they are something relatively rare: a two-person studio with a genuinely distinctive visual language.
The work is made using recycled metal from the studio itself, which gives each piece a material history as well as a physical one. Visits to the studio are by appointment — the address is The Sycamores, Ballyvake, Edermine, Enniscorthy — and the pieces can also be viewed at the Whitethorn Gallery, which represents Dainius’s work.
Why We Love It
Wexford has a strong craft tradition, but Varna Studios sits in a category of its own. This is not heritage craft for its own sake — there’s a contemporary design sensibility running through everything, a willingness to push the material into unexpected shapes. For anyone commissioning work for a home, a garden, or a building project in the south east, this is one of the studios worth talking to before reaching for a catalogue.
A two-person studio with a genuinely distinctive visual language — one of Wexford’s best-kept craft secrets.
Varna Studios is based at Edermine, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. Studio visits by appointment. See their work at varnastudio.com.
