Úna lives and works on the Dingle Peninsula. Though her initial training was as a weave designer and colourist, Úna has developed a personal language in the medium of felt, creating effects more often found in painting and drawing. Her felt has qualities of warmth and earthiness with rich toning and depth of colour. The work expresses a wide range of feeling from the quietly meditative to the celebratory.

Úna Ní Shé graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 1980 with a diploma in woven textiles. She became apprenticed to craft and industrial weavers for a few years.

Working with fashion designer Jeff Sayre on concept-based projects the artist quickly developed extraordinary techniques in order to make for example a fox drawing, a whale, a snowscape, gold texturing for wearables.

In 1990 she moved to Dingle to set up a felt workshop which she continues to operate to this day. Here she made personal work based on her relationship with the landscape. New techniques were developed while working on large felts (6' x 6') based on the human body.

She exhibited this work in gallery shows starting with her first major one-person show at Síamsa Tíre Art Centre in 1999. Since then she has exhibited widely and facilitated workshops and other educational/developmental projects throughout Ireland. She has also received a number of public and private commissions.

(Left) Reindeer horn motif on felt made for a fashion show
with an Artic theme for fashion designer Jeff Sayre.