Some 10 miles away from the bodhran makers of Clogheen, across the Knockmealdowns and over the county boundary in Waterford, another developing craft industry has been inspired in a different way by traditional music. Corina Duyn is a doll artist, originally from Holland and married to a traditional musician, Gerry Harrington. From attending many music sessions she derived the idea of basing a new phase of her work on the faces of pub characters. "I went along to enjoy the music and ended up watching the people," she admits.
Her "Fantasy Folk" dolls and puppets are generally set in the environment of an Irish bar, complete with miniature furniture designed and created by Gerry.
She sets out to present her own impression of the characters and not a precise likeness of the people she observes. "Some of the old faces are wonderful to look at, so full of experience and laughter lines," she comments.
Each doll is an original creation, made out of an air-drying clay, painted and varnished. The body and clothing are made out of fabric remnants. "My work is like sculpture with clothes," she says.
After she met Gerry in his native Kenmare eight years ago and decided to stay in Ireland, the couple moved to Co Waterford, attempting a restaurant business initially, but eventually deciding to concentrate on the dolls and music.
They bought a rundown, traditional cottage at Monatarriv, two miles from Lismore, and renovated it, making the outbuildings into a workshop and studio.
Her work combines fantasy and reality, depicting leprechauns, traditional dancers, musicians, old men sitting on a bench, chatting - all figures interpreted liberally through her own imagination.
From making and selling individual pieces, she has moved on to supplying set-piece scenes on commission. During the past year she has had an exhibition of a pub scene, on a scale of one-fifth life size, in Belfast and Athlone.
This gave her the opportunity to create a pub-shop as a pilot project for a television animation series, Ballycardool. It will be finished this summer as a package for presentation to RTE, BBC, and TnaG.
Her latest big commission is to create a series of figures representing the workers involved in every stage of the production of Waterford Crystal - 15 figures in all - from glass-blowing to cutting, including scaled-down versions of the tools and machines. The company has produced a special miniature range of glass objects for her to use.
The finished series will be on display in the tourist trail of the Waterford Crystal factory and visitors' centre.
Corina trained with the distinguished doll designer, Marlaine Verhelst of Holland, and has been making dolls since the age of 10. Her mother was a seamstress, her father a coppersmith and joiner, so art and craft has been part of her life since childhood.
Meanwhile, Gerry, a fiddler, plays with the group, "Smoky Chimney" and tours with them part of the year. The group has produced two critically-acclaimed albums and is working on a third, while Gerry is also preparing a solo album.