The fields, woods and streams around Derrinlough House, between Cloghan and Birr in Offaly, were Eddie Bulfin’s playground as a child. Leading us to his favourite spot, where he proposed to his wife Pauline, it’s easy to see where the inspiration comes from for his Celtic Flame jewellery range, or “wearable nature”, as he describes it.
It’s a giant of a beech tree which fell down during Storm Éowyn.
Despite lying on the forest floor, there is something majestic about the massive branches stretched out across the wood amid an autumnal tapestry of colour. The moss and leaves provide a fitting backdrop to photograph Eddie and his dog with pieces from his handmade jewellery collection, which use hazel, bog oak, acorns and feathers, so that you can carry a piece of nature with you everyday, no matter where you are.
The jewellery was born out of his time in Germany, where he lived in a studio apartment, and he was in need of a creative outlet. “I’m the kind of person to go climbing trees and fishing. None of that was really possible in Germany. I was living and working in Darmstadt, which is a small city by German standards, about the size of Cork,” he says.
With little space, he started experimenting with creating jewellery. “I didn’t have a clue how to get into it, but little by little the designs came about, and they were all nature-based. When I moved back home, I had all the access to the bog and natural materials, woods and the ocean. It was like, “Okay, I’m going to see if people like this.” He tried a few markets and was so “well received” that he knew there was a future in it. “A lot of people were saying they hadn’t seen anything like it before.”
Eddie’s Celtic Flame jewellery range. \Justin Lynch
Fire spectacle
Eddie’s creativity certainly doesn’t stop there. He is also a fire-eater/performer and a magician at weddings and all kinds of events.
When Irish Country Living asks how this came about, Eddie says he can trace it back to his art teacher in Banagher persuading him to do something for a school talent show. “She [his teacher] suggested a magic trick, and I did it,” he recalls, winning first prize. He later ended up doing tricks in a local pub, which in turn led to weddings and hen parties. Somewhere along the line he added fire eating to his routine.
How does that happen, we wonder? “Stupidity, I suppose,” he says, laughing. A lot of it, he points out, is “just getting over the fear” and learning the skills. A fire community called Pyro Collective later reached out to him from Dublin. They were doing “all kinds of fire spinning with props”, and he was hooked.
It’s been a busy autumn in the run-up to Halloween and Samhain, performing with the group at huge spectacles all over the country.
“October was so busy with shows. I was constantly on the road. The Púca Festival in Co Meath was amazing– it’s a massive-scale event,” Eddie explains, showing Irish Country Living a video of a fire spectacle he performed in during the week-long festival, which attracted 12,000 people. He and fellow members of the Pyro Collective featured on Irish and UK TV quite a bit during the week.
“On one day, we were on 60 different channels in the US,” he adds.
Celtic Flame is the name and Eddie says, “I originally chose it for fire performing because there are a lot of Celtic-themed shows, but the more I thought about it, I decided to keep it for the jewellery too. It’s fitting because I’m always trying to create and reignite that [Celtic] connection with nature.”
Eddie Bulfin performing with the Pyro Collective at the Púca Festival in 2024. \Liam Murphy
Forage and craft
In his old barn workshop, Eddie shows off some of his popular designs using materials foraged from the countryside. Catching the eye immediately are acorn caps from an oak tree at the back of the house, which are used to make beautiful earrings, or a stunning hazelwood pendant inscribed with Ogham writing collected from a hedgerow in January and preserved for a year. Large pine cones from a nearby forest park and colourful feathers are transformed into statement earrings.“I get practically everything I need [for the jewellery] close by,” he says, apart from the shells collected on coastal grassland after a storm and a non-native wood.
“It’s a wearable piece of nature, and people connect with nature in different ways, but you can’t always be in the forest. You can take a little bit of the forest with you [with the jewellery]. It began as a personal project for me in Germany just to create a piece of wearable nature for myself. This [my business] all grew from that.”
Those who buy his pieces are a “conscious type of customer,” he maintains, who enjoy nature. Totally “self-taught through trial and error”, Eddie reckons he would be doing this irrespective of whether it was a business or not. Why? Because of his creativity, his love of the outdoors and his curiosity about how things work.
Eddie Bulfin working in his barn workshop making wearable pieces of nature for his Celtic Flame jewellery range. / Justin Lynch
The Bulfins are an artistic family. His father John made wooden rocking horses and taught leatherwork with the LOETB for many years, and his Finnish mother Arja is an expert in straw work. His aunt Siobhan Bulfin is a well-known sculptor and artist.
Sitting in Derrinlough House, you can’t help but be aware of the history associated with the family. His great-great grandfather William Bulfin, the famed author of Rambles in Éirinn, in the early 20th century grew up here. His great-grandfather Eamonn fought in 1916. All those years later with his combination of fire and nature, he is keeping the family’s creative flame glowing.
See celticflame.ie
The fields, woods and streams around Derrinlough House, between Cloghan and Birr in Offaly, were Eddie Bulfin’s playground as a child. Leading us to his favourite spot, where he proposed to his wife Pauline, it’s easy to see where the inspiration comes from for his Celtic Flame jewellery range, or “wearable nature”, as he describes it.
It’s a giant of a beech tree which fell down during Storm Éowyn.
Despite lying on the forest floor, there is something majestic about the massive branches stretched out across the wood amid an autumnal tapestry of colour. The moss and leaves provide a fitting backdrop to photograph Eddie and his dog with pieces from his handmade jewellery collection, which use hazel, bog oak, acorns and feathers, so that you can carry a piece of nature with you everyday, no matter where you are.
The jewellery was born out of his time in Germany, where he lived in a studio apartment, and he was in need of a creative outlet. “I’m the kind of person to go climbing trees and fishing. None of that was really possible in Germany. I was living and working in Darmstadt, which is a small city by German standards, about the size of Cork,” he says.
With little space, he started experimenting with creating jewellery. “I didn’t have a clue how to get into it, but little by little the designs came about, and they were all nature-based. When I moved back home, I had all the access to the bog and natural materials, woods and the ocean. It was like, “Okay, I’m going to see if people like this.” He tried a few markets and was so “well received” that he knew there was a future in it. “A lot of people were saying they hadn’t seen anything like it before.”
Eddie’s Celtic Flame jewellery range. \Justin Lynch
Fire spectacle
Eddie’s creativity certainly doesn’t stop there. He is also a fire-eater/performer and a magician at weddings and all kinds of events.
When Irish Country Living asks how this came about, Eddie says he can trace it back to his art teacher in Banagher persuading him to do something for a school talent show. “She [his teacher] suggested a magic trick, and I did it,” he recalls, winning first prize. He later ended up doing tricks in a local pub, which in turn led to weddings and hen parties. Somewhere along the line he added fire eating to his routine.
How does that happen, we wonder? “Stupidity, I suppose,” he says, laughing. A lot of it, he points out, is “just getting over the fear” and learning the skills. A fire community called Pyro Collective later reached out to him from Dublin. They were doing “all kinds of fire spinning with props”, and he was hooked.
It’s been a busy autumn in the run-up to Halloween and Samhain, performing with the group at huge spectacles all over the country.
“October was so busy with shows. I was constantly on the road. The Púca Festival in Co Meath was amazing– it’s a massive-scale event,” Eddie explains, showing Irish Country Living a video of a fire spectacle he performed in during the week-long festival, which attracted 12,000 people. He and fellow members of the Pyro Collective featured on Irish and UK TV quite a bit during the week.
“On one day, we were on 60 different channels in the US,” he adds.
Celtic Flame is the name and Eddie says, “I originally chose it for fire performing because there are a lot of Celtic-themed shows, but the more I thought about it, I decided to keep it for the jewellery too. It’s fitting because I’m always trying to create and reignite that [Celtic] connection with nature.”
Eddie Bulfin performing with the Pyro Collective at the Púca Festival in 2024. \Liam Murphy
Forage and craft
In his old barn workshop, Eddie shows off some of his popular designs using materials foraged from the countryside. Catching the eye immediately are acorn caps from an oak tree at the back of the house, which are used to make beautiful earrings, or a stunning hazelwood pendant inscribed with Ogham writing collected from a hedgerow in January and preserved for a year. Large pine cones from a nearby forest park and colourful feathers are transformed into statement earrings.“I get practically everything I need [for the jewellery] close by,” he says, apart from the shells collected on coastal grassland after a storm and a non-native wood.
“It’s a wearable piece of nature, and people connect with nature in different ways, but you can’t always be in the forest. You can take a little bit of the forest with you [with the jewellery]. It began as a personal project for me in Germany just to create a piece of wearable nature for myself. This [my business] all grew from that.”
Those who buy his pieces are a “conscious type of customer,” he maintains, who enjoy nature. Totally “self-taught through trial and error”, Eddie reckons he would be doing this irrespective of whether it was a business or not. Why? Because of his creativity, his love of the outdoors and his curiosity about how things work.
Eddie Bulfin working in his barn workshop making wearable pieces of nature for his Celtic Flame jewellery range. / Justin Lynch
The Bulfins are an artistic family. His father John made wooden rocking horses and taught leatherwork with the LOETB for many years, and his Finnish mother Arja is an expert in straw work. His aunt Siobhan Bulfin is a well-known sculptor and artist.
Sitting in Derrinlough House, you can’t help but be aware of the history associated with the family. His great-great grandfather William Bulfin, the famed author of Rambles in Éirinn, in the early 20th century grew up here. His great-grandfather Eamonn fought in 1916. All those years later with his combination of fire and nature, he is keeping the family’s creative flame glowing.
See celticflame.ie
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