Cork man Eoin Reardon has opened up about woodworking, his social media success and keeping Irish furniture-making traditions alive.
Eoin, who lives in Ballineen, has millions of followers across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, under his moniker Pint of Plane.
While he was always fond of cameras and YouTube, Eoin never thought he’d make a career from woodworking and social media.
He first got into woodworking as a hobby, right before Covid. “I’ve never had any formal training and I never did it in school either,” Eoin explains. “It was purely just an interest I took up around 2019, just before lockdown. [Lockdown] freed up a lot of my time, so I really put myself into it.”
Eoin taught himself the trade by watching online tutorials on YouTube, mainly from woodworkers in America and the UK who used traditional hand tools. “I was fascinated how they could make things from just their hands and sharp, well-tuned tools, rather than using big machinery.”
Eoin first started out by restoring old hand tools and making mallets and simple boxes. He created a TikTok account to share his progress, which took off quite quickly, so he started cross-posting his videos to other social media platforms. “I’ve just been rolling with it ever since, it’s been going great.”
Eoin has followers from America, Australia and the UK, as well as Ireland. “I get great feedback from people, and some even try their own bit of furniture making. That’s the best part, seeing other people trying to make a chair after seeing me do it.”
Eoin always had a love for Irish furniture, but his interest was piqued further when he came across a book called Irish Country Furniture and Furnishings, written by Claudia Kinmonth. “It was a documentation of folk furniture from rural Ireland, made by peasant farmers.
“There’s an incredible tradition and heritage of woodworking that’s unique to Ireland. This furniture was made out of locally sourced materials, built by local craftspeople, and could be easily maintained and restored, down throughout the generations. It was vastly better than anything we have today.”
Eoin compares this to the furniture most of us buy nowadays, which is mass-produced, imported and often made with cheap, unsustainable materials. “We should have been looking after the stuff we already had and continued to make it that way.”
While many people are aware of fast fashion, we rarely hear about fast furniture, Eoin adds. “Anyone who has spent a lifetime living in a house has gone through at least three sofas. Whereas I’ve got settles, which are a primitive type of sofa that you’d put near the fire, that are hundreds of years old. They are still in use. Things were built to last and to be looked after.”
Out of all the things Eoin has made, he is particularly proud of a currach he built last summer. “It’s a specific type of traditional Irish boat, indigenous to West Kerry. I got to make it with friends and sail it down the River Shannon. Those are memories I’ll hold dear forever.”
Eoin doesn’t just restore furniture – he’s also turning his attention to older buildings. He recently purchased a former bric a brac shop in Ballineen’s main street, and he plans to do most of the restoration works himself.
“At the moment I am putting a roof back up on one of the sheds. The plan is to restore the shopfront to how it would have looked traditionally, and use the interior of the shop as a space to sell my goods, but also create them and run workshops from, where people can come and learn to make furniture themselves.”
Eoin plans to live upstairs and he will store and process all of the wood he uses for his projects in the large yard. He also hopes to convert a few outbuildings into accommodation for people who are coming to take part in the workshops.
“Most of the work I’ll do myself, but I won’t let my ego run away with me either. The plumbing, electrical and plastering will be left to the professionals. I have friends to help me too which is great.”
Eoin will be sharing some of his woodworking skills at the upcoming Púca festival, where he is hosting traditional súgán chair-making sessions on 30 October and 1 November. “Súgán is Irish for twisted rope. Much of our heritage is steeped in poverty, and in my mind, the súgán chair is a reflection of that,” Eoin explains.
“Much of Ireland was deforested during the last few hundred years. The peasantry wouldn’t have had access to trees large enough to make planks of wood. What they had was the scraps, the thin pieces of branches, twigs and offcuts.
“These chairs were made in the form of a wooden frame, but there was no wooden piece large enough to make a seat. So, the seat was made out of súgán, a twisted rope made from leftover straw or hay. The seat would last ten years, and then the old seat would be removed and composted, and a new seat would be woven. The style of weave is unique to Ireland. It was very sustainable.”
- Returning to Trim and Athboy from Thursday, 29th October to Sunday, 1st November, Púca Festival will bring together four days and nights of music, comedy, folklore, spectacle and hands-on experiences rooted in the traditions of Samhain. Developed by Fáilte Ireland in partnership with Meath County Council, Púca Festival celebrates Ireland as the birthplace of Halloween through a vibrant and contemporary festival experience rooted in the ancient customs of Samhain.
- For the full festival programme, ticket information and the latest updates, visit pucafestival.com and follow Púca Festival across social media.
Discover more from All About Cork
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
