Two people standing in front of a shelf with a sign that reads 'Blue Shoe Gallery'.

About Us

Ireland has always produced people with an extraordinary gift for seeing. Artists who find something in a landscape, a community, a moment and make it visible for the rest of us.

We have spent years developing an eye for that gift.

Sometimes we find an artist and know immediately that their work belongs somewhere new. Sometimes the vision comes first and we bring it to an artist who can make it real. Either way there is a moment in a conversation, in a brief, in the first time a new piece comes off the press when something is simply right.

That instinct is at the heart of every collection we have made.

We find the artists. We originate the ideas. We bring the vision into print, frame every piece by hand in our Cork studio, and put it in front of the people who will love it.

Giving someone a piece of art is a particular kind of knowing. It says - I saw this and I thought of you.

We make that moment possible.
And we make it beautifully.

The name Blue Shoe Gallery comes from Salter's Footwear, the shoe shop Clive's grandfather opened in the West of Ireland, where Clive spent his earliest days behind the counter. A family business built on knowing your customer and standing behind what you sell. Some things don't change.

Eileen grew up in a house where everything was fixed or made. That early appreciation for craft, for the value of something made properly by hand, never left her. It is in every piece that leaves their Cork studio.

Our paths crossed in the Irish craft industry. Blue Shoe Gallery is built on shared passion, craft, and friendship.

Clive Salter and Eileen O'Brien
Blue Shoe Gallery, Cork