Crafty News Desk

New Year Greetings from the Crafty News Desk. 

Having just emerged from under a couple of viruses - one in my body and one nasty one on the computer - I am now ready to embrace the year ahead. 

So lets say goodbye to the old year and give a Golden Globe to the Crafty Ireland Team.

The year was 2010 and what a year it was for the Etsy Ireland Team of crafters.  We started the year with just about 100 members and as we step into the new year the number has passed 180 and still growing. It was a year of achievements both individually and collectively - here are just some of them. 

• Craft Markets have sprung up all over the country, both North and South, and many of our members have had a big part to play in their development, as well as taking part.
• This blog was nominated and made it through to the final of the Irish Blog Awards in the Specialist Blog category in March.
• Numerous magazine and newspaper articles have highlighted the work of some of our members - Prudence Magazine featured 6 of our crafters in May and Purls was interviewed on Radio in August.
• Others were featured on ETSY sites including Blog articles, the Storque and front page Treasuries.
• A number of teddy bears went advertising for us in late summer and turned up in the strangest of places (Mary put labels with our blog address on some teddy bears and we left them in various locations around Dublin)  if anyone has come across them or knows where they are now could they let us know.

There are many, many more as this is a very prolific team of crafters.  So I say a collective WELL DONE ALL ON A GREAT YEAR.

And so we come to 2011

The Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI) and Craft Northern Ireland (Craft NI) have designated 2011 as Year of Craft. The year marks the 40th anniversary of the Crafts Council of Ireland and will be celebrated through a diverse range of dynamic events and programmes at home and abroad to showcase the very best of craft made on the island of Ireland.  President Mary McAleese will be Patron for Year of Craft 2011.

A dedicated website www.craftinireland.com  is now live with the most up to date listing of events for Year of Craft 2011.
It might be worth our while doing something as a group to highlight our group and tie it in with the national events!!!!!  There have already been some suggestions given on the team blog. 
Something for the new team to get their teeth into.  
What do you think?
Should we organise some meetings to pool our ideas?
Comments welcome at the end of this blog post.

On a similar note  there is a big Irish Craft/Arts campaign going on in the US this year - is there any way we can link into it in some way?  Especially as most of the ETSY community are in the States?

Post your comments at the end of this blog article or on the our chat line on the ETSY Ireland team blog on ESTY Craft Year Chat

For those of you who may be new to this group >  a big welcome to you all.  There is a wealth of articles on this blog that will help you if you are starting up on ETSY or if you want to improve your shop and the way you approach your selling.  You will also get a look inside some of the work areas of our members and learn about their secrets to success.  We are a friendly bunch and are here to help


MARKET NEWS
A new Home Souk will be launched on Saturday, 5 March, and will run bi-monthly in BELFAST.

Home Souk criteria:
Previously loved/owned furniture and soft furnishings
Revamped, upcycled soft furnishings & home wares
Lovingly made soft furnishings, crafts, homewares
Fairly Sourced soft furnishings & home wares

A new Fashion Souk website at will soon be up at http://www.thefashionsouk.com/
To book a stall, contact info@thefashionsouk.com


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That's about it for this week.  Have a look at  the previous article by Purls on the new Team leaders for the group.  If you would like to step up and take an active part get in touch with her.

Keep the news coming in
See you all next week
Cheers
Mo
aka huggleknits and mosbitsnpieces