Crafty News Desk

Greetings from the Crafty News Desk
This weeks photo was taken at the Bloom Festival over the Bank Holiday weekend.  I just love this colour combination.....

Continued congrats to Ruth from  nicedaydesigns  and all the other volunteers who are working in the Pop Up Shop in Limerick.  Nice article in the Limerick Leader limerickleader  . 
Only one more weekend left to browse and buy in the shop so get on down to Bourke's Bar in Catherine St.  Closes next Sunday......

The Pop Up Shop and Etsy Ireland also were menetioned in the Irish Craft Supplement in the Irish Times last week.  Onwards and Upwards ladies and gents!!!!!!!

For those of you in Dublin, there is a series of weekend Craft Fairs in the Powerscourt Centre over the Summer.  The rates for the tables are reasonable.  Are there any Dublin crafters interested in being part of an Etsy Ireland corner?  If so, contract me through my etsy shop and leave your email address.  It could be interesting......

Print Block is a collective of textile artists and designers working predominantly in the field of screen print. Print Block originated in 2010 to collaborate on exhibitions, to share information, to gain access to printing facilities in Dublin, and to elevate the medium of textiles within Ireland. At present we are looking to expand our membership and are looking for new members.   For full information please visit printblock.tumblr.com.
Batik Techniques for Beginners at The Studio, Bennettsbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Sunday 3 July 2011, 10am – 5pm 
A one day workshop introducing basic and contemporary processes of batik – an ancient fabric dyeing and decorating technique where hot wax is used as a resist on cloth.
Fee: E75 – including all materials used during the day
For availability and bookings please contact Tunde: 087 2543362

21st Century Irish Craft Exhibition - The National Museum of Ireland's collection of Irish contemporary craft on display at the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts & History, Collins Barracks, Benburb Street, Dublin 7, from 8 June to 08 December 2011   

Mary from QueenofCuffs  and I Huggleknits  will be at the Dancing Buffalo Art + Craft Fair at Spawell Dublin next Sunday 17 June from 12 to 5.  Mary will have a selection of her wonderful cuffs and other crafted items and, as well as my Tiny Chuus, Baby Cards, Knit Kits and knitting needles,  I will be offering a large range of craft books and magazines at a "never to be repeated" price.  It would be great to see you there......

Thats about it for this week.
As always, keep the information coming in.
Cheers,
Mo
Huggleknits

Pop-Up Shop Pictures and Exciting News

The blank dusty canvas.

 It's been an eventful weekend for the Etsy Ireland Team, as we had our first Pop-Up shop as part of the Catherine Street Cultural Dig in Limerick City. We were lucky enough to get a large space in Bourkes Bar in the heart of all the activity. The above space is an unused section of the put that the owners were good enough to clear out for us to use for the weekend. As you can see it was a rustic blank canvas so we spent 2 days putting together the 'shop'. I thought that getting a bold strong colour for the table clothes would help brighten the place up and also go towards tying all the elements together, to stop it from looking too higglety pigglety. Then contrasting the red with some bright green crepe paper to help cover up the cardboard display boxes that I used, I then used these colours in the poster design so that it all matched together, to give it that shabby chic shop feel. We were never going to get the space looking like a boutique so we worked with the rough edges and 'cuted' it up a bit.

After about a day working the space started to look like it was coming together.

Opening day Saturday morning.

After some last minute tweeks and table rearranging we opened our doors at 11am on Saturday morning, and with about 20 minutes we had our first customer, which is pretty amazing. From doing markets I know that you can stand for hours with lots of enthusiastic browsers and still not make a sale, so it's good to break the seal early to relieve that underlying stress. Saturday was a really busy day, so it was great the Rebecca from Lucky Rainbow Designs, Jess from Betty Octopus, Mollie and her son Elliot (friendliest kid ever, who helped out lots with getting customers into the shop!!)from Spleodar, and Helen from Stained Glass Fayre were there to take the selling in turns. We also ran free craft classes on the Saturday, Rebecca did a card making demo in the local craft shop Silkes, I did a sewing demo in the pop-up shop, and Kate from Feltfieltrofilc did a felting demo. Which meant the place was a buzz with activity.

Browsing customers.

There was great feedback from the punters and browsers alike, they were very excited to see a shop with all Irish handmade goods. They also loved the idea of the pop-up shop, feeling it was in the spirit of new recession Ireland. There was plenty of well wishers, most people taking business cards from the sellers if they weren't deciding to buy on the day. It was great that the festival was on as it meant that there were lots of arty creative types in the area who understand the work that goes into handmade.

All of us that were there manning the shop were really excited to be taking part, but as Sunday rolled around we started feeling pretty doom and gloom that it would all be taken down the next day. We had a little word with the organiser mooting the idea that we might ask to keep it open for a week, and she thought we should run it by the owner of the pub. Much to our surprise and AMAZING DELIGHT Niall was open to this suggestion, and then said that he wouldn't need the space for the next month!! So I'm delighted to announce that we have our own pop-up shop in the heart of Limerick city for the next month!!!!! And free of charge!! It was an amazingly nice gesture from Niall, I couldn't believe how easy it was, I nearly gave the man a hug even though I don't know him at all really. After many squeals, high fives and sporadic happy dances we started to think about the logistics of it.  All the local etsy members are going to take it in turns to man the shop, putting in voluntary hours whenever we can manage it. We are gonna open 3-4 days a week, with a few extra 'staff' on Saturdays to handle the extra footfall. I'll be in touch with all the members that are already taking part via email with more specific details about the arrangements.

We are full to the brim with work already, but it might be nice to rotate the work a little bit over the month so people don't get bored, so a few more sellers would be welcome, but sadly not a massive amount as we already have a lot on our plate. If you are interested please email me at ruthcrean@yahoo.ie.

To see more pictures of the shop click here.
Also please visit our new facebook page for the pop-up shop, the more we can spread the news about this the better, so sharing,liking and linking would be greatly appreciated, especially from those sending items to the shop.

We also need to send a huge thank you to Michelle and Alice from Fondelifair who sponsored the event for us. They donated money for the printing of flyers and posters, which really helped out with our expenses. (to those of you who already paid €5 each, the money was used to buy table cloths, blue tac, thumb tacs, etc etc, all the hidden expenses that go along with running an event like this). Any of you who haven't heard already Fondelifair is an Irish website set up for selling handcrafts online. I've joined myself and so have a good few other team members. The site will be launched at the start of June, and there is free membership until the end of the month, so get in there quick! It can be really good to get in on a site like this at the very start, as your pieces will not get lost within millions of listings like what can happen on Etsy. They will be having a big launch in June with lots of national press to raise awareness so it would be good to have some of your items listed before all that goes ahead.

Our hero Niall, who has given us the space for a month!!

Are you ready to sell?

Yellow and Blue Heart Favour or Proposal Box by Nice Day Designs

Today I posted a packet with 8 Purls of Colour items to Limerick to be (hopefully sold) by Ruth from Nice Day Designs at the Etsy Ireland pop-up shop at the Catherine Street Cultural Dig on 13-15 May 2011. I am really excited about this fabulous opportunity to display my knitwear somewhere else in Ireland! It's also great to see something happening that we've talked about at team meetings and on the blog for some time, namely our own pop-up shop.

Thanks Ruth for not letting this opportunity slip by!

 You're amazing by Lucky Rainbow Designs

Of course it is scary to part with something I've worked on for some time and give it into somebody else's hands, but since I am not a natural-born seller and far too precious about my own creations, it was high time that I did send off a few of my pieces to be displayed and sold elsewhere. I am supposed to sell my knitwear, not just make them and then put them into a storage box!

However, this opportunity yet again makes me realise the question of being ready to sell. I haven't been blessed with many sales on Etsy - most of my sales and commissions happen through friends and family - so I somehow still haven't really managed the whole aspect of presentation and packaging.

 Brown paper package in red ribbon card by Paperpennies

Well, since my funds are lower than certain celebs' necklines, I never invested much money into wrapping paper, little gifts and packaging material - and on top of this just ran out of business cards. My parcels are created with cheerfully recycled materials, which suits me because I like doing my bit for the environment. But I am so unprepared - when a sale happens, then I start rushing around, looking for envelopes, looking for a Belfast card to add to the piece, scrambling for tissue paper and bits of yarn to wrap everything nicely - leaving my studio in total disarray and myself in a total frenzy. If there suddenly were a big rush on my shop, I think I'd run for the hills (and probably would have to collect leaves as wrapping material...).

Vintage cameo Grecian girl wall plate pin dish by Irish Bounty

Preparation is the key! You have to be prepared to sell, have envelopes, thank you cards and wrapping paper ready before a sale, and not end up in a frenzy once you get the lovely 'Etsy transactions' message. Maybe being prepared is sending a strong message to the sales fairy in the sky and she will whip out that cornucopia, overflowing with sales vibes...

 Heading to Limerick...

Somehow your head has to be in sales mode to be an Etsy Success! poster girl, so I need to tackle the aspect of getting ready and preparing for the sales, and also to stop clinging to my pieces as if my life depended on it. Sending the parcel off was a big step to do so. I had to be prepared, organised, think about the pieces I was going to send, write the descriptions and prices on sales tags and make sure that everything was included, because once the parcel was sent, I could not rely on a last-minute stroke of creativity to compensate for the fact that I had forgotten something. I also did for once not allow myself to be distracted by a sudden urge to knit another (and very special) item for the parcel.

Now the parcel is away and I feel inspired and ready to sell...


To send your own parcel to Ruth for the wonderful opportunity to show off and sell your pieces at the Etsy Ireland team pop up shop, check out the blog article on the Catherine Street Cultural Dig and email her at ruthcrean@yahoo.ie

Pop Up Shop Opportunity: Limerick

A Ghost Walk

On behalf of the Etsy Ireland Team I put together a proposal for an arts event in Limerick called the Catherine Street Cultural Dig 2011. Luckily the proposal was accepted and we have been given the green light to go ahead and get things organised. I put forward the idea of having a pop up shop for the weekend of the event, selling all the wares from the Etsy Ireland Team, running along side this we'll have craft demonstrations and workshops that people can join in with. The items will be for sale but the classes will be free. We have been given a prime location in Bourkes Bar, in a side room that is unused but which has two french doors out onto the main street. This is one of the busiest parts of the street and will have a steady passing trade.

The pub behind is our venue.

The logistics of getting this organised would mean people posting items to me, which I would then sell in the pop up shop. Whatever is sold all the money would go directly to you, and whatever doesn't sell will be returned by post. I would ask that people cover the cost of the return postage, please enclose the cash and a return address in the parcel. Alternatively if anyone is living near Limerick I would be delighted to get some help both setting up the event, selling, and giving craft classes. I was also thinking we need a small fund for printing posters and some flyers, so maybe if everyone who is entering work if they could donate €5 towards this cost.

The Cat Dig (as it's known for short) will be on Fri 13th-Sun 15th of May, and it is located along one of the main shopping streets in Limerick City. It is an interactive arts project that aims to bring art into the community in an engaging way, events and performances are held in shops, pubs, cafes, derelict sites, and weather permitting on the street itself. Last year there was dance, music, sound art, drawing classes, craft classes, talks on vinyl, performance art, video installation etc etc. It's a great opportunity for artists who work in lots of different disciplines to get together for one weekend to showcase their work and to engage with the community and their surroundings. I can only describe last years event as something quite magical, you can check out a great video here.

Open air dance and cello performance

So if you are interested in selling there please email me for my address. I would ask that people can start sending me things by the first week in May to make sure I have everything on time and so I can start planning the display. If you want to volunteer to help please get in touch asap. Lastly if you want to run a class on the Saturday let me know what you would be teaching and how long you would think it would take. All materials have to be supplied by ourselves.
My email is ruthcrean@yahoo.ie.

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