Hunt Museum Limerick Craft Fair

The Hunt Museum in Limerick City is having a craft fair on the 15th & 16th December next. If anyone is interested in participating and taking a stall please contact Mairead Keane on 061-490083 or email
adminoffice@huntmuseum.com 

Thanks
Caroline

It's a Wrap: Etsy Ireland Pop-Up Shop

Press Shot of the shop by Neville Gawley

The Limerick Etsy Ireland Pop-Up shop is all finished now. It's all been packed up, and the last few bits and pieces are sitting in my living room, and will definitely be sorted today before my housemate kills me! It was a really great achievement for the team and an invaluable experience to learn how a shop works, even just for a month. The space we were using (thanks again to our hero Niall!) is now being turned into a late night cafe, and I for one am delighted, the city really needs it! It's amazing how long it took to put together and in the space of an hour it was all in boxes and packed into the back of Helen's car!

The shop all packed up in bags and sitting in my living room!

It was a really great success sales-wise I never would have expected it to be so popular. I noticed a big difference between selling in a shop as opposed to a market. There seemed to be a greater enthusiasm and appreciation for the craft. People were commenting on how reasonable the prices were(contrasted to some of the comments I get at my stall that I'm ripping people off). It was interesting to note the shift in attitude, I think when people are in town and shopping they are in the mode to spend more money,€20 for a bracelet seems fine when you are next door to a boutique. Whereas €20 for the same item when you are next to a veg stall and a bric a brac stall suddenly seems extortionate-it's all about context.

There was repeated comments throughout the month about how positive people were to see Irish handcrafts and also to see something so creative happening in their city. People are so jaded with doom and gloom in the media that they want to hear about people making a go of it themselves and starting their own business, and lots of people wanted to support that with their wallets.

It was also interesting to look at the figures at the end of the month and see that not all the big sales when to the most popular shops. So if you aren't doing great on Etsy don't be disheartened, maybe a shop would be better for you. There were sellers that have only made a few online sales who did incredibly well in the shop, some things just need to be seen in person maybe.

As for what sold? On the first weekend lots of baby things sold, lots of people were passing through who knew someone with a new baby and they were looking for a gift and a card. Also wedding cards were very sought after. It's true Ireland is going through a wedding and baby boom, so if you can capitalise on it you should. Cards were very popular as they were the lowest priced items and people picked up a few for future occasions while they were browsing. Even though we had lots of jewellery it did sell well, with rings being one of the best sellers.

The cool bags that Etsy sent us!

Etsy were very good and got in touch with me, they wanted to thank us for all the hard work we've put it and they also sponsored our second lot of flyers that we needed to get printed. They also sent us these fab tote bags, which we gave to customers who spent over €10, a great incentive for people to put their hands in the pockets! They are also sponsoring those of us who worked in the shop to go for a few drinks to celebrate, which will be happening when I get around to arranging it! I was delighted that they spotted what we were doing, apparently it was the US branch that got in touch with Amity and told her to hunt down the organiser. So Etsy are watching us!

We also managed to get into two newspapers, both the Sunday Business Post and also the Limerick Leader. The local paper brought us some extra footfall and sales. If we do this again we must try to get the press on board early, as we were nearly finished by the time it went to press.

A mortifying picture of myself and Noreen Foley that was in The Limerick Leader

I have put forward an application to the council to try to get a space in Limerick near to Christmas. I haven't heard a peep from them yet but I'll keep you guys posted. It won't be exactly the same arrangement as before, I've learned an awful lot by doing this pop-up shop, but all details will be discussed before hand. I know that markets were not that great for me last year and it's in my best interest to find another avenue for selling. Last year it was just too darned cold to sell outdoors, and the customers all flocked to the shops where there were heaters, and it wasn't -12! If the council don't give us anything maybe we could look at renting a low priced art space for a month...or something like that. It's early days yet and we have lots of time to throw out ideas. Also it might be good for the Dublin branch to give it a go, if you can't get anything officially, maybe approach individual businesses and see if you could work something out.

Press Photos by Neville Gawley

Press photos by Neville Gawley

I'd like to thank  everyone who gave of their time to help man the shop, this couldn't have worked without the support of everyone. So please click on the links and visit their shops to show your appreciation.
Helen from Stained Glass Fayre
Rebecca from Lucky Rainbow Designs
Neville from Neville Gawley Photography
Jess from Bettyoctopus
Majella and her husband Bart from Delicious Art Glass
Mark from Marmot Art (not on etsy yet but I'll convince him to join soon!)
and
Me(Ruth) from Nice Day Designs and Nice Day Supplies


Noreen and partner Locky from Hanora.K.Designs(not on etsy but I'm helping her set up her shop this month)
Also thanks to Ann, Orla and Noreen for the tables. To Niall and all the staff of Bourkes Bar for their time,patience, and the space! To Michelle and Alice from Fonelifair for sponsoring our flyers. To Neville for taking pictures of the space for us. To Neville for doing the shop on my birthday so I could have a day off!

(A small note to sellers involved: Thanks for being understanding with my lack of emails sometimes.The project turned into something much bigger than the two day event that I originally took on. It's taken longer than expected to sort through all the work, but I'll be posting out the rest of it today. If you haven't heard from me yet I'll also be in touch today, I've about 6 people yet left to email.)

Crafty News

Our Etsy Ireland pop-up shop in Limerick is still going strong. Check out the shop's Facebook page for updates and opening times! And not only is Ruth from Nicedaydesigns doing a fabulous job with the Etsy Ireland pop-up shop, she was also recently featured in Prudence magazine! Congratulations!!!
Read all about it on Ruth's blog - and if my place ever looked as gorgeous, I'd die of shock!!!

Fi from Patchworkdelights is having a blog giveaway! If you want to be in to win some beautiful goodies, post a comment and follow her blog before 25 May midnight (GMT)!

Anne-Marie from byAmo'r recently drew our attention to the problem of the Etsy Shop Local defaulting to the UK for the Republic of Ireland. No, this has nothing to do with any Royal visits or visits of US Presidents who all have Irish ancestors, but according to Etsy it is a technical problem and they are working on it. My Shop Local regularly directs me to some interesting places in Scotland rather than Belfast, Northern Ireland.

If you are not showing up in local searches, try the following:

Check that you have set the location in your profile from the suggested list of locations that pops up. If you manually type in your location, it may not correctly be registered in the Shop Local section. To do this, sign in to your account and go to Your Account, Public Profile. Then in "city", begin typing your location. You should choose from the list that pops up the closest match to your location. This should correctly register your location in the Shop Local feature.

To be found in local searches is important so that Irish buyers as well as ex-pats and international customers with Irish heritage (like said US Presidents past and present) who look specifically for Irish or Celtic materials and items directly from Ireland will be able to find your shop.

Thanks to Anne-Marie for all the information and for getting in touch with the great and good from Etsy.

Congratulations to Alice and Michelle of Fondelifair. The new Irish online shop site and community has just welcomed its 101st member! The community is starting to thrive and hive, and I've already become addicted to the place...

I haven't received much information about markets, but this exhibition looks really interesting:

A Constant Thread
An exhibition celebrating older Irish craftspeople as part of the Bealtaine Festival, Rathfarnham Castle, Rathfarnham Road, Dublin 14, running until 29 May 2011, open 10:00 to 4.30, free entrance.

The 'Art of Craft' Fair, organised by Armagh City & District Council and The Craft & Design Collective, will take place from 27-29 May across the two sites of Armagh's Market Place Theatre and Saint Patrick’s Trian Visitor Complex. It includes craft workshops, demonstrations and performances.

And it's National Drawing Day on 28 May 2011, so you might want to put pencil to paper to honour the occasion!

Mo has just arrived back from her holidays, and will be back at the Crafty News desk next week! So please send any snippets of crafty information you have to http://www.etsy.com/shop/HuggleKnits
Welcome Back, Mo!

And for me, it is goodbye to Simon, the travelling gecko, who has been staying with me for the last three weeks! He'll be on his merry way towards the end of this week, and he'll be sadly missed here.

 Purls

Crafty News

This week's Crafty News is late and short, but then again, we just had the big news about the extension of the Etsy Ireland pop-up shop in Limerick, so if you've been awol from the Etsy Ireland bloggersphere or facebooksphere, now is the time to catch up and celebrate!

So what else is new?

• Our very own Designbirdie is having a Blog Giveaway with lovely prices! So don't miss your chance to win some goodies - and yes, also say hello to her new blog!

• “Latitudes” the new exhibition by Filament Fibre Artists is opening this Thursday the 19th at 6:30 pm at Airfield in Dundrum.
  If you can’t make it to the opening night you might be interested in coming to a tour of the exhibition on Sunday the 22nd at 3:00 pm or to join the Filament Fibre Artists as they celebrate National Drawing Day at Airfield on Saturday the 28th of May. Tours and drawing activities are included in the cost of entry to the Airfield Estate.

If you have any news about art and craft events, markets or National Drawing Day, please share! While Mo is hopefully enjoying some sunshine on her holidays, send your info to me, Purls, or post it in the comments.

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!!

Crafty News

Flowers at Malone House, South Belfast

Since our Mo is away on a well-deserved holiday and nobody has come forward to step into her shoes for these three weeks, you'll get me, Purls, once more.

And this leads me into the next subject, which is our blog. I am a bit thin on the ground for contributions, so unless you want to read Purls' yarnspinning every day, or have Jacob's growls and scowls for a week, I need to see paws up for the blog.

To show you all how effective our blog is, here is a link to an article by Alice on Fondelifair, which shows clearly that people are reading this blog and that articles translate into visitors to featured shops and author's websites.

This is very good news. Do you need any more persuasion, or do I have to send the bear in???


More crafty news:

• this weekend, Etsy Ireland's pop-up-shop, organised by Ruth from nicedaydesigns will dazzle visitors during the Cat Dig in Limerick. If you had the good intentions of sending some of your products down, but it went out of your head, check with Ruth whether or not it's too late to send things now.

• Some of our team members have joined Fondelifair, the new Irish online craft community and marketplace, and we're making ourselves quite at home there while getting to grips with the joys of Word Press. For those who would like to learn and brush up their Word Press skills, this might be the right course for you.

• The Home Souk and the Fashion Souk are on in Belfast this weekend. Both are taking place in the Europa Hotel from 11am to 5pm (Home Souk is on 14 May, Fashion Souk on 15th)
  

• Various Craft Fairs are happening in Cavan, Dundalk, Meath, Portarlington, and Athy during May and June
  

• Don't forget to put in for the Craft Guerrilla Designer Makers Competition to gain a stall space at one of the Knitting & Stitching shows in London, Harrogate and Dublin. The Deadline is 30 June 2011!
  

As always keep an eye on the Year of Craft website for updates countrywide, and tell me of any interesting crafty news happening in your area!

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.

Their facebook page.
Their Blog.

Limerick Meeting With Etsy Rep

(l-r) Ruth, Rebecca, Bernadette, Helen, Nicola, Orla

On Sunday just gone a few of us team members met up with the lovely Bernadette from the New York office of Etsy. It was kind of a late notice thing, so I contacted as many Limerick based sellers as I could and we met up at the Sunday craft Milk Market in Limerick.

Let me first say how lovely and down to earth Bernadette is, she told us all about her office and the work that they do in the customer care team that she works in. She is part of the 'support' team in Etsy, some of you may have emailed them with questions or reporting abuse etc.

Some of you may have heard the news in the Sunday Business post that Etsy are setting up an office in Ireland, which was part of the reason for her trip here; to scout out the situation. At present they are deciding between Dublin, Galway and Limerick, and are meeting with recruitment agencies and business folk in each of these cities. They will be setting up another customer support team here to deal with all the queries that come through at night in the US. Ireland is a very desirable venue to set up an office because of the tax breaks, because we speak English, and we have a highly skilled workforce. As yet they have not decided on what city they will be based in but Bernadette assured us that she would keep us all informed! She said that they prefer to hire Etsy users/sellers as they have a good knowledge of the site, so that's good news for any of you that are job hunting out there. She estimated that it would take approx. 6 months for this venture to get rolling, but it's still very exciting news.

We went on to discuss some of the new changes in Etsy, most notably the currency conversion and how it's affected us. All in all we were very relieved with being able to list in euro, and Bernadette said at Etsy they were delighted to be able to offer it at long last, saying that 30% of sales are from outside the US. We also chatted about the new 'copy' function for listing items, which has made managing a larger shop so much easier (you'll see this if you click on any of your items, after 'renew'). There was also talk of the new teams section and the discussion threads that are there. I did ask that a group convo tool be granted to team leaders as this can made team co-ordination so much easier and less time consuming; telling her of the days when I was sending 100 individual convos to team members.

There was general other meanderings into topics of the snow, surfing, Irish tourism etc, and it was lovely just to have an aul' natter! Here are some pieces from all the members who were at the meeting. (l-r)

The Letter Box Press,

Nice Day Designs,

Lucky Rainbow Designs,

Stained Glass Fayre,

Farapinalia

Also Bernadette gave us all one of these beautiful letterpress Etsy calenders, it's already hanging on the wall in my studio!

Crafty Getaway to Limerick City

A little while ago we suggested in this post an Etsy Ireland trip to Limerick. We thought we would get more takers for this offer if we finalised some arrangements. We are setting the date for the 17th of July. Just in case you didn't see the last post here is the general idea:

Rebecca from Lucky Rainbow Designs is a student village co-ordinator in the University of Limerick and she has very kindly offered free accommodation for the group to come and have a little getaway. The houses would sleep about 14 people, so we are limited in space so please leave a comment here if you are interested and I'll be in touch. Don't worry the houses have all been cleaned top to toe since the students left!!

The plan would be to meet in the early afternoon, or depending on travel times for people coming from further afar that's flexible for each person. Myself and Rebecca would show you the craft shops and local attractions. Including a couple of our favourite pubs later that evening. Then it's back to campus where you get to stay for free!! The next day if anyone wants to take a gander down town they can come have a look at the crafty market I sell at on Sunday. If you want to check out some more info about Limerick check out ILoveLimerick and The Limerick Co-Ordination website.

For bus times click here, or train times click here. Alternatively if there was someone else from the team driving maybe people could share lifts and petrol costs etc. So if anyone is thinking of driving can you mention it in your comment below and other team members in your area can get in touch.

This trip is open to Etsy Ireland members, or those thinking of joining the team, it's about like minded people coming together and having a bit of fun and getting to see a new city.

Image: Dave Hunt-Limerick City Skyline

Monthly Craft Market

I received an email a few days ago letting me know about a craft market opportunity in Limerick City. It's a monthly event on the last Thursday of every month, and it's situated in the newly refurbished Milk Market right in the centre of the city. I talked to the organiser yesterday on the phone and she said there will be a huge effort put into advertising this ongoing event, with local papers, magazines, press, and hotels. There are still spaces available at this event and I thought I would post it here to see if anyone in the Munster region would be interested. It is set to start in July, but I'd say get in there early before all the limited spaces are gone. It's a great venue in one of the most sought after market venues in Ireland, especially considering the very impressive new refurbishment. Check out the Milk Market website for a better idea of the venue, and here is the details below that I received in the email. I already booked myself a slot, and I'll be trading there weekly on Fridays and Sundays, it would be lovely to see a few faces

NB: If you are interested in taking part in the monthly Thursday Market, please use the contact info below and not the contact on the Milk Market Website.

New monthly Arts and Craft Fair to be held in the newly built indoor milk market in Limerick . This fair will run on the last Thursday of every month. Arts and Crafts will be the soul of the fair with musical entertainment to create atmosphere. Food and seating will be available within the Fair to encourage people to stay and enjoy the atmosphere! The Milk Market to date has only had a Saturday food market so this is a very exciting development for the people of Limerick and it's surrounds. The Fair aims to provide you with a regular monthly stand thus allowing you to showcase your crafts to a wide variety of people. We aim for this market to be inventive and vibrant on an ongoing basis so don't miss this exciting opportunity to take part and book your place now! To have the chance to sell your product at this fair we are offering a very reasonable introductory price of €50 inclusive of stand so don't hesitate to contact me, Christine on 086 3538928 or chrissyp@live.ie chrissyp@live.ie

Full Circle - Irish Traditional Crafts

Chapter 4 - Irish Lace and Crochet

Its only when you start looking for information that you realise how much you don't really know. I would have said that I was fairly ok at crochet and assumed that Irish lace would only require a small adjustment i.e. using finer thread and a smaller crochet hook...... how wrong I was. But I go too quickly.

When I left you in the last chapter I had mastered the art of aran knitting and was looking forward to making a family heirloom for my DH in the oncoming winter months. In the meantime I turned my eyes to crochet.

While knitting is constructed using a pair of knitting needles, crocheters use a smaller needle with a hook at the end. More general information on how to get started can be found on the Internet e.g. http://crochet.about.com/od/learnbasics/a/beginners.htm

Every known method of making lace by hand has been used at some time in Ireland from bobbin, needlepoint and hooked(crochet). The earliest of these was bone lace, also known as bobbin or pillow lace where a design was drawn on paper, pins were put into the design at various points and thread, wound on small bobbins (the earliest of these were made from bone), was twisted or plaited in different ways round the pins to make the design. I watched a lady do this in Brussels last year and I was mesmerised. It takes months of practice to master the skills needed so i did not attempt it for this report. You can see how its done by going to utube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL5EZqc6peY

Tambour Lace was introduced to Ireland in the 1820s by Rev Charles Walker when he came from England to settle in Limerick. He started a lace workshop with his wife and produced what we now know as Limerick Lace. It uses a chain stitch to embroider on net with a special hooked needle and derives its name form the round frame in which the work is held. A sample of this lace can be seen here: http://www.irishlacemuseum.com/Museum/Limerickpg.html

Carrickmacross lace uses another form of embroidery and can be made using applique and guipure. For applique fine net is tacked over a design drawn on paper and then a layer of muslin is placed on top. The design is sewn through both layers. The surplus muslin is then cut away and filling stitches are used to complete the design. For guipure the outline of the design is traced with threads on cambric and the surplus is cut away. A sample of this lace can be seen here: http://www.irishlacemuseum.com/Museum/Carrickmacrosspg.html

Irish crochet lace is probably the most recognisable. Honoria Nagle who founded the first Irish schools in Cork brought this lace making skill to the children in the late 1700s. It is made by using a hook and thread and in earlier times hooks were sometimes made by removing one side of the eye of an ordinary sewing needle and sticking the point in a cork.



I have had a go at making a lace doily (see below) and I can safely say it was a labour of love - slow but satisfying. I would hope at a later date to do a course in one of the other Irish lace making crafts, and that is definitely something I will look forward to.



There are some crocheters in the CraftyIrelandTeam, go check them out under "crochet".
Further Information: .http://www.museum.ie/en/collection/lace.aspx

Next month's report will be on Patchwork (and I haven't forgotten about the Cris I mentioned in last months report - I hope to have it with the weaving story in July - fingers crossed). Any patchwork people who would like to be listed/highlighted here just get touch by 20 June. Next report due on Thursday 24 June.

On a personal note I have my shop up and running again and am working on Organic Cotton Comfy Crochet hats.... check them out.. http://www.huggleknits.etsy.com/. I also have a supplies shop where you can get Knitting Needles/Notions/Nonsense.... check it out http://mosbitsnpieces.etsy.com/

That's it for now - as always I welcome any comments and suggestions. Thanks for reading.

Cheers
Mo

Wanna Meet?

It's been a while since our last team meeting and we talked last time about holding the next one outside of Dublin. At present we are deciding between Cork and Limerick as a venue, so if you can make it to either city leave a comment to vote for your preference. As usual the meeting will be held on a Saturday, early in the afternoon. I'm thinking that the end of May should be lots of time for people to organise things. So who's up for it??

Etsy Ireland Craft Workshop

This weekend Etsy Ireland took part in the Spiritstore Cat Dig event in Limerick City, from Friday to Sunday the was a great mix of free culural events from music to street art, dance performance, political discissions, and workshops. On Saturday in Faber Studios team members Nice Day Designs and Feltfeiltrofilc (myself and Kate) held a craft workshop from 3.30 to 6.30. To be honest I had no idea what to expect, I had visions of either 30 people demanding a full professional class, or an empty room...the reality was somewhere in the middle thankfully.

Kate showed people how she creates her beautiful felt creations, she brought in her spinning machine, and also kneeded the felt together. She helped people make their own felt flowers and showed them how much work goes into each of her amazing pieces. People were really facinated to see the process behind this tradional craft, and for the whole day there was a bunch of people at her table asking lots of questions.
I prepared two things, one was a very informal brooch making class, providing people with lots of scraps of material, ribbon, lace, beads, buttons and felt. Showing them how I make my brooches and giving them some ideas of what they could do. This was really successful as people loved coming in and being able to make something for themselves, there was lots of ladies with colourful brooches in the pub that night! I had also prepared some clothes to be customised, but since this meant I was behind the sewing machine it didn't work so well, after about 15 minutes I abandoned it and went back to basic sewing. I was really satisfying to see people enjoying it so much, and I also got to teach a little boy how to sew, his future wife will thank me!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Kate for volunteering and being so giving with her time, my friend Cecily for being an extra pair of hands, Meg Kenny for being so lovely and helping with the teaching too. Lastly to the organisers who put in months of work for free to put together the weekend, it was really magical and it made the city shine!

Links

Spiritstore

Feltfieltrofilc

Nice Day Designs

Volunteers Please!!

At the last team meeting we talked lots about doing fairs and getting more involved as a group. So this led me to contact the Spiritstore project in Limerick City, the are running an event on the weekend of the 8-9th May, with lots of artists and performers all exhibiting work in one street. Because of the set-up that they have we are not allowed to sell items but they've asked the Etsy Ireland group to do a how-to class on the Saturday from 3.30-6.30pm. They've supplied a great indoor space right in the centre of the city, but we would need to supply materials. We can also set up a display area of things we have made, so we can advertise the team that way.

So I'm looking for people who will be around that weekend who would like to volunteer to do some simple workshops. I was thinking we might fit in a team meeting in the early afternoon too, to get what we are going to teach sorted...and also to have some yummy cake and coffee!

I really need to hear back from people on this as soon as possible please.

Introducing: Farapinalia

Hi, my name is Orla, from Farapinalia, and I live in Limerick in a house from the 1940s that seemed too large for myself and my long-suffering husband when we moved in 3 years ago. Now, however, it is about to explode due to the amount of fabric, wool, beads and trimmings that I am constantly cramming into it! I work from home. Oh dear!
I originally moved to Limerick for University where I studied Law, History and German. Quite early in the proceedings and much to the dismay of my parents and sensible acquaintances it became apparent that the reality of a law practice would not really suit me for some strange reason! For far more years than I care to remember I have been a Tour-Guide, travelling Ireland on mainly historical tours with coach-loads of German tourists! Well “two out of three aint bad”- and yes, I am old enough to remember the song.Around three years ago a friend and former colleague, Ruth from Nice Day Designs, began selling her fab customised clothes in a Sunday Market in the centre of Limerick . That got me thinking. Since I very rarely work on tours for 4-5 months every winter and spend much of that time baking and sewing, why not try doing it for a living? Actually make money from what has been my enduring passion since childhood- making pretty things for people and feeding them!! I figured that, since I was already making and customising wedding dresses for friends it wouldn’t be too hard! Famous last words! Still, with much encouragement I stuck with it and although it was slow to get going, it has been a challenge and a blast so far! When I am at home I go to markets in the area with my clothes and accessories and my Gluten and Wheat-free goodies. When I am touring I bring wool and crochet hooks with me! I even brought my sewing machine and fabric for a memorable month last year! My suitcase died! I now have a portable machine, perfect for holidays in Barcelona ! I did say long-suffering husband at the beginning!
I make clothes, bags and accessories from any material that I fall in love with at the time and I’m afraid that I must be a very fickle girl! At the moment I am making mainly crocheted hats, silk and chiffon skirts and dresses and brocade, velvet and p.v.c. coats! I love experimenting with different shapes and styles for my hats, trying different yarns and wools to get unusual effects and adding flowers, buttons and beads. I also adore embroidered and embellished silk for the luxurious feel and drape of it I have a terrible tendency to be unable to resist buying any that I really love when it is on sale and taking a year to work my way through all of it! Hence the house bursting at the seams! I started making rain macs from p.v.c. and vinyl 3 years ago and am constantly looking for funkier patterns and better-wearing material.

I also make fun and pretty costume jewellery from beads and findings, mostly sourced in Barcelona where we keep returning every year-my home away from home! Maybe when I am rich and famous! Ha ha!
Of late I have been custom designing and making bags, phone cases, briefcases and wallets which has been an enjoyable new challenge. I went on line in February after much nagging- sorry encouragement! Despite not knowing how to turn on a computer a year ago I love it and am really enjoying doing custom work for new people as far away as Australia ! I will be back doing coach tours again very shortly and have already got a new (sturdy) bag for my faithful sewing-machine companion!

Sustainable Futures Exhibition Limerick from 15 March at City Gallery

The Sustainable Futures exhibition aims to celebrate the works of Irish based designers and craftspeople that incorporate the concept of sustainability into their work. The works on show will be an eclectic mix of craft, design and fine art elements including furniture, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and jewellery. The exhibition also aims to increase awareness among the general public on the importance of acting sustainably.


A number of workshops and demonstration by artist and craftspeople will take place and the public will be encouraged to participate. The exhibition will run from the 15th of March till the end of April in the Limerick City Gallery and will be open to the public every day.

Exhibitors have incorporated some or all of the following sustainable attributes into their work:

• reduce, re-use, recycle, upcycle;
• containing re-used or recycled materials;
• minimising packaging;
• minimise or eliminate pollutants;
• source and produce locally;
• efficient resource and energy use;
• free from environmentally damaging substances;
• degradable, biodegradable and compostable
• sustainable production, distribution, usage and disposal qualities.

If any artists and craftspeople that are incorporating attributes of sustainability into their work are interested in finding out more please contact Diarmuid Neilan [ diarmuid.neilan@hotmail.com ] with a view to exhibiting and selling their work at the sustainable futures exhibition.

Thought this might be of interest to many of you in the Crafty Ireland team.

Image from the great FREE stock photo site www.sxc.hu

Trade Secrets...Limerick Suppliers

Hey there this is Ruth from Nice Day Designs and Nice Day Supplies, and I'm gonna show you a couple of my favorite supplies shops in Limerick. I buy an awful lot of my supplies online but nothing beats going to the shop and having a browse around a lovely supplies shop. The fact that I can see and touch things always makes me buy more. I work in quite a few diciplines, from making handmade cards, painting, sewing, and felt crafting. So I'm really glad that I have these two local shops just 5-10 minutes walk from my house.

Firstly there is this darling shop M-Sign that is on Mallow St in Limerick city centre. My first memory of this place is when I first moved to Limerick, and I walked down with my list for college clutched in my hand. They were so helpful and nice, I felt like a kid in a candy store. I love the work that Toni and Mary do, they are both so lovely, it's the kind of service you dream of getting in every shop. Their main focus is supplying materials for the art college students, and also for schools. They have a good range paint, pens, card, brushes and miscellaneous tools. Only the other day I picked up some great small canvases, and great scissors that cuts some funky shapes.

M-sign offer 10% discount to students, their email address is msign@eircom.net, and they open 9-5.30pm Mon-Fri and 11-1pm on Saturdays.

My second port of call is 'Silkes-One Stop Stationary' which is on Catherine St. right in the city centre. It has three main things that it sells: art supplies, teaching aids/crafts/supplies, and office supplies. There range of crafts covers a wide range of paints, canvases, card making supplies, sketchbooks etc. This is a really handy shop to go to if you have lots of different things you need to get. I quite often need to get office supplies for the business and it's great that I don't have to go to another shop to get staplers, envelopes etc. It is a pretty large shop, and it's not unknown for people to spend nearly an hour in there browsing through all of their goodies!

I'm always asking for really awkward things in there, in bulk amounts and the staff are always very helpful. They offer a 10% discount for students and teachers (not including the stationary) and they also sell online,check out there website here, and they are open 6 days a week.