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