Crafty News

 

A big hello from the Crafty News Desk - cant believe how quickly the time has flown.  This weeks photograph was taken just 2 weeks ago in Florida..... sunshine and sand mmmmmmm!!!!!!!
Enough of that.  

A big THANK YOU to Purls for holding the fort while I was away.


What a busy time we are having here in Etsy Ireland.  The big success story has to be the ETSY pop-up shop in Limerick  EtsyIrelandPopUpShop  I am in awe of what Ruth and her team of intrepid crafters have and are achieving in Limerick.  All I can say is WELL DONE ONE AND ALL .......
If you are in Limerick do call by and say hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ireland's first online craft website FONDELIFAIR has been officially launched today.    fondelifair
I wish Alice and Michelle and all of the crafters (including mise) all the very best of luck with this endeavour.  God bless all who sail in her  (champagne bottle smashes against the side.....)

A new Irish supplies website has also been launched sunflowertouchsupply   Stop by and have a look

The Glucksman gallery in Cork is taking applications for their craft fair which takes place at the beginning of November. You can download applications from their website  glucksman

The Ulster Festival of Art and Design is happening from June 1st to 12th.  Information here ulsterfestival

Next weekend, 5-6 June, is when all things woolie happen at the Wool Festival in Kilkenny.  Details  =  Wool Festival

The Design Tower Summer School is coming up in June - located in Dublin's  Grand Canal Basin - a perfect location to learn some new skills including Leather work, Paper making, Jewellery, Sculpture etc. 
Details =  thedesigntower

And finally there is a Art and Craft Market taking place at Darcy McGee's at the Spawell in Dublin on 19th June.  There are a few of us taking part and there are still a few stalls available.  Details =  spawell  There will also be live music happening on the day.  If you know of any musicians who would like to take part there are also some slots available.  Get in touch with Lynn. 

So that's about it for this week.  Now I know there are a lot of events happening all over the country with many of our team taking part.  It would be great if we knew where ye are going to be so we could call by and say hello.  So send me on your details and I will let everyone know where you're at.  Are any of you involved with the Bloom Festival in the Phoenix Park next week????? tell me, tell me........ please.

Bye for now
Mo
huggleknits

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

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!

Crafty News

Greetings from the Crafty News Desk.
Just had to share a pic of my new button box, now holding loads of pretty buttons for my Tiny Chuus.....  Anyway, enough drooling......  Hope you all had a great Easter and May Bank Holiday. 

This week I have news of a number of Craft events, Craft Markets and selling opportunities coming up over the next few months - "In no particular order" as they say.....

• Ruth from  nicedaydesigns has word of a pop up shop opportunity in Limerick.   see here pop-up-shop
• First online Irish craft community and marketplace called Fondelifair .... see here first-online-craft
• Batik Workshop, National Print Museum, Dublin, Saturday 7 May, 10:30am – 4:30pm  (Max. 12 people) Cost: E60  nationalprintmuseum
• Art and Craft Fair, 19 June, Spawell, Templeogue, Dublin.  Spawell     location
• World record broken.......   1147 knitters have smashed the world record at the Lamb Festival in Roscommon over the weekend.   Well done.  Details -  Lamb
• 'Mastercrafter', a new RTÉ series, is looking for amateur craftspeople to star in the show.  Details here Crafters
• Sage and Stone Market on 28 May at The Farm, Newlanes, Duleek, Co. Meath.  Nice selection of stands so far including Fi from patchworkdelights  Details here sageandstone
• Scallop Festival with Craft Selling opportunities on 9th July on Valentia Island - details to follow
• Craft Guerrilla Designer Makers Competition! "We'll be working with Twisted Thread the organizers of the Knitting & Stitching shows to showcase the best new talent in British and Irish Arts & Crafts!    We're looking for talented Designer Makers who are passionate about all things hand made, have a high level of craftsmanship and make beautiful, modern, high quality, hand made Designer Maker items!  We have 6 stall spaces up for grabs in each "Knitting & Stitching" shows in London, Harrogate and Dublin.  For more info and application details please see...  craftguerrilla
• As always keep an eye on the Year of Craft website for updates countrywide.  craftinireland

That's about it for this week.  I won't be with you for the next 3 Mondays as I head stateside for a bit of sun and fun.  If you would like to cover news over the next few weeks get in touch with Purls at her shop purlsofcolour .  I will be back with you all on Monday 30th. 
Cheers till then
Mo
huggleknits

Fondelifair - Ireland's first online craft community & marketplace

Fondelifair.com is a new website dedicated to Arts and Crafts. Fondelifair is a Social Community, a Blog Host and Marketplace.

Creator and Founder of Fondelifair, Alice, explains, "People blog about crafts, people sell their crafts online, people talk on forums about their crafts. But there is no site that lets you do all of this in the one place, this is why I developed Fondelifair".

Fondelifair features an interactive web community that offers a variety of hand-made, unique, speciality items for shoppers who are looking for quality and originality. Fondelifair is also a platform for art enthusiasts and hobbyists to share information about upcoming art exhibits, craft fairs, and art & craft classes through the Fondelifair Blog and Events Calendar.

Whatever your passion, Fondelifair will facilitate you in meeting others who share your passion. From complete beginners to the more experienced, whether you’re looking for tips on how to improve your technique or ideas for new projects, Fondelifair is sure to please.

As well as Fondelifair being a social network where you can blog and share tips on the forums you can also sell your wares in your own store with a variety of quirky and cool store themes to choose from. Fondelifair caters for all tastes! So all in all it’s a handy way to trade from the comfort of your own home, or test trade and see if your products sell.

Fondelifair has over twenty five listed Guilds from Knitting to Wood Craft and Card Making to Doll Making, so whatever it is you’re into you’ll meet lots of like minded individuals on Fondelifair. As well as all of this if you currently already have a blog and you would like Fondelifair to host your blog that's no problem either.

The Crafts Council of Ireland and Craft Northern Ireland have designated 2011 as Year of Craft. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Crafts Council of Ireland and will be celebrated through a diverse rang of dynamic events and programmes to showcase the very best of craft made on the island of Ireland, so there’s never been a better time to dust down the sewing machines, dig out the old acrylics and have a go at some home made card making - maybe even make earn some income out of your former passion before we all lost the run of ourselves. Let’s get back to basics, revive some semblance of a cottage industry in your own home and preserve our craft skills - and do you know something? We’ll all feel better for it …working for ourselves.

Fondelifair is free to join the community and for a basic blog, but if you would like more features on your blog, including a store, there is an Elite Membership which is €25 per year.

Fondelifair is due to launch on May 30th, so we are offering a FREE Elite membership until May 22nd by emailing info@fondelifair.com with your Fondelifair username and blog URL.