A Foodie Hangover...

The Handmade Sessions on the Dingle Food Festival taste trail was a great success!  We teamed up with Bluíríní Blasta cafe in Lispole and offered up sublime, jamtastic desserts: they baked meringues with their Blás na hEireann nominated lemon curd, fresh cream, and raspberry coulis; lemon drizzle cake with lemon curd on the side; and strawberry jam sponge with fresh strawberries.  All gone by 445pm!  Craft sales for the day weren't great, but there were a lot of people in and out and appreciating the work, so hopefully a preview of Christmas sales.  It was pouring out of the heavens by 4pm and is quite wet now, but still another day of the Festival to go!  We are heading out on the taste trail ourselves and it should be a relaxing, enjoyable day.  I need me some oysters!

It was a rather frantic week of felting and embellishing.  I felted 7 scarves and resist-dyed them and felted two new hats and resist-dyed to match two of the scarves.  I embellished three hats.  And cleaning and hiding all the clutter so the studio would be ready for the general public.  Really, I need a good closet with shelving inside to just store things in and shut the door so my mess isn't out in the open.  The new hat wall looked well and Colleen Bowler and Ursula Tramski's pottery was fab, and the company great all day.  A huge success!

I held the Craft Club on Friday afternoon to make room for the Taste Trail on Saturday, so it was a mad two hours of sewing and helping the girls learn to use the sewing machines.  They really are learning the sewing machines fast for 10 year olds.  Their books are nearly done and next week we start on two weeks of bracelets.  We will felt a lot of pieces and then decorate our bits the next week with stitch and beads.  And then two weeks of Halloween projects, but I have to have a think about what we will do there...

It's all go these days.  I need to do a big stock up on wool as I have a lot of stock to make for Christmas.  Once I have many kilos of wool under my roof, I will sleep well!! New calendar of events for October up, but must get it online still--tomorrow as my day off and then will plot dates for Christmas gift making...Meanwhile, Ireland killed Italy today in the Rugby World Cup and we are slated to play Wales next weekend in the semi-finals--GO GREEN!!

A Quickie...

This is just a quick post to show off two new hats I completed this week.  I have a load of purple on the brain as I have a custom order and I am doing 2-3 different styles and the customer will choose their favourite.  So far, they are totally different!

The first one is hand-dyed Merino with dark purple Gotland curls on the brim.  I carefully stitched the brim up and added grape-like clusters of purple glass seed beads.

The second hat I resist-felted and was trying to
develop the pattern into a cute style I saw online.
The side tail was supposed to collapse inward into a swirl on the side of the hat, but the tail is too long, so must adjust the pattern and have another try at it.  I do like the tail, however, and I over dyed the hat which came out quite dark purple with hints of pink where the silk threads peek through.  There are also pieces of silk habotai and Wensleydale curls felted in, but it so dark that its hard to see them by camera.  I think I might do a sprinkling of beads on the tail...

Meanwhile, it's time to get myself ready to head back into the studio.  Lots to do!

Keeping the Faith

New hat: merino, alpaca, & silk fibres & pieces.  Decor
in progress!

I try not to be a worrier, but it is very hard not to at times.  And these are worrying times that we are living in.  Quite a lot is changing quickly and we are coping as best we can with limited resources and changing incomes.  But I also reach a stage where I think "To Hell with it!"  Either the hard work pays off or it won't.  Either you can make a difference or you won't.  I take time out to think and find the solution for myself and just keep plowing on...

So, I am relieved to see modest progress with my new workshop space.  Craft in Kerry is no longer part of the Handmade Sessions as the summer was just too slow and the guild did not have the resources to keep going forever.  I personally paid out quite a lot of money from my own resources and that could not continue.  I took over the place as a studio/teaching space for myself as of September 1st and things seem to be falling into a nice routine.  The kid's Dingle Craft Club started yesterday and I had a good start.  It will pay the rent and keep me going while I work hard at developing new hats and scarves.  I am looking into exporting as sales are just too slow in Ireland.

Closeup of the texture of merino and silk

I will be on the food trail of the Dingle Food & Wine Festival with Blúiríní Blasta cafe (located in the Seal Sanctuary in Lispole).  The girls make WONDERFUL food, but also sell their homemade jams and are developing other products for sale in their cafe.  The are going to be making their homemade jamtastic cakes for the trail and I will be felting.  Should be great fun!  

I have a whole pile of new hats that are ALMOST done.  Mostly the finishing decorations.  So, it will feel good to put four new hats out by end of day on Tuesday and start work on yet more.  Being productive is a big relief for stressful money juggling!

So, these developments are good. Yes, I would love to be making actual money instead of breaking even, but sometimes you just have to keep going and hope for the best...

New fabric collage for my Green & Gold window that
is going up very SOON.  The All Ireland is next Sunday,
so it has to happen soon!