Limerick Craft and Design

I know it's really crazy that it's taken me over a week to post about the opening of Limerick Craft and Design but to be honest I only feel like I'm catching my breath now. Regular readers will know that this project has been in the pipeline for over 10 months, there have been lots of meetings, a tonne of emails, phonecalls, and set backs, and countless voluntary hours put into it, but we got there eventually. For those of you not in the know this new shop is a co-op of Limerick based artists and crafters, a group that I got together at the request of The Limerick City Council. After forming a committee of equally dedicated/crazy volunteers we set about getting the ball rolling and to bring other artists involved. It surpassed all my expectations, it was a harder road, and also a more amazing result. If someone told me this time last year how difficult it would be I would still do it, because I'm a sucker for punishment, but I really had no idea what it would take this long to get to this stage.

Moaning aside it's been an amazing experience, and it's only just starting! I've met some fantastic people, and made great friends through the struggle to get here.People have been so generous with their time, and it's shows in how well it's all turned out.

The response from Limerick people has been amazing, there has been a cloud around the city for quite a while, with shops closing left right and centre;  people have really grasped how important it is to have something positive happen. There wasn't really anywhere that you could go to get locally made handcrafts(apart from the market), and over the past few years I've struggled to go gift shopping in the City Centre, we are hoping to fill that gap. There is an amazing amount of local talent, ranging lots of different disciplines, it so fulfilling to be able to showcase it all in one place.

Limerick Craft and Design is open Tues-Saturday 10AM-6PM, go to our website or Facebook page for more updates and information.

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Website for Limerick Craft and Design

I spent a lot of time last week building the website for the craft co-op shop that I'm organising at the moment; Limerick Craft & Design. Originally I tried to make the site on blogspot, but as I need lots of pages for the different artists Wordpress was more suited as there is a limit to 20 pages on blogspot. I have been hearing for ages about how fantastic Wordpress is, and I'm sure it is when you get to grips with it, but I was quite frustrated at learning a new interface. I also didn't know you had to pay $30 to get any control over the design of the site, which is a tad galling as it's free here. Even after paying the fee I came to the realisation that CSS is way above my head and I had no clue how to alter the most basic things. My friend Lorraine came to the rescue and she will be making small design changes to make the site look prettier over the next week or so.

In the meantime I found my bearings and went about making the bones of the site. I do like that you can make a home page instead of people landing on the blog. It's a very simple website, but at the moment that's all we need. Each artist has their own page, I've only uploaded the info to a few of them, but so far you can read about; Fabulous Felt, Oh Sew Pretty, Magic Forest Toys and Me.

The site will grow in time as people send more info, and when the shop opens obviously we will have more to talk about. We are waiting on confirmation this week on the exact venue, so I'll probably get very busy over the next couple of weeks...hopefully!

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Tired Feet

Yuck I just finished an extra hideous split shift in the restaurant. Please next time you eat out have a little extra patience for your waitress...we work our asses off. I've nothing interesting to report today as all I did was run around like a maniac with plates and glasses.

On my break I did do the design for the City Council opening, it's looking pretty promising and I can show you pics when I get approval from the client. They went for a soviet propaganda feel for the poster as the guy they are commemorating(Robert Byrne) is heavily linked with the foundation of the Limerick Soviet in 1919.

I'm off now to put my very tired and stinky feet up, it's just after 1am, I'm shattered but wide awake, oh joy.

Busy-fest

I'm back into busy season again. Firstly the Limerick Riverfest is coming up on the May bank holiday weekend, I will be trading on the Friday-Monday. Last year there was a fantastic atmosphere and heavenly weather, hopefully this year at least equals it. This year it will be a little more complicated as my friend who sells clothes and jewelerry at the stall beside me won't be there for the first two days, so I'll be doing her stall too, eek. Last year I had loads of extra stock made but I still nearly sold out, so I want to be way more prepared this year.

I also really need to do an order for the shop in Ennis, Olive, but that keeps on being pushed to the back of the list. I got two very exciting custom orders, one a mother of the bride dress that is very funky that I'm really looking forward to doing it. The other is a bunch of things for a regular customer who is really into my fun colourful work which I love doing. I also got a call from a friend in the Limerick City council and they want me to design some invitations for an opening of the Robert Byrne Memorial Park on Clancy Strand.

It's a hell of a list, but I'm more than happy to have lots to do rather than nothing.