Blarney in Bloom Festival

Although this year's Blarney in Bloom festival turned into a bit of a washout, there was still a high volume of people around the Arts & Crafts area and the added attraction of being covered over definitely helped!

Liz Spillane for provided a very popular and interesting workshop using felting and oversized knitting techniques. Both adults and children alike thoroughly enjoyed the experience with many people coming away from it feeling the benefits of its therapeutic effects. It was great to see people from all ages get a chance to experience such a unique crafting skill and many were amazed of the shear simplicity in the creation of a beautiful piece. Liz has also very kindly donated the finished piece to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind for them to auction off to help add to their fundraising efforts.

There was Trojan work carried out by everyone who helped out with the set up on the Friday, especially as they have now practically doubled the willow tunnel. 

As per usual, the tree cosies make for an excellent talking point and never fail to create interest from all the Castle’s many visitors.

It's always great to get the opportunity to work on a larger scale creating pieces for the outdoors in such a beautiful setting. Karin Kempf added to her fuzzy fungus from last year and created even more weird and wonderful pieces this year, her talent knows no bounds!

Martina Carroll made a provoking web made using crochet that fitted in perfectly in the arboretum and looks like it was always there.  Martina also made and interesting creeper-like hanging piece that fits in perfectly with the poison garden.

We moved the walk-through installation to the large rose walkway this year where it made for very colourful photographs.

There were some interesting ideas floating around from everyone on the day for next year’s festival so I look forward to seeing what people come up with. 

As per usual, we can always rely on the weavers and spinners to help to give the wow factor and they definitely delivered this year by bringing along a full untreated fleece which was a brilliant talking point with everyone who stopped by. It's always great for the public to get a chance to see how yarn is made from start to finish, and by doing so, helping to keep this traditional craft alive and well. I look forward to seeing what they can bring to the event next year! 

There was plenty going on in the crating area as we had several activities available for everyone who came our way. There were plenty of busy little hands at work making paper beads to create their very own necklaces and bracelets.

The wool corner was as successful as it always is with all sorts of woolly creations being made by little and big hands! There were people learning to crochet, knit, make pom poms, woolly men, magic eyes and dreamcatchers.

The previous two years we charged for the more intricate workshops and donated this money to the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. This year we decided to focus on just providing great free activities for the public to take part in and in doing so help make the festival an attractive day out for families as all the money taken on the gate is given directly to the charity. In doing so we were able to encourage more people to take part in our activities and hopefully in turn generate more interest in traditional crafts such as these and the amazing skills that are displayed by all of the talented  members of the Cork Textiles Network.

I look forward to coming up with new exciting ideas for next year's festival.

The Blarney in Bloom Launch Day

Once all the pieces had dried fully from painting, the only thing left to do was to varnish everything to ensure they would be protected from the Irish weather! I used Yacht varnish for this as it has proved to be the most resilient to wet weather. 

Once everything was varnished it was time to put the finished pieces into place in Blarney Castle Gardens. The space we would be using for the installation lent itself well to the project as it contains a large oversized picnic table made form reclaimed railway sleepers.

In the trees surrounding the table the smaller cups that the children had made were hung using fishing line and they gave an ethereal feel to the space. They looked fantastic when all together especially as they were all blue and white.

There was a lot of excitement when the students got to see the finished installation in it's place and we had lots of fun pretending to drink tea and eat large cakes!

As it was the launch day for the IGD fundraiser that is Blarney in Bloom there was also a Guide dog present for the occasion which was big hit with all the children. We also had a local councillor in attendance which was brilliant to help to give the whole event as much coverage as possible

Now all that was left to do was to prepare for the festival itself as the Cork textiles Network will carry out it's annual colourfication of the gardens by adding some woolly fun to different areas of this already beautiful space!

Finshed project

I'm a bit late in posting the final details of the Mad Hatter Project but with all the goings on for the launch and then the Blarney in Bloom festival itself it was difficult finding the time. 

On the last day of the workshop in the school we worked with the 3rd & 4th class and took them for the full 2 hours as the 5th & 6th class was unavailable on the day.

This actually worked to our advantage as we could get all of the painting completed in the one day. We also experimented with an attempt at making lampshades using balloons and doilies but this did not work out to plan! The balloons were not strong enough and they were exploding from the merest touch once blown up regardless of how full they were. Seeing as this was not part of the original plans it didn't affect the rest of the project.

It was great to see the students get the chance to get creative with different aspects of the project and there was a very productive table working on the signs that are familiar with the Alice in Wonderland story.

The painting of the hat took on a life of it's own and the finished result developed organically with the students scraping shapes into the thick layers of paint applied that day. 

We were very impressed with all the hard work of all the students of the school, especially during parts of the process that may not have been the most appealing..........applying the glue by hand was not the most popular of activities! The thought of the end goal was enough to keep them focused on the task at hand and there was a lot of excitement building in the school as all of the children would get the chance to see their finished work in place at Blarney when they would all attend the launch for the Blarney in Bloom festival the following Thursday.

It was a thorough pleasure working with all the different ages and abilities for such a continued period of time and hopefully we will be back with the school for some future project.