The Mullingar Monthly Fair has been running since March following a very successful Christmas Fair

On request from the Shopping Centre we have organised 2 Fairs in June (June 1st & 2nd and June 29th & 30th)

As the first weekend in June wasn’t planned I’m looking for more Exhibitors so I’m thinking it might be of interest to some of your readers
If anyone is looking to get involved then please contact by email - bespokeadvertising@gmail.com or call 085 106 5689

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Leos’s Tavern in association with Earagail Arts Festival presents

Traditional Irish Market Fair

Enjoy this 150 year old Irish traditional fair where old customs are displayed from 1850 onwards. Countless stalls will line the village, exhibiting local handcrafts such as pottery, jewellery, basket weaving, handmade tweeds and organic local produce along with home baking. On display, skills in cradle making, weaving and secrets of traditional fabrics and many other traditional Irish customs revived on the day. With plenty of music and a selection of farm animals for children including pigs and donkeys. Come and enjoy this wonderful fair and immerse yourself in the old Irish ways.

Check out the site below for the huge amount of attractions on offer:

http://www.eaf.ie/

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Michelle Fallon of michelleamdethis.com is teaming up with Gleesons Townhouse in Roscommon to offer Crafty Weekend Breaks.   More details can be found here http://www.gleesonstownhouse.com/index.php/craft-workshop-weekend-breaks/

Michelle recently featured in Country Living where you can find a competition to win one of these crafty weekends for two people, total value 500 euro.

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As part of Derry City of Culture 2013 the Donegal Designer Makers presents, HOME, an exhibition of craft, applied art and design at the Craft Village (off Shipquay Street) Derry, from Fri  3rd – 30th May 2013.

The official opening will take place Friday 3rd May, 6.30pm – 8.30pm. Refreshments will be served and everyone is welcome.

HOME reflects the work of 18 Artist/Designer/Makers from Donegal and their connection with their home place (Donegal). For some it is their birth place, while others have made it their home. The exhibition explores the different elements of what home is to each maker.

Hannah McGuinness, Creative Director, Donegal Designer Makers says, “Our main connection to each other is our home place Donegal. Whether born here or settled here we have the great fortune of being owned by it and thus feeling part of what is Donegal. Our county has great dramatic beauty, is subject to erratic weather patterns, has a language of its own, is steeped in culture and tradition. All these aspects of our life in Donegal are carried through our lifetime, influencing and inspiring our work and us as people.”

For more information: www.donegaldesignermakers.com

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The event organiser is there to keep stand holders happy and provide a good show for your customers.  It is a job where you must be able to juggle creative personalities, good organisational skills, be ‘out there’ advertising, keeping a good reputation and doing it all professionally and staying calm!!

Setting up a fair should be easy once you follow a few simple guidelines.

 Step 1. Vet all applicants, asking a person to send 3 images of their product and price range will help you to have good variety at your event with realistic prices. This helps you to know what products are coming to your event and what you have to offer your customers.

Step 2.  Think about value and interest for your customers.  If everything is expensive or too cheap you will miss out on pleasing a large percentage of your customers. Variety in price will cater for more people, not everyone is searching for a bargain, also have products available for impulse buys, the money people are carrying around in their pockets.

Step 3.  Variety…this means that although it would be easy to cram in the first few people applying for spaces, you must remember that your customer will look for variety in the stands.  Having too many stands of the same type of product will make for a boring fair and also the stand holders will not sell well if there are too many of the same type of products in the same venue.

Step 4.  Be visible…your stand holders will appreciate you being around for queries and support.  You are the face of your business so being available for your customers (the stand holders) is a must.

Step 5.  Advertise. Advertise. Advertise.  Internet, flyers, shops signs, websites, CCOI website, www.irishcraftupdate.com, facebook, road signs, balloons, blimp….get it known out there that you are having an event and then saturate everywhere to get customers in the door.  If you have an empty event you will not get people to display with you again.

Step 6.  Start with a good reputation and keep it!     ……. You need to build a good reputation from the very first fair you run.  If there are customers in the door it is up to the stand holders to sell their products.      A chef’s reputation is only as good as his last meal!

Step 7.  If you are going to do it, do it right the first time!   There is no second chance to make a first impression.   You may not make much on your first few events, but building a good reputation by looking after your stand holders, advertising well and putting in the time to make things right will pay off in time!

Step 8.  Give a little back to your customers….feel good factor works!   Have a coffee area, seating space,  have face painting, balloons or music, a little extra can help the customers relax and not feel that it is all about spending!

Step 9.  Charity…if you run a charity raffle or donate some proceeds to charity, you can benefit from free advertising with their website, maybe local newspaper, radio and road signs (check your local county council in relation to this).  PLUS you help a charity.

Step 10.  Ask for help…you cannot do it all alone, bring people in with their expertise to spread the workload.  One person cannot be great at everything, use the right people for parts of the business that you lack knowledge or experience in.

Experience is everything, every fair you run you will learn from and bring forward new ideas to improve the next one!

Popularity: 2% [?]

A unique event showcasing the many uses of fleece in artisan craft as a sustainable, natural and renewable fibre.

Weave your way to the County of Roscommon this May Bank Holiday.  Join  Frances Crowe, Fibre Artist and Michelle Fallon, Textile Artist in a series of free workshops to create a unique piece of Art at this years Roscommon Lamb Festival. 

On Wednesday 1^st May Frances & Michelle will launch their Fleece to Piece Event at 1.30 pm at the opening of the Roscommon Lamb Festival in Roscommon Livestock Mart.   Sign up for workshops, join in the fun and watch as sheep will be sheared and then sorted in preparation for spinning the following day at a series of free workshops.   

 On Thursday 2^nd May 11am-1pm weave your way to Grange Studio where Frances creates her woven tapestries and runs workshops in fibre art.  Learn  how to sort, tease, card and spin a fleece using a drop spindle and a spinning wheel.   

On Thursday 2^nd May join Michelle at her cottage from 2pm for a crafternoon of knitting, crochet appliqué and embroidery using the wool spun that morning.   Frances and Michelle will guide you through the process of creating the final ‘piece’ using a variety of techniques which will be unveiled at the Lamb Festival Family Fun Day.

On Sunday 5^th May, join Frances and Michelle in Loughnaneane Park for a fibre fuelled fun day of spinning, loom and tapestry weaving, knitting, crochet and embroidery.

michellemadethis@gmail.com

Frances Crowe Fibre Artist  & Michelle Fallon Textile Artist 

www.francescrowe.com  / www.michellemadethis.com

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Exhibition of Sculpture: Carraige na Farraige

Signal Arts Centre, Bray, Co.Wicklow

Wicklow based stone sculptor Helen O’Connell exhibits a body of work inspired by the sea. Using stone such as Iranian and Italian travertine, Portuguese marble and Killkenny limestone she celebrates the various ways in which powerful aquatic forces create a beautiful underwater world and ‘sculpt’ the stone they interact with. The sculptures range from recognizably maritime subjects such as corals, to more abstract studies of marine life.

‘The sculptural formations found in coastlines eroded by the sea and the panoply of organic life forms to be found underwater from radiolara to corals and seaweeds all inform these sculptures. While acknowledging mother nature as the finest sculptor, my work aims to celebrate the materiality of the stones themselves and pay homage to the ever present consolation of the sea - a repository for so many of our dreams and longings…’

This is Helen O’Connell’s second solo show. She has exhibited in numerous group exhibitions in Ireland and abroad. Her work has been collected by Bono, Anne Madden and the HSE among many private collectors. She has received Arts Council and Crafts Council awards and in 2006 was listed in Whyte’s ‘Buyers guide to Irish Art’ as ‘one to look out for’.  She works from her Wicklow studio at home and D15 studios. 

Carraige na Farraige       Helen O’Connell          www.oconnellsculpture.com 

Tuesday April 23rd – Sunday May 5^th 2013 

Signal Arts Centre, 1 Albert Ave, Bray, Co. Wicklow,   01-276 2039      www.signalartscentre.ie 

Gallery opening times: 
Tue to Fri: 10-1pm & 2-5pm
Sat to Sun: 12-5pm
Closed for lunch: 1-2pm

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 We are holding our an event in Tallaght Stadium, Whitestown Way, Tallaght, Dublin 24 on Thursday 25 April from 9 am to 1pm.  We are keen to raise awareness amongst the business community to encourage them to attend and to let them know that this support exists for businesses.  I would be very grateful if you could please pass on this information to your members or businesses in your network that may be interested in and indeed benefit from being involved in .

SMILE Resource Exchange encourages the exchanging of resources between its members in order to save money, reduce waste going to landfill and to develop new business opportunities. Potential exchanges are identified through networking events, an online exchange facility and a support team to assist throughout. Membership of SMILE Resource Exchange is free and is supported by the Environmental Protection Agency and locally through a partnership of South Dublin County Council, South Dublin Enterprise Board and South Dublin Chamber. The initiative is project managed by Macroom E.

The premise behind SMILE is that one businesses waste or unused resource could become another businesses raw material resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship which saves both operating or disposal costs.  At exchange events and through our website (www.smileexchange.ie) businesses can identify resources they would like to exchange such as reusable items, by-products & surplus product. 

To see what happens at a SMILE event and to hear what former sports commentator Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh has to say about the initiative just log onto our You Tube channel.

Please find attached our invitation to this event in PDF.  Feel free to forward to any contact who you think this might be of benefit to and indeed to those who you think might be interested in attending.  Further advertising on your website, newsletters or e-bulletins would be much appreciated also. 

For more information log onto www.smileexchange.ie or contact me or one of our dedicated team on 01 4361864.

Kind regards,

Adam Shanley

Adam Shanley

Project Co-Ordinator

SMILE Resource Exchange

Cultivate

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Join us in the beautiful surroundings of Mulranny Co Mayo in the Essence of Mulranny (EOM) studio (www.greenwaysgetaways.ie) for a weekend of Tunisian crochet classes with Irene Lundgaard (www.yarnclasses.ie)

Accommodation and all meals (2 dinners, 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts) plus two full days of classes with Irene is 190 euro.

The weekend is organised by the NUI Galway Knit and Crochet group and to book a place or for more information contact

 Ashla Ward at 086 1936620    or   ashla.ward@nuigalway.ie

The group is run by staff of the university who wish to develop their crafting skills through mutual projects, sharing and workshops (Facebook:NUIGalway Knit and Crochet).

We are delighted to be able to open this event up to fellow crafters but the numbers will be capped at 12. We have had other workshops in EOM and we can highly recommend it as a relaxing, nurturing enviornment which is passionately run by Cheryl Coberne Browne.

The studio we will be using is on site and the views from the house are of beautiful Clew bay with a blue flag beach a short walk from the house.

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Popularity: 2% [?]