CRAFTS FAIR AT THE OPPORTUNITY HOUSE

Mark your calendar to come celebrate our 51st Annual Arts & Crafts Fair on Friday, August 30th and Saturday, August 31st from 9am to 5pm during the Apple Festival at Opportunity House. The fair will be held inside our air-conditioned building with free admission and free parking. Talented crafters from our area will be selling their handmade items. There will also be a bake sale,food and raffle tickets for some fabulous prices donated by local businesses.

Opportunity House is a non-profit Arts and Crafts Cultural Center that opened it's doors in 1958 with 43 charter members. Today our membership totals more than 400 members. Opportunity House offers fellowship and learning to individuals of all ages and faiths. Special classes, programs and events are offered throughout the year for members and non-members. Room rentals are also available.

The primary exhibition, entitled CRUTH, runs in The Old Mill in Kinsale and is curated by Tina Darb OSullivan. Cruth is an Irish word meaning form and shape and the exhibition intersperses traditional, high-quality items with cutting edge contemporary design.

The works on display include wood turner John McCarthys pieces hewn from ancient yew trees, Gwenda Fordes ceramic bowls, blacksmith Mark Keelings sculptures, which utilise traditional and Japanese techniques, and the jewellery of Louise France, which investigates societys preoccupation with the consumer experience. For those of a practical mindset, look out also for Denis Cotters geometric shelving units, which bring the IKEA concept into the Irish craft sphere, and the high-quality bookshelves of Martin Horgan, which accentuate the personality of the different woods from which they are constructed.We have a wide selection of plasticcard to choose from for your storage needs.

The project co-ordinator for Cork Craft Month is Siobhn McCarthy. For me, crafts should reflect the suggestion by William Morris to have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. I think Irish crafts fell into something of a decline in the face of cheap imports, but increasingly there is an appreciation of quality workmanship. There is also a lot of interest in what would traditionally have been considered less glamorous skills such as crochet or embroidery.

Apart from the main exhibition, there are a number of other key events planned for the month. These include Pop-Up Shops and fairs at venues such as Bantry House, Cork city centre,Browse our oilpaintingsforsales collection from the granitetrade.net! and The Courtyard, Midleton. Likewise, the Made in Cork trail offers a chance to visit a mixture of shops,Get the led fog lamp products information, find oilpaintingreproduction, manufacturers on the hot channel. studios and galleries. The Open Studio Trail gives the public an opportunity to observe various craftspeople, including furniture makers, silversmiths, potters, glass and textile artists, in their working environment,A glassbottles is a machine used primarily for the folding of paper. while workshops at Kinsale Pottery and The Courtyard, Midleton offer punters the opportunity to apply their own creative talents.

Tony Farrell is the chairman of the Cork Wood Turners Guild, which has its own exhibition at the Wandesford Quay Gallery, and he appreciates the exposure that Cork Craft Month provides. There are close to 60 members in the group; mainly enthusiastic amateurs along with seven or eight full-time crafts people, he says. It is not a difficult skill to take up, but like most things in life it takes a fair bit of time to get good at it. The end product from a good amateur and a professional may be very similar, but if you are going to survive in this business you need to be very skilful and in particular you need to able to produce a piece quickly.

Getting the wood in the first place is part of the challenge and part of the enjoyment, and if I see someone felling a tree or burning wood I am pretty shameless at this stage in approaching them, he admits. A lot of people dont want to see good wood wasted and will ring me up if they have a piece they think I can use.

Farrell sells his work through craft fairs, galleries and online outlets, as well as directly from his workshop through word of mouth. At present it is largely an internal Irish market. Tourists who buy Irish crafts are generally impressed by the quality and the price but it is hard for small operations to find a space in the wider commercial world, he says. However, the advantage of a group is that we can market our work as a cooperative and that is something we are actively exploring.Our top picks for the cableties and gear,

So why should a consumer buy an expensive craft item when supermarket chains are heaving with cheaper imports? There is something inherently pleasurable in knowing who made a particular piece. In knowing, for example, that the bowl on your kitchen table was made from a fallen ash in Fota or an old apple tree from Midleton. Perhaps the person buying it or someone they know came from that area; it makes each piece individual and gives it greater personal meaning and value.

Scotch whisky maker, The Balvenie, in partnership with menswear designer Todd Snyder, is teaming up to celebrate some of the best examples of American craftsmanship with the Rare Craft Collection, a series of gallery-style events that honor the practice and preservation of traditional crafts.

The Balvenie Rare Craft Collection is a first-of-its-kind exhibition featuring original works from some of Americas finest craftspeople. Curated by award-winning designer Todd Snyder, every piece in the exhibition stands as a passionate expression of craftsmanship in all its forms. From bowler hats and bicycles to electric guitars and Ping-Pong tables, this groundbreaking collection represents rare crafts from every corner of America.
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