Shop local and buy locally made
This year more than ever people are being asked to shop local and support local businesses but here in Louth we can go one step further and buy locally made as well.
The county has a host of local artists and craftspeople making a wide range of beautiful work which would make ideal Christmas gifts, including paintings, jewellery, ceramics, prints, textiles, candles, and fashion.
Many of them are members of Louth Craftmark who, with great imagine, moved their annual Winter Fair online. This saw makers Cushla Of Gullion, Emma’s So Naturals, Garrett Mallon Jewellery, King’s Forge Glass, Liz Christy, Hand-Woven in Ireland, Mary Cowan Ceramics ,Orla Barry Art, Órlaith Cullinane, Michele Hannan Ceramics, Rachel Tinniswood Textiles, Sarah McKenna Ceramics, Soilse Candle Company embracing the digital marketplace as well as discussing their work via live-streaming.
Dundalk’s Bridge Street Studios celebrated their 25th anniversary with their annual exhibition this month. In order to get round the COVID-19 restrictions, they decided to display their work in the windows of several vacant shops in the town centre, giving a whole new meaning to window shopping. And as the restrictions eased, they added ‘Silver Extended’ - an actual exhibition in the reopened Basement Gallery in An Tain Arts Centre. Artists and makers Mary Cowan, Sarah McKenna, Fiona Quigley, Caóilfionn Murphy O’Hanlon, Rachel Tinniswood, Orla Barry and Orlaith Cullinane have a
selection of paintings, prints, ceramics and textiles on display and for sale. The gallery and shop at Bridge Street Studios is now open to the public every Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 5.30 pm giving people the opportunity to meet the makers as well as to see and buy their work.
Creative Spark is home to some fantastic businesses that can help put a smile on someone’s face this festive season. Soilse, a soy wax candle company is based in Creative Spark and produces beautifully fra
granced candles and diffusers, making it the perfect gift this year. Grills Spirits, also housed in Creative Spark is the creators of Ireland’s one and only cloudberry gin. Using locally sourced ingredients from the Cooley Mountains, you can’t get much more local than this.
Members of the print studio and AAEX, the artists’ collective based at Creative Spark, also have artwork for sale which would make ideal Christmas gifts.
Creative Spark holds a variety of courses and workshops
through the year, helping you build on an existing skill or establish a new one! While courses have been cancelled for 2020, the team at Creative Spark is already looking to the future and planning a whole new range of courses and workshops. Vouchers for these can be purchased by contacting Creative Spark on (042) 938 5720 or send us an email on hello@creativespark.ie.
Take a trip out to Carlingford and visit the newly rebranded Garrett Mallon Design House. Here the award winning jewellery sells his own beautiful range of handcrafted silver and gold jewellery alongside a hand picked range of authentic Irish made crafts including ceramics, knitwear, artwork, candles, soaps, and cards.
The Crafty Rock in Blackrock also offers a selection of crafts, many made locally, which would make ideal gifts or stocking fillers.
The Pop-Up Christmas market will be back at the Back Alley of The Market Bar this weekend and also on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, with different artists and makers each time.
For those looking for Irish fashion with a difference, a visit to Ilk’s pop-up in Grandson Studio is a must. This gives the chance to browse the exciting new range of Irish menswear, with some exclusive products in store, as well as a gift wrapping service and gift cards for the hard to choose from.
Niamh Gillispie launched her Tidings range of beautiful printed silk scarves and neck ties earlier this year. They are available from Syble, Blackrock and from her website, www. tidings.ie
The young fashion designer Megan McGuigan has opened her boutique Seeking Judy selling her distinctive range of screen printed and hand dyed causal wear as well as artworks by Ominious Omin, Gav Connell, Jump, Gracie and Barbara Bennett.
So make more than just one person happy when you give a gift this Christmas - make the artist or maker happy as well as the recipient!
While An Tain Arts Centre can’t invite audiences inside for live performances, director Paul Hayes is working hard to ensure that they are reaching out to audiences of all ages, providing entertainment through the darkest days of winter.
He has enlisted the well known Dundalk actor Paudie Breen, who would normally be busy with panto rehearsals this time of year, to perform stories from the collection of the National Folklore Archive.
Paudie is reading these stories live on An Tain Arts Centre’s Facebook page at 7pm every evening until Saturday, December 19.
The stories are linked to the visual arts project Ghost Light: Scéalta ón Lú Trí Sholas (stories of Louth through light) which runs from Sunday December 20 to Sunday January 10.
This is an exhibition of paper cut, card and light by Mayo based artist Maeve Clancy which will be displayed in the windows of An Tain Arts Centre in the Town Hall. Paul explains that the stories and images lean on the tradition of telling ghost stories around the fire, evoking traditional Irish folklore rather than the modern day Christmas festivities.
He adds that the title of the exhibition is drawn from the old theatrical tradition of leaving a light on the stage to welcome the cast of future productions - something which certainly resonates in these times when theatres have had to close their doors for much of the year.
The exhibition will be on view for anyone walking through the town centre all over the Christmas season.
A graduate of NCAD, Maeve creates work for children and adults using cut paper, story and drawings. She has worked on music videos for singer Lisa Hannigan, mounted solo exhibitions and written both fictional and historical comic stories.
Recent commissions include a paper installation for the Tall Ships Festival Dublin, a permanent artwork in perspex and light for St John the Baptist Boy’s School in Clontarf, Dublin, a pop up book for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 advertising campaign and a large scale installation at a National Trust property in Somerset, UK.
Earlier this year she was commissioned to produce theatre sets for ‘Sruth na Teanga’, a show by theatre company Brana, for the Galway City of Culture programme, although it had to cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this exhibition, she is depicting scenes from stories taken from the collection of the National Folklore Archive. The work will be lit up at dusk for all to see and read from the street outside the building.