A Mainer In Dublin....

     I know many of you are clamoring for the final word on my recent juice cleanse and I promise to write about that very soon, but today I am inspired to tell you about a really cool adventure we had almost as soon as we set foot in Dublin just two short weeks ago.  Many of you have read or heard about the novels of Mainer Gerry Boyle http://www.gerryboyle.com/ of China, Maine.  Well, he's got a rather amazing young woman as a daughter.  Her name is Emily Westbrooks and she's living in Dublin with her husband, Michael, whom she met while the two were students at Colby college.  Michael is a native of Ireland and that's where the couple is currently making their home.  I'm not exactly sure how they became acquainted, but our tour guide, Evan McElligott http://longervacations.com/, set up a lovely little tour for our group with Emily on our first afternoon in Dublin.  Emily is passionate about crafting and the creative arts and has been following the ebb and flow of how local crafters are staking a claim in the Irish arts market in her city.  She took us around to three shops to meet the shop managers, observe crafters at work and view their wonderful work.  Of course, we all had terrible jet lag and some of us were stumbling to keep up with the enthusiastic and bubbly Emily...but it was worth our effort.  The recession has hit Irish crafters and artisans particularly hard and Emily wanted to show us how many are now teaming together under one roof to stay afloat and hopefully thrive in a tough economy.

     Our first stop was at Project 51 Irish Design Collective http://www.project51.ie/. This hip, eclectic space housed in a 19th century Georgian building in Dublin's creative district is a high-end, luxury boutique filled with some of the best Irish fashion, jewelry, accessories, furniture and home decor.  The shop currently offers for sale the work of 19 Irish designers and craftspeople and shoppers get to watch some of the designers working on their crafts on location.

     While we were there, we watched Katie Townend working on beaded and bejeweled jewelry pieces for her brand name, Eliza Vale http://elizavale.com/.  Katie named her collection after her great-grandmother and uses cross-stitch and embroidery techniques, beading and macrame to transform a mix of leather, silks, Swarovski crystals and a variety of beads into stylish treasures to enhance dressy and chic attire.  Part of the fun for us, of course, was listening to Katie speak about her work in her lovely Irish accent.

   Jewelry designer Filip Vanas http://www.filipvanas.com/ was also in-house and we watched him drilling pieces for some edgy necklaces with an urban, contemporary, minimalist feel.  Filip hails from the Czech Republic and comes at jewelry design by way of his work in and study of architecture.  The downturn in the economy turned Filip toward jewelry making full-time.  Simple shapes, dramatic contrasts, bold colors and unusual materials result in some really beautiful and unique pieces.  A quick peek at his blog reveals that he's off and running and enjoying some success in the international craft world!

     Our second stop was really amazing.  We visited the Doll Hospital.  Doll hospital, you say?  What the heck is that?  Well...old dolls get broken through years of loving use and there's a place where they can be taken for surgery to put them back together and restore them to their original luster.  Many of these dolls are heirlooms passed down through generations and are worth a lot both in sentimental value as well as Euros.  As Emily explained, over the winter the Dolls Store and Hospital http://www.dollstore.ie/ was in dire straits and ready to close for good due to rising rent costs and the difficulties the recession had presented for the business.  A wonderful opportunity arose to relocate the business in Dublin's city centre and we got to visit with the store manager and hear about the history of the business and its owner in the store's amazing new location.

     Porcelain dolls and stuffed bears can be bought, sold and repaired at the store owned by Melissa Nolan. The business has been around for nearly three decades and has some very loyal customers, including a 97-year-old woman who has been a customer since she was 23.  Gertrude's first doll, she says, was "shot" in her cot in 1916 when Gertrude was nearly one.  Her family had lived in Harold's Cross and as rebels were running across the canal from the city centre they were shot at by British troops.  Apparently one of the bullets came through Gertrude's bedroom window and shot her doll, a French one passed down to her from her mother who received it from her father when she was four.  So, you can see that a doll hospital is, indeed, a very necessary thing to certain paying customers.  This lovely store is filled to brimming with teddies and tin cars and dolls of every shape, color and size.  Housed on the second floor of a lovely 18th century building housing lots of boutiques and a food court, the store is located in a former ballroom!  What a treat...

     We were on overload already but we had one final stop to make, at the Irish Design Shop http://irishdesignshop.com/.  This shop was founded in 2008 by two jewelers, Clare Grennan (who was working when we toured!) and Laura Caffrey and stocks some lovely original Irish designs including ceramics, pottery, woodwork, textiles and jewelry.  Many of the offerings are made on-site, as the store has studio space for about nine or so artists and craftspeople on the second floor.  By pooling resources and working together in the same space, artists share expenses and often tools and techniques as well, helping all to move forward in difficult economic times.

     Two artists were working upstairs when we visited.  Julie Connellan, a jeweler, was just setting up her work space and greeted us warmly and handed out her cards so we could check out her pieces on her site http://www.julieconnellan.com/. She produces a wide range of contemporary jewelry that has the "flavor" of sculpture.  Julie says she sees a need for material honesty, balance and simplicity in her designs.  Her creations are playful and appealing.

     Pierce Healy http://www.ottovanwinklepeterstein.com/  was also hanging around his studio, chatting with Julie, and was happy to greet us and talk about his very cool etchings on metal.  These are some serious pieces of work, very labor-intensive and involved.  Pierce sketches first and then transfers  his designs onto metal using a variety of tools and the results are at once hip and intricate.  I was completely drawn into his designs and would've loved to make a purchase for my son who I'm sure would've talked Pierce's ear off!  Good thing Pierce has a website, as his work was not displayed for sale downstairs...  He's one of those artists whose work looks like a dream-scape come to life.  It's almost like Dr. Seuss meets Where's Waldo? when looking at one of his etchings...with a touch of a graffiti-feel.  The more you look, the more you see.  It must take him days and days to engrave these.

     So there you have it, my friends....a little tour through Dublin's craft quarter.  Thanks to Evan for setting it up and to Emily who was so kind to put together this walk and introduce us to all the crafters trying to make a go of it in a variety of ways.  Had we been more chipper and energetic, we'd have taken her out for a pint and got her to tell us all about life for a Mainer living in Ireland.  We'll just have to go back and look her up, I guess.  You can check Emily out for yourself on her blog, from China Village http://www.fromchinavillage.com/ where she blogs about design, fashion, crafts and married life.  Namaste.