Craft you ask? Well think about it, graphics are all about art, Wallace and Gromit are made from play dough and The Nightmare before Christmas was made using puppets. Arts and crafts are a large part of gaming and film. So obviously when we discovered The Crafty Market we couldn’t resist poking our noses into the doors of Shebeen on Georges Street in Dublin’s city centre. The @rcade set sail for The Crafty Market, armed with a camera and our assistant Aunty T (A fabulous woman with a love for anything with a button on it).
The Crafty Market is held in the Shebeen every Sunday from one o’clock in the afternoon until six in the evening. People set up stalls with their own creations while bands and solo acts play in the background. The Shebeen is a market venue that every crafty person dreams of someday stumbling upon. The walls are lined in paintings, graffiti, mirrors, woodwork and even drawer doors. Antiques sit comfortly through the bohemian building, such as type writers and an old booth for taking passport photos. The dim lighting from chandeliers, fairy lights and ancient lamps create a romantic feel to the place as music flows and people rummage through all the wonderful bric-a- brac.
Anyone can have a stall at The Crafty market, whether you make craft pieces or want to sell cool stuff like vintage clothes. The market has an epic variety of people and their crafts, whether you visit astrologer Astro Anne to learn more of your personality and future or sit at the bar and listen to the trad band Wicker Bones. If you’re low on funds, Jabida Weber runs a swap shop for old, loved but unworn clothes which can be swapped for some new treads or be cheaply bought for prices as low as one euro.
The Crafty Market is possibly the best place to go if you’re looking for unique accessories and are simply fed up off all the contemporary places selling the same accessories. Rachel Appleyard (what a great name) creates beautiful hair bands, brooches and masks from scraps of fabric, ribbon and buttons.
Eimear Lynch who started Ella Green Jewellery, uses silver and semi-precious stones in her collection. Eimears jewellery is made by using precious metal clay. Organic materials such as small leaves are coated in layers of metal clay to copy the shape and patterns.
And who of us can say no to a giant moustache cushion? Yvonne McArdle has a stall with the most extraordinary cushions of facial hair and beautiful fabric flowers.
If you’re like us and just had to have raccoon hat, Not Just Hats is the stall to visit. The crocheted hats were so different that it was difficult to not buy them all. Sadly the driver’s hat with crocheted goggles was too small for our large adult sized heads.
We were extremely impressed with Daisy Chain Crafts owned by Laura, her stall had everything including soaps, lip balm, candles, bath bombs, jewellery, jams, garlic and chilli oils, charms, fairies and she even holds parties for children’s birthdays, girls nights in and workshops.
After visiting Astro Anne and rooting through all the stalls, there’s a bar to sit at while listening to the music acts. Usually four acts play at every market. Shebeen is a great venue for anyone in a new band or solo acts that are new to gigging, simple because the place is so chilled and friendly.
Check out The Crafty Market any Sunday afternoon in Shebeen or send an application for a stall or performing at www.thecraftymarket.com.
Oh and for some reason while wandering around the Market we couldn’t get this song out of our head…
