News & Events
Published on April 3, 2020
Doesn’t time fly? There was I thinking I would do better in 2019 and keep the newsletters flowing through the year. I’m really sorry that didn’t happen.
I’m not taking all the blame though! I did ask members to let me know of anything newsy they could add to a newsletter and what was the response? Guess. (No prizes)
2019 was a good year for us. We did see some members leave because often other commitments such as young family or work hours preclude members giving time to their craft and attending craft fairs. Their places were eagerly snapped up by artists and craftspeople on our waiting list and our exhibition in June and July saw record numbers of exhibitors. Unfortunately the exhibition hall is not a T.A.R.D.I.S. so the more exhibitors there are the more the space for each person is squeezed. It certainly means making at least two visits to the exhibition is a good idea as you will find new items when exhibitors re-stock their space.
We did hold another craft extravaganza at the Kirkwall Grammar School in November. There too we had a record number of stalls as well as the charity stalls, Santa’s grotto, live music and the Youth cafe providing drinks, sarnies and yummy cakes throughout the day. We were able to give the charities over £100 each from the sale of raffle tickets and are most grateful to the exhibitors for providing great prizes. Again much gratitude must go to the organisers of our ‘Craftastic Christmas’ which is a lot of hard work and to the volunteers who put time and effort into moving tables and putting them back after the event.
We have provisionally booked a weekend event over a Saturday and Sunday in November 2020 because a number of folk said they could not visit on a Saturday being at work that day. It is so good to see such artistic talent in Orkney and the support the local folk give to these small businesses.
Check out our Members list to see lovely sea glass artwork by Iain MacIver (Quoyloo Glass), wonderful funny ‘naive art’ and fused glass objects by Liz Rickard, beautiful, dainty crochet and bead jewellery by Kate Laughton. These three are our most recent members joining us at the end of 2019. Look out for them at our fairs and the exhibition this summer.
We now have some dates for our events in 2020 including some two-day craft fairs, and some provisional dates for the Kirkwall ‘Craftastic Christmas’ and the final Christmas fair in the Town Hall.
March: Sat. 14th
April: Sat. 4th
May: Fri. 8th; Mon. 11th; Fri. 22nd; Mon & Tues 25th & 26th
Also in May, the Mart Gardening Weekend is Sat. 16th and Sun. 17th and we will be exhibiting in the upstairs foyer as usual and selling raffle tickets for our summer prize draw.
Exhibition open from Weds. 10th June to Wed, 29th July inclusive. (Not open Sundays)
August: Mon. 3rd; Weds. 12th; Fri.14th; Tues. 18th; Mon. 24th; Thurs. 27th & Fri. 28th
September: Wed. 2nd & Thursday 3rd ;Mon.8th & Tues. 9th
Craftastic Christmas provisionally booked for Sat. 21st and Sun. 22nd November (yes! Two days!)
Christmas fair provisionally booked for Saturday 5th December
That’s all for now folks but keep checking back as some new ideas are planned for these pages.
IMPORTANT FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT EVENTS IN 2020
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic all our events have been cancelled.
Depending upon the pandemic situation later in the year we are holding on to the grammar school booking for the ‘Craftastic Christmas’ weekend and will let you know if that is going ahead nearer the time (mid November)
