4 December Christmas craft shopping in Dublin

In the interests of research into the handcrafted Irish jewellery market I have spent the day at the National Crafts and Design Fair at the RDS in Dublin.

It meant an early start, catching the train to Portadown, then taking the train on down to Dublin. The slowest part of the whole journey was probably queuing to buy a DART ticket to get out to Sandymount, then it was just a short walk to the RDS.

The craft fair was huge and the choice of products for sale was quite incredible. I snapped a few pictures on my Iphone of some of the items which caught my eye, to give you a taste of the variety on display.

stripey bowls

dried garlands

boats and star fish

not sure how to describe this – the waves moved as your turned the handle

beautiful bowls

glass bottles turned into platters

beautiful felted iPad and Kindle covers

a drift wood christmas tree (this would have been perfect for the cottage)

and of course I spotted a few nativities (but I resisted purchasing!) including this needle-felted one

and this ceramic one

There was also a Christmas Food Emporium with lots of tasty treats to sample.

Of course I justified the trip as “research” into the handcrafted jewellery market. Didn’t find anything quite like my hand knitted cuffs or crocheted necklaces. It was fascinating seeing the variety of ways the stalls were set up, how the packaging and branding all played a part.

There were also a few lessons in perhaps what NOT to do, but it would be unfair to share those here. Needless to say it was time well spent (and a little bit of euros spent too!)

I can’t share my purchases here, as most will be given as Christmas presents, but here is one Christmas decoration I bought for our tree.

Do you have a Christmas craft market that you love to visit. Please share!

Thanks