We’ve blogged before about Nicholas and his lovely wife and their hand made mugs. Its one of our little indulgences at the celtic croft store that we actually drink tea from them while we manage the store all day.

Its hard to define but there is something wonderful about a mug in your hands that you know was crafted by hand with care and attention by Nicholas on his potters wheel in Ireland.

After traditional glazing Nicholas then passes each mug to his wife who uses an old and traditional technique to apply the farmyard animals and prints to the mugs. The husband and wife team only release one new design a year so all of the items are hugely sought after !

These are the perfect mugs for your family kitchen or as a lovely gift from the Emerald Isle for the Holiday Season.

You can find out more about our range of Nicholas Mosse Mugs here 

 

 

We are hugely excited to finally have these wonderful scented candles in stock in the croft. We’ve put them out the back in our shelves and they have filled the whole shop with their wonderful fragrance even without having the candles lit.

These candles are a super gift from the Emerald Isle for the holiday season. They are made from all natural hand poured wax from Ireland and are scented with fragrance and essential oils.

These candles have a lead free cotton wick and we have found the 6.5oz candles last for about 45 hours of burn time when we have them lit in the croft.

We think these candles are perfect to bring that little bit of celtic magic into your home, or as a perfect gift too.

You can find out more about our range of different Brooke and Shoals Scented candles here 

 

What if you could get unique handmade knitwear that also embraced the spirit and feel of some of our most classic paintings like Monet?  We stock a number of unusual and handmade items from Ireland and what drew our eye to Liz’s scarves were the sumptuous depth of her color choices that reflects the tones and colors found in classic paintings by artists such as Monet.

This is the closest we have to wearable art in our shop!

about Liz 

Liz is a textile designer and hand-weaver who lives and works in  Annayalla just outside Castleblayney, among the rolling hills of County Monaghan in Ireland.  She has passion for Irish textiles, which she weaves in her bright and airy workshop, Swallow Studios.

Liz’s love of colour echoes what she sees around her each day; fresh hues of springtime crocuses and bluebells, vibrant highlights in our summer landscape, rich shades of autumn and shimmering, water-filled winter scenes.

She draws her inspiration from the lush drumlin countryside and paintings by her favourite artist, Claude Monet. Paintings by Paul Gauguin and American artist, Edward Hopper have influence in some of her work too.

Liz says its essential that she can truly guarantee that her textile designs are genuinely hand-woven in Ireland. Hand-weaving is an age old craft and her looms are powered by hand and foot and all her work has a woven selvedge. Every piece is knotted and washed by hand to finish and bring out the luxurious softness of the wool.

Wearable Art 

When Liz was about 15 years old she discovered Claude Monet. Her  art teacher opened the windows of wonder for her with his beautiful violet colours and painting style….what a combination and she was hungry to see more of his work. She didn’t know then the path her life would follow, into the world of colour and texture, and that Monet would accompany her along the way.

But accompany her he has, and this collection of handcrafted designer scarves is now her signature collection. We stock some of the examples of the lavish ‘The Walk at Argenteuil’ scarves.

Her loom was set up in her cottage after some time away from it. Liz ordered her first box of yarn which she excitedly spread on the floor. She sat in the middle of the cones of colour and thought ‘what next’. Inspiration came in the form of a book she bought about Claude Monet. She draped swatches of coloured yarn across the beautiful Impressionist paints. The muse had struck and continues to inspire her daily as she dyes and weaves.

Hence why we genuinely feel these scarves are  Wearable Art ~ Inspired by Art

Find out more and buy from our store here 

 

 

Brooke and Shoals – Fragrance Diffuser – Lemon Mandarin and Magnolia

Brooke and Shoals – Fragrance Diffuser – Lemon Mandarin and Magnolia

We’ve been a fan of Alison Bantons fragrances for a long time. She is the founder of Brooke and Shoals and often uses childhood inspiration for the fragrances she creates.  She often recalls picking flowers in her great-aunt Mollies garden. The garden was near a babbling brook and whispering shoals and this came to form the name of Alisons company in her Aunts honour.

Brooke and Shoals – Fragrance Diffuser – Lemon Mandarin and Magnolia

A top tip to maximise your fragrance – We’ve found that turning the reeds upside down from time to time helps. The packet comes with a 4.06 fl.oz bottle and the reeds in a lovely package with a bow on top which makes it a great gift idea.

You can find out more about this diffuser and buy for the lowest price with FREE delivery by clicking on the link below

https://www.celticcroft.com/product/booke-and-shoals-fragrance-diffuser-lemon-verbena-and-bergamot/

Nicholas Mosse is everything we love about Irish pottery. Nick throws a huge passion into his pottery and it shines through in all the kitchenware we stock in our store.

Whether is a warm cup of tea on a cold day, or sharing a family meal on a special occasion we adore the homely feel of every single handmade item Nick makes.

Nick applies patterns to the mugs using a traditional 18th Century technique in his pottery studio in Bennentsbridge in County  Kilkenny in Ireland. His Old Mill is steeped in family history and was restored from an old hydro electric mill to power the fire needed to cure the pottery.

Nick began his lifelong obsession with pottery 55 years ago, he learnt his craft with the potters in Harrow, England and then married an American artist , Susan before going on to start the pottery business in 1976.

Susan is the creative force behind the original and creative designs, often with a heavy hat tip to traditional styles. She takes her inspiration from the countryside all around them and Nick and Susan only release one new design every year.

Every piece of hand made pottery from their mill undergoes a 20 step process. Starting with the locally sourced and custom mixed clay they then throw lumps onto the potters wheel and begin forming each mug or item by hand.

The handles are applied using ‘slip’ which is a natural clay glue that binds the handles during the firing process in the kilns.

The Bisque Kilns do a first firing without the colourful patterns on before being hand painted at the mill with different underglaze colours and then refired in the kiln with a clear hard glaze applied over the top.

When we hold Nick and Susans kitchenware in our hands, often with a steaming cup of tea when we are in the Celtic Croft shop we get a close connection to a beautiful part of the country of Ireland, and a sense of connection to our ancestry and past. The traditional and handmade high quality element of Nicholas Mosse pottery and the connections it makes for us are the reasons we take huge delight in shipping his goods to the USA and helping to entice American customers with their own little bit of authentic Irish pottery into their daily life at home.

These mugs and kitchenware are for drinking from, not leaving for show on your sideboard !

To find out more browse out store here

https://www.celticcroft.com/product-category/nicholas-mosse/

 

 

Jumpers , Cardigans and Waistcoats from newborn to age 5. These are the perfect family gifts for the little leanbh in your life !

Around the time we started our lovely croft store a certain charming lady from Dublin in Ireland called Julie Ditton started making gorgeous childrens knitwear and when we first saw these we instantly fell in love.

There is something about the bold elementary school colours she uses, combined with strong motifs such as animals or flowers that makes us smile every time we bring her clothing over to the USA.

The moment you pick these up its obvious that these are handmade in Dublin. In a world of mass produced sweatshop corporate clothes you can tell the moment you feel the soft wool against your hands that this is something special.  One of the ‘magic’ elements in all the things we stock in the Celtic Croft is the feeling certain things gives us that takes us straight back to our ancestral home. Sometimes its hard to define quite what that charm or magic is, but with Julies knitwear its obvious.

With Julie Dillon its the fact that her range of Jumpers, Cardigans and Waistcoats remind us so much of the knitwear our Grandmother ‘Nanny Kathleen’ used to knit for us. Its not just that it reminds us of our childhood, holding these garments takes us back to all those times that our family got together, the Christmases by the fire , the birthdays and the christenings. You can almost smell the waft of pipes and whisky as you hold these garments in your hands.

The 100% Irish wool is sourced locally from County Donegal and almost every single item she makes…..is made by Julie. If you search enough online you’ll find her website, but like many of the truely magical Celtic things she doesn’t even sell her clothing online.

We adore her bright and bold childrenswear and take great pride shipping her individually made clothes to the USA.

Find out more about these delightful clothing line in our online shop with free shipping throughout the USA by clicking below

Julie Dillon Knitwear Range