Purity Belle Environmental Blog

Christmas Gift Ideas from Irish Etsy Crafters

by Cliona Kelliher - Friday, December 12, 2014

Carlow Walking Festival

by Cliona Kelliher - Wednesday, November 12, 2014

It seems like an age ago on this damp and chilly morning but I’ve been meaning to do a blog on my experience of the Carlow Walking Festival for a while and I’m finally getting around to it. Candle making and the Christmas rush has gotten in the way of my writing lately :)

I was delighted to be invited by Dee of Greensideup to take part in one of the walks – the festival was organised by Carlow Tourism and is a fantastic way to promote the beautiful landscape and nature in the Carlow area. I’ve raved before about Donegal, my favourite holiday destination in Ireland but I should also say that I love the area where I live and its surrounding counties, the landscape is very different to the wild and rugged coastal areas but it has its own gentle beauty and a wealth of gorgeous places to explore and experience nature.

One of the great things about the walking festival was the range of walks, suiting everyone from total beginners to the more experienced walker and lots of information was given about what was needed regarding clothing, etc.

Perhaps next year I will try a longer walk but for this year my husband and I opted to do C Walk 11, one of the easier and shorter walks. It was described in the brochure as a stroll along the Barrow Way from Clashganny Lock to Borris Village, looking at trees, plants and insect life with Una Halpin from Wildways Adventures. We set off for Borris village to register and one of the first things that struck me was how charming Borris itself is. Stone buildings and beautifully kept surroundings with flowers everywhere made such a lovely impression. Borris House is located here; home of The MacMurrough Kavanagh dynasty, former Celtic Kings of Leinster and the house can be visited by groups by prior arrangement. There is a wealth of history in the area including a 16 arch viaduct designed by William le Fanu and built in 1860 and the atmosphere of the town is friendly and welcoming.

We registered and set off by bus to our starting point, the weather was lovely and there was a great mix of people and a generally convivial atmosphere. There was a brief delay as Irish TV did some filming and then Una introduced herself and gave us some sheets with plants and wildlife to look out for; there was certainly plenty to see and lots of discussion about plants and the area in general. The scenery was truly beautiful and there was a great sense of peace and harmony.

The walk itself was a nice stroll, everyone found their own pace and there was plenty of time for chat :) I’m not a dedicated walker so it was a bit of an eye opener for me to discover that committed walkers can plan a whole year’s calendar around walking events!

It was lovely to spend time with people who, like myself, are interested in nature and appreciate and enthuse over wildlife and plants.

It was a really great way to spend an afternoon and the tea and sandwiches afterwards were very welcome.

Unfortunately I only had time to do one walk but some of the others I would have loved included a walk exploring the history and archaeology of the Blackstairs Mountains, a walk with Mary White foraging for greens and fungi and a walk with Éanna Ní Lamhna, an amazing selection available and very hard to choose between them!

I’d definitely recommend taking part next year, it was a fantastic festival and a great job was done by Eileen O’Rourke of Carlow Tourism. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the program for 2015.

3 comments

A Day Off and Making Scoodoos

by Cliona Kelliher - Monday, September 15, 2014

I’ve spoken before about trying to get the balance right . It’s something I still struggle with because I feel I have to fit so much into my time and with that end of year season on the way, the pressure is on to have stock ready and plans in place - see I didn’t mention the word but other crafters will know what I mean J

This weekend however, I took Saturday off and was so glad I did. Myself and my husband Mark were invited by friends Ciaran of The Garden School and his partner Hanna who is behind the Scoodoos idea to come and help out making Scoodoos as part of the #greeningofranelagh project in association with the Ranelagh Arts Festival.

I had seen the work that Ciaran and Hanna do and loved the idea of Scoodoos, both the concept behind them as well as the actual shape and structure of them.

It was a glorious day when we arrived and there was a bustle around the centre of Ranelagh, the Arts Centre was open and there were many hessian sacks around with little plants as well as a hive of activity around the garden area. Already some of the Scoodos adorned the little flower beds and I was dying to find out how they were made, so we got to work. Here is a little snippet of the beautiful idea behind Scoodoos (taken from the Scoodoos website:

‘Once upon a time we Scoodoos were commonly seen throughout the world. As humankind spread as a species, the Scoodoos retreated, seeking refuge in the arboreal world, we are spirits of the trees.

Not much is known by humans about us Scoodoos in modern times. Our existence has been the subject of rumour and superstition. We are tree spirits. In past times we were known by many different names in different cultures; for example in Japan tree spirits are called Kodama, in Greek mythology tree spirits were called Dryads.’

I certainly felt that as our first Scoodoo took form, there was a feeling of personality and life in it and each one is quirky and lovely. Although our initial attempt required a bit of adjustment, I was pretty happy with it - here it is!

Here's Mark with another larger Scoodoo

And here are some of the Scoodoos decorating Ranelagh :) (photos below courtesy of Ciaran Burke)

And finally, the team, from left to right - myself, Mark and Rafika

.... and the real Scoodoo team, Ciaran and Hanna :)

Ciaran Burke and Hanna Tuuri making Scoodoos in Ranelagh

It was fabulous day for many reasons - it's always lovely to see people coming together and fostering a sense of community. Creating a green space is beneficial to everyone . Being outdoors and having great company made the day too and I definitely can't forget to mention the great food provided by Rasoi, so good I had to get a second helping :)

So, all in all, sometimes it's good to take a break and renew your energy!

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How to Care for Your Soy Candles

by Cliona Kelliher - Friday, August 29, 2014

In this post I'm going to look a little bit at candle care in general and show some of my own candles, so that you can make the best use of them. Like any other craft, candlemaking depends on excellent quality materials and care in the process of creating them. If you appreciate craft and are willing to spend a bit more for a handmade product, then of course you want to get the best value and make it last.

My candles are made from pure soya wax which is a vegetable wax, produced sustainably and which gives a much better scent throw than paraffin wax, as well as being considerably better for the environment - check out some of the benefits of soya wax.

All my candles are made by hand, poured individually so that each one gets the same attention to quality. The basic premise of creating a candle is fairly simple - wax, a container and some wick! However in order to have the best finished product, there are a lot of different factors to consider. Things like pouring temperature, wick size, container size and quantity of fragrance are all things that have to be tested and measured carefully and changing any one of these things can impact the final product quite a lot. When you buy a Purity Belle Candle, you are guaranteed quality that has resulted from years of experience.

So, how do you take care of your soy candle? First things first - the initial burn is very important when it comes to soy candles. Soy wax has a 'memory', it retains the shape of the initial burn pool (the area of melted wax around the wick) so it's essential that when you first light your candle that you allow it to burn for a minimum of one hour but ideally 2 hours or until the burn pool reaches the edge of the container.

This means that when you next light it, the same burn pool will be recreated and you won't get the 'tunnelling' effect you get with some cheaper candles. If the candle has this kind of tunnelling, you will lose a lot of the scent and a great deal of wax is wasted.
Here's my Vanilla Cream candle showing a good burn pool:

Vanilla Cream Burn Pool Purity Belle Candles

Always make sure to trim the wick before you relight - many of the wicks I use are self trimming but there's usually a little thicker point at the top after burning. I normally just pinch this off with my fingers before relighting. The candle of course should be on a stable surface, not only for safety but also in terms of the candle burn. Likewise, drafts can cause the wick to flicker or edge to one side.If the wick starts shifting to one side, edge it gently back into place when the candle has cooled but wax is still soft, so that the candle continues to burn evenly.

The next thing is picking the right candle for the right space. Personally I like a stronger scent in the living room and fresher fragrances for the kitchen. For bathrooms and smaller areas my favourite size is my upcycled small jar candle, it comes in different shapes and sizes depending on what's available but is usually this size.

It will scent a small room without being overpowering and will last for ages.

For the sitting room, my preferred candles are larger and in the more potent scents, I've been using one of my Luxury Jars in Vanilla Cream for ages and it's warm and soft, perfect for relaxing.

The tin candles are good for most areas, but bear in mind that most scents will be a bit lost in large open spaces so you may need to light 2 candles for maximum impact, two of the same fragrance works fine or play around with combinations - Lavender and Vintage Rose go beautifully together for example .

Patchouli & Ylang Ylang Purity Belle Candles

I prefer a lighter candle fragrance for the kitchen because I don't like the idea of a strong scent overpowering the foodie smells!

One I use regularly is my Apple Blossom fragrance in a tin candle, it's quite fresh and crunchy and creates a pleasant light background scent.

Remember that soy wax is much softer than paraffin wax and melts at a lower temperature so spillage is never a problem and will wipe away easily with a warm sponge.

A handy tip for lighting your candle if you have no matches or need to reach the end of a jar is use a spaghetti stick! Just light off the cooker and it can be popped in the food bin afterwards :)

Final tip for safety, keep the candle free of any debris and dust, I generally just use a small piece of kitchen roll to wipe around the candle if it hasn't been lit for a while and is getting a bit dusty.

That's it for now, hope my tips will help you and Happy Candle Burning!

11 comments

Donegal and a Birthday

by Cliona Kelliher - Saturday, August 16, 2014

I’ve blogged before about Donegal, possibly my favourite place in Ireland. I’m blessed to have a good friend who lives there and it’s been our holiday destination for many years. I never tire of the beautiful rugged landscape and the soft light. There are endless unspoilt beaches, cliff walks, wildflowers and gorgeous restaurants. Even though I’ve been visiting for over 10 years, there are still new things to be discovered and it’s an endless joy to explore and experience every part of it.

Swimming in the Atlantic sea is the thing I look forward to most and has to be one of the most invigorating sensations ever. Those first few steps into the cold water are challenging and taking the plunge to swim can sometimes take a bit of encouragement. Having a hardy friend who’s well used to it helps to spur me on and believe me, it’s worth it every single time. Once your body acclimatises to the cold, the water starts to feel warm and you get all the benefits of the amazing salty water and natural oils in the sea, not to mention the exfoliating benefits of sand.

The beauty and cleanliness of the beaches is unsurpassed, as well as the variety – from rugged rocky beaches, calm little inlets, to stretches of golden sand, Donegal has it all.

Here are just a few of the beaches local to the Ardara/Killibegs area –

Fintra Beach

Fintra Beach Rocks

St. John's Point Donegal

Magheragh Beach Donegal

I’m sure you’ll agree they’re pretty spectacular!

This year I had an idea to do a blog about some Donegal craft which is varied and beautiful. However I got slightly sidetracked by trips to the beach and didn’t take as much time to photograph and observe as I had planned.

Fortunately I also had a birthday whilst on holiday and my gifts are a perfect illustration of just some of the fantastic work available locally with the added bonus that I could just sit in the kitchen and take the pictures at my leisure.

I got 3 lovely gifts from McGonigle Glass which is based in the Craft Village on the outskirts of Donegal town.

The necklaces are 2 different styles, one can be worn short choker style and the other is long and very modern. I love the creamy white shades because they go with everything and the earrings are a gorgeous translucent blue.

The Craft Village is a wonderful space where you can see the artists at work as well as browsing through their wares and then take a coffee or lunch break at the award winning Aroma Café . It is truly inspiring to see original irish craft in this kind of setting.

I also got this lovely little bowl from Mountcharles Pottery, which is not too far from Donegal town.

I decided to pay a visit to see more of the work and I was very glad I did because I got to speak with Stephen Nolan who makes the pottery and his lovely wife Shazza who creates gorgeous jewellery and collectible teddy bears. The shop itself is based in what used to be a Doctor's Surgery and it's a great old building with a lot of character.

Stephen showed me his workshop and his gas fired kiln, made by himself. He explained that the key to the look of his work is in the application of the glaze and the use of the gas kiln. Each piece is unique with gentle colour variations - I particularly liked the aqua green/blue range which reminded me of the sea but you can also see from the picture above that there are paler shades and a great selection from cups to large salad bowls, ranging from about €10.00 upwards.

After seeing the workshop and kiln, I chatted for a bit with Shazza, Stephen's wife who is multi-talented and the creator of 'Make Way for her Majesty the Queen' sterling silver jewellery. Each piece is made by hand from the highest quality sterling silver and precious stones and is inspired by Medieval, Victorian and Baroque themes. I really liked the quirky style, a little bit 'vintage chic' yet very modern.

Shazza is also the owner of 'The Eccentric Bear Co.' - these are the cutest bears, old-fashioned and completely handmade with 100% mohair and made in the traditional way with fully jointed limbs. (They are collector's items and not suitable for children). Here are some more pictures below courtesy of Shazza and Stephen.

Last but not least I got this gorgeous smelling soap from the Donegal Natural Soap Company

All natural ingredients and smells divine!

I could go on forever about my stay but I think I'll stop here - I hope you've enjoyed my little taste of Donegal and as always, feel free to comment and share :)

4 comments

Craft Business on a Budget

by Cliona Kelliher - Saturday, July 19, 2014

This post is mostly looking at ways to present your product on a shoestring and also some other little tips that have helped me. If you’re a craft business and trying to make your product look the best, it can be very frustrating sometimes that you don’t have the budget or facilities to achieve the vision you want. There’s no doubt that having cashflow can make it a lot easier but with a bit of resourcefulness, you can still create your own look and brand without a huge financial outlay. It’s pretty easy to have a fabulous looking product when you have a team of designers and advertisers working on just that. Very different when it’s just you and you have only a few Euro in your business account J

As this was usually the case with me at the start, I’ve become very good at utilising every free resource and have learnt to be a little bit inventive as well. Maybe because I’ve never really wanted a ‘corporate’ look, this works for me so far. I try to keep my packaging fairly simple and I upcycle a lot which obviously saves money. It does involve quite a bit of work though, so not the easiest option!

I use Facebook and other social media as much as I can to advertise what I do and just use my iPhone mostly for all my photos. There are many fantastic editing/creating tools online - one I have been using a lot lately is Canva. This is so easy to use with loads of templates for creating Facebook covers, twitter posts or pinterest images. The beauty of this is that the size appropriate for each one is preset so you get maximum quality.
Pixlr is great for basic editing, I normally just use the Pixlr express online tool, it's very useful for cropping, adding effects or text and for improving lighting in your photos.

My website is all done by myself through Blogger, also free and easy to use. If you want to use your own website name, you can buy a domain and link this to your blogger site which is what I have done. So instead of this blog being puritybelle.blogspot.com, it's linked to puritybelle.com which I own. The process of linking can be a little bit tricky but your domain host company should be able to help if you run into difficulties.
There are lots of other options in terms of setting up a free website, some sites offer a blog/shop package - do be aware, though, that the free options can be quite limiting and if you want a little bit more functionality, there is usually a monthly fee. Do a good bit of research before you decide to commit financially.

So where do you start when you have a small budget? My main piece of advice is keep to the basics - the first essential being the quality of your product itself. Any initial outlay should be on the tools or ingredients that you need to make everything properly. For example, in my case, I have always bought the best quality wax because, honestly, any amount of flashy advertising or labelling isn't going to mean a thing if my candles are poor quality.

Once you have done that, presentation is probably the next step. You have to allow for the fact that creating a product you are proud of involves a process of change and experimentation and learning. I'd be wary of buying enormous quantities of anything. You'll probably adjust quite a few times, so try out things until you're happy with the final result. Packaging is important even if you’re starting out and although it’s probably more economical to order in bulk, there are many sites where you can just buy limited quantities of bags/boxes. There’s also the option to share an order with someone else and save on postage. If you can’t afford to have your packaging printed with your name, it’s a good idea to order a custom stamp. Having a stamp is a total life saver because you can use it to stamp tags, bags, boxes, pretty much anything! It makes a big difference to your branding at a minimal cost. Here's just one instance where I stamped a tag to complete the look of a candle, the little clay heart was also made by myself, great for making something for a special occasion or if you want to personalise an item.

Check out also this great blog from Etsy, loads of ideas and beautiful examples.

Packaging Ideas from Etsy

As I’m a big fan of reusing and recycling, I try to hang on to any nice packaging I ever get and friends know by now that I’ll use anything like this so they save things for me which is great.

Little baskets are brilliant for gift packs, pretty tins, ribbon, all these can be used again and I think it’s much better to use them than to throw them away, besides saving money.

I also hang on to any bubble wrap and boxes I get and reuse them when I’m posting orders.

Next up is stickers – I use Vistaprint and lately Zazzle because I need small quantities of many different stickers but there are lots of companies with good deals if you just want one type. Again, stickers can be used on tags/boxes/bags to give your product that ‘finished’ look. Vistaprint and Zazzle both have lots of templates you can use or you can design your own and incorporate your logo. If you don’t feel you have the skill to design a logo for yourself, just ask around, you never know who might be willing to do it in exchange for some of your products.

I think product packaging is an ever evolving thing anyway, I’m never 100% happy with mine and always thinking of ways to improve, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Also, if you can get the advice of a mentor, this can be really helpful. Check out your local enterprise office and the Crafts Council of Ireland to find more details of this, it is a free service (to date anyway) and I definitely got a lot of tips.

As I said previously, use Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram to promote what you do. It does involve some work and commitment but it really helps to get your product out there.
Join craft groups or business groups, get to know people and ask for advice if you need it.

Taking good photos of your craft product is essential because people will respond to something beautiful. Again though, if you’re on a budget, there’s no need to feel that you have to have an expensive camera or professional photos. As I’ve said, I take all my photos with my iPhone, I’m mostly happy with the results and I usually take loads of different photos of the same product, experiment with different lighting and props and then select the best ones and delete the rest. There’s no doubt that professional photos can really make a difference but you can leave that for when you have a healthy bank balance.

If you want to get your product out there and hopefully make some money, maybe just start with doing local markets. It's easier and cheaper to begin this way as small local markets don't cost as much as the bigger events.
I have done a full guide on doing markets here - Crafters Guide to Markets.

You might also like my guide to working with retailers, this is something to consider when you are happy with your product and want to introduce it to more people - Crafters Guide to Selling to Retailers

So, to sum up, spend your money wisely!

As always, I'd love to hear from you, if you have any good tips you'd like to share, just comment below :)

(Updated May 2016)