Celebrating locally made crafts

Celebrating locally made crafts

by | Jun 30, 2018 | crafts

At Birch Cottage we believe that in an age of mass production, beautiful locally made craft items with a story to tell make our place truly magical. Here is our dragon fire poker, made at the forge in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum. Isn’t it fine? You’ll find that most of the items in the cottage are one of a kind, and we’re always happy to tell visitors all about them.

First year willow harvest – lessons learned

First year willow harvest – lessons learned

by | Feb 13, 2018 | crafts

This winter can best be described as incredibly wet. Our land is saturated, and other than a bit of sacrificial field for the horses, we’re keeping off it as much as possible and concentrating on jobs such as harvesting our willow crop for the first time....
Wonderful willow

Wonderful willow

by | Feb 19, 2017 | crafts

It was when we began putting on willow basket making courses that I realised I had the basket making bug, and so it was only a matter of time before my mind turned to creating a source of willow. It turns out that there are many, many varieties of basket willow and the range of colours is wonderful.

The Turnip House

by | Sep 1, 2012 | crafts

We do like visitors, and it was great to see John and Elaine from the Turnip House, who very kindly brought us housewarming (and headwarming) hats. If you are coming to the area, make sure you visit their tea house – the cake is fabulous. They make knitwear and...