Camphill Community Mountsahnnon

mosaic path

2009-04-22T08:26:00.001-07:00

During the holly nights after christmas, we had an artistic workshop in the community.
Every one made at least one mosaic picture, using ceramic tiles as medium.

It took a while but finally we used them to make a foot path on the ground outside of the office. No more muddy walk in rainy days. THis is a good view point in the community where we can look over the lake Derg and the mountains behind.

We are still making more large mosaic tiles. We'll update more photos when they find a new place.

land project

2009-04-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

During the Easter week, we stopped the normal workshop activity.(garden, estate, weaving workshop, craft work,etc)
Instead, we created the land week when we all tried to work on our estate.
The main entrance to Clai house had been neglected. So, we dug up the ground on the stone wall and planted some shrubs. Now it's more welcoming.
We hadn't manage to work on the flower bed in Inis house before. When we all worked together this week, we could make big difference. Now there is a beautiful flower bed in Inis house. Even though the weather was really bad, we managed to finish what we planed to do. After that we could stand back and admire our work.

shadow play

2009-04-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

On Easter Sunday, we invited our friends and neighbours for our Shadow play performance "The princess and the prince hare".
All the community members were involved in the play and it was wonderful experience all together. We were delighted to hear that our friends and the neighbours loved it.

All what we needed was strong lights and imagination to create magical scene behind the screen. We had six evenings to prepare for it. (plus time for props making) It will be nice to do it again.

planting flower seeds

2009-04-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

On Good Friday, we all gathered in a poly tunnel in the garden, with our green fingers.
we planted all kind of seeds (flowers and vegetables) in small pots.

It is strong image of Resurrection. When flowers die after summer, the seeds hibernate over winter. When spring comes, they come to life again. It is a beautiful image when we see them growing in the pots. Everybody can carry the image and make connection somehow.

As we planted a lot of vegetable seeds too, it was good introduction to our summer vegetables. Now all what we need is good weather.

Camphill Community Mountsahnnon

2009-04-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

Since 1st of April, we have become Camphill community Mountshannon.
We made the request and it has been approved warmly by the other communities at our neighborhood meeting.
We had been preparing for it since last year to join Camphill.
We usually join most of the meetings in Camphill. So, in a way there is not so much difference. However, we are ready to be involved in Camphill movement more actively now.
Some people from PR group are working hard to renew the Camphill website (camphill.ie). By the time, the new website appears, we should be part of it as a member.

mosaic workshop

2009-01-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

During the holy nights , we had no usual workshops in the community. Instead, we created space to get together and do an artistic activity.

This time, we had a special mosaic workshop. Most of people did their own drawing and made pictures with or without help.
Most of the tiles were given to us for the project by various people. We were delighted to have some special hand painted tiles from Mosaic artist, Laura O'hagan. Those colorful tiles were very popular and made the picture all unique.

Now we are transferring the mosaic picture on paving slabs. They still need to be cemented and grouted. Once they are ready, we are going to use them to make a footpath in the community.

Magic show!

2009-01-16T08:44:00.001-08:00

Magic Mike from county Kerry came to perform a special magic show in inis house.
We were very excited to see all kinds of magic. Card magic, coin magic , ball magic and a couple other unique magic, etc.
It is quite difficult to describe the show when I don't know how he tricked us! Of course, he is a real magician.
We'd love to invite him again and share his show with more people next time.

christmas fair

2008-12-09T08:09:00.000-08:00

We had good opportunities to show our presence in the local area on 2 occasions. Our community has been growing in steady paces but there are still many people in the area who don't know about us. We were very keen to take part in some events for PR.
One was at Raheenwood steiner school when they had a christmas fair. It is a well established christmas fair and many people came to the school on 29th of November. We had a stall there last year but had no products of ours. This time we had some rugs, table runner,etc from our weaving workshop, home baked breads, jams and juice.
The rugs were very popular and people were surprised to hear that they were made in our community.
The second occasion was on a christmas fair in Ennistimon. It was a wonderful way to meet people and get to know some of those people.

new looms for the weaving workshop

2008-11-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

Sometimes ago, we have asked our friends at one of our camphill meetings and asked for unused weaving looms.
It works. We got what we asked for!!!
Recently, we have got 2 new table looms from Camphill Dingle and a standing loom from a good soul.
The weaving workshop is temporarily set up in Clai house at the moment. It's expanding quickly. Now we have 4 weaving looms set up.
Our weavers have been busy making some products for the christmas fair.

The new purpose-built workshop is waiting for more funding. Hopefully, we get a roof over the building soon.
Now what we need are more people who works on the looms!

first pots

2008-11-18T09:09:00.001-08:00

We started a couple session of craft work a while ago.
We have been making a few flower pots and tiles for mosaic work since then.

As we don't have any pottery equipment, it isn't easy to finish them off.
No equipment at all.
It's easy to make some pots but they all need to be fired.
what can we do???

we tried to fire them in a paper kiln. As the name suggests that they get
fired in newspaper.
How is it possible?
well, it's hard to believe but the newspapers in certain conditions don't get burnt easily.
Different layers of wet newspapers hold heat and work as insulation.
Eventually it gets very hot and convert clay into ceramic. It's very fascinating process and wonderful event for anybody to see it.
it is very valuable experience to follow the whole process and try to understand what ceramic is.

Indeed,It was very successful firing. There was no broken or cracked pots.
so, we'll try to fire some more pots in paper kiln again.

latest member in our community

2008-11-09T11:38:00.001-08:00

"Bobby" is our latest member in our community. He's 6 months old dog that found a good home. He was a stray dog that was found at our friends' house.
It happened that people in Clai house was considering to get a dog and they were looking for a suitable dog. When they heard about the dog, a meeting was arranged for him to visit us. It all went well and he was to come and live with us in Clai house.
Well, unfortunately, he got a car accident the day after. When he joined us, he had some stitches on his front paws. With special neck holder around his face, he looked a little bit sad.
anyway, he is a very happy dog now and he's off the neck holder and all the stitches. He looks much healthier and started walking again. Indeed, he can run and go for a long walk. He's very friendly dog and everybody in the community seems to be getting on well with Bobby.

Harvest Festival & Open house

2008-09-28T07:58:00.000-07:00

We asked our friends of the community to come and help us harvest the vegetables.

Even though it was a very wet summer and wettest summer for most of us, some vegetables grew well. As the garden has been providing a variety of vegetables for last few months, we are very grateful. With the extra hands, we managed to harvest all the carrots as well.

After we could appreciate our harvest by eating nice hot soup that was made from our own vegetables in the garden.

The same afternoon, we had "Open house" to welcome our friends and neighbors in Clai House. Instead of turning the events with full of games and programs to entertain our guests, we kept it simple. We could spend more time with our guests.

There was one more event on the day in Kiltrateera afterwards. We had our first "story night". It was wonderful to listen to all kinds of stories sitting by the fire in the old farm house. The house has a perfect set up for such event. All the grown up were quietly listening. I hope we can create the story nights more in the future, especially in dark nights in winter time.

new house

2008-07-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

From 1st of July, We've been renting a new house called Kilreteera.

It's an old farm house with 5 acre land.

There is a vegetable garden with 4 poly tunnels. There are strawberry, rasberry, black currant, red currant, goose berry , apple trees, pear trees, etc.

It's a magical land where a lot of fairy beings are around.

inis house

2008-07-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

we have reopened Inis house. It had not been used for a while as residential house.

we are trying to get the house ready to accommodate people. we got new furniture as well and there is more warm atmosphere in the house definitely.

new weaving workshop

2008-03-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

We are building a new workshop next to Clai house. It's going to to be a bright room where weavers create something special with various colors.

clai initiative blog

2008-01-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've set up a blog for Clai life sharing community so that family & friends of our community can see what is happening here.

I'm setting up online photo albums as well. You can view it and leave comments if you like.

eiji