Camphill Community Mountsahnnon

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

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!

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

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

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

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

"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.