During the summer of 1997 when buckets and spades were occupying the thoughts of most people, the staff at Weaving Dreams were already in festive spirit working flat out for a Christmas order for an American mail order company. The order was for Wee Vees, the collective name given to a series of puppets called Katy, Kevin, Bran, Lorcan and Blue. Katy and Kevin are human, Bran (not surprisingly) is a dog, Lorcan is a sheep and Blue is a horse.
Each puppet comes with its own story by playwright, Joni Crone, and they are closely related to the Glenasmole Girls, a family of five dolls led by a vivacious redhead called Molly.
The puppets and dolls are one side of this fledgling company's product line-up. The other side comprises hand-felted sheepskin slippers, textured tapestry wall hangings and floor coverings. Recently the company has begun to deliver a series of commissioned pieces for the Office of Public Works, including those decorating the new offices of the Asylum Seekers Centre in Baggot Street, Dublin.
Weaving Dreams developed as an off-shoot of the Shanty Educational Project in Tallaght, Dublin. The Shanty serves a community greatly disadvantaged by poverty and unemployment and one of its main aims has been to help women, in particular, towards independence and employment.
Recognising that many women in the area had natural but underdeveloped skills in handcrafts, one of Shanty's founders, Ann Louise Gilligan, approached local designer Mary O'Rourke and asked her to run a series of workshops in knitting, spinning and weaving.
"We started on a Sunday about seven years ago and ran the workshops over a two-year period," says O'Rourke. "Not only did people blossom from the point of view of developing their craft skills, they also had a forum for discussion about things that were important to them and that was very valuable from a personal development perspective. Ultimately, we also hoped that it would be possible to develop some sort of enterprise from the workshops as well."
When the workshops ended, a core group of women remained who were interested in putting their new skills to work to earn a living. A formal training course was set up with financial assistance from Area Development Management and jeans manufacturer, Levi Strauss, and 16 women were trained over a six-month period as plans were developed to effect a transition from training course to small enterprise.
O'Rourke abandoned her independent career as a knitwear designer and producer to become the company's manager/designer and seven people are now employed by Weaving Dreams on a part-time basis. The eventual aim is to have a company both staffed and managed by local women.
"We are different to most commercial enterprises at the moment in that we are still heavily committed to the training and development of our people and that takes time," says Mary O'Rourke. "The training has to run alongside our commercial activities and by normal financial standards we would not be considered very successful at this point because we're just about keeping our heads above water. But on the basis of what we set out to achieve, we're very happy with how things are going and if we can continue to survive that is good enough for the moment."
Weaving Dreams started in 1994 and its first products were dolls and slippers. "We went to the Showcase trade fair at the RDS and that got things moving in the order department," says O'Rourke. "The big advantage of Showcase is that you can meet all sorts of potential buyers, from the very biggest to the smallest, and you never know where the contacts will lead."
In 1997 Showcase contacts led to the US contract for the 6,000 Wee Vees puppets for the Land's End mail order catalogue. This year O'Rourke hopes that Irish-Americans will show their support for the peace agreement in Northern Ireland by buying one of the company's new range of Peace Angels.
"The Shanty has always had very close contacts with groups in the North," she says, "and we wanted to do something to mark the spirit of reconciliation and that's how the Peace Angel came about."
Weaving Dreams' products are available at craft shops throughout Ireland and there is an open day at the workshop in Glenasmole on Sunday, December 6th from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
"Our ideas are evolving all the time," says O'Rourke. "We've added new items and developed existing ones to suit changes in fashion and to reflect the improvement in our skills. We added rugs about 18 months ago and we have also moved into wall hangings. What makes our products different is the fact that they are textured and this gives them their very distinctive appearance." A wool enthusiast, she keeps a flock of Jacob, Shetland and Wicklow Cheviot sheep at her home in Glenasmole.
"For example, the Glenasmole Girls are to be joined by boy dolls and baby dolls and we are hoping that local schools will start using our Wee Vees puppets in the classroom. They could be very useful as an aid for teachers who can use them to get children talking about the things which are bothering them.
"Small children see puppets as essentially human and they will talk to them and through them in a way they won't talk directly to an adult. We're hoping to add a video and we think that RSE teachers in particular may find them helpful."
Managing an enterprise that is part commercial, part training and development is tricky, O'Rourke concedes. "I find the nurturing and educational role no problem - that comes naturally," she says. "It's much harder to come the heavy when you've someone screaming for an order and I've got to be the big bad boss. The two don't sit easily together and finding a balance is the biggest challenge I face."
Contact: Weaving Dreams, phone (01) 452 2630.
Open Day: Sunday, December 6th, 1-5pm at the Glenasmole workshop
