slowly she turned

Saturday was a full studio day, which I welcomed after such an inspiring day on Achill Island. Sandra handed out pieces of a light canvas fabric for us to paint and collage on. One piece was to make a personal book and the other was to create a long piece to go as a page in a group book we would leave as a gift to the studio.

I got excited about making the fabric book. It was hard for me to stop for lunch or at the end of the day! Here’s my workspace and auditioning ideas for the book pages and cover.

I knew that I wanted pockets in the covers and some kind of woven motif on the front. I found a strong rough forked stick in the parking lot and decided to use some of the yarn I had bought from Mr. Doherty in Ardara with it as part of the binding.

That night we went into Mulranny to have dinner at Doherty’s. SO MUCH FOOD ALL THE TIME!!!

We spent the morning in the studio and then our tour guide, Colum, took us by Grace O’Malley’s second castle tower (no photo) and to 15th century Burrishoole Priory to explore around those ruins and graveyard. The cemetery is still in service.

Then we went into Westport and were turned loose. The only issue was that the finals of the GAA (Gaelic football) were being played that afternoon, so a lot of the shops were closed and all of the pubs and restaurants were jammed with people watching the game. I still enjoyed poking around a few shops. I bought a few stones at the local pagan shop and a few art supplies at one of the bookshops. The game was being broadcast in the streets and we could sort of follow the direction of the game from the cheers and shrieks. Toward the end of our time, Jill and I had Bailey’s coffees waiting for the bus to pick us all up, looking out at the circle with the statue of St. Patrick.

Mayo had not won in 75 years and they were cursed by a priest after their last win. The requirements for the curse to be lifted had happened (the last man who played on that team has died), so everyone was excited here, even though they were not expected to win.

On the way back to Mulranny, we found out that County Mayo won! There was celebration everywhere. And on the way back to Currane, a rainbow appeared over the bay.