The Old Flax Mil<\/strong>l will provide the unique setting for a gathering of textile-experts, artists, crafters and visitors \u2013 as usual from many parts of the world \u2013 which you won\u2019t find anywhere else. The complete programme for the day and the evening is going to the media within the next few days (as always, we are keeping a few special surprises \u201cup our sleeves\u201d) \u2013 here are some of the attractions \u201cup front\u201d, to water your mouth:<\/p>\n Crafts and Demonstrations Galore!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n LYNDA KELLY<\/strong> on her spinning wheel. Lynda is one of the best hand spinners on these shores, her specialist yarns are reputed well beyond Ireland. Experience her in action!<\/p>\n EMMA WHITEHEAD<\/strong> will show hand embroidery. Her pictures on linen are unique and much sought after. Emma\u2019s art of embroidery has no match. She will let you see how it\u2019s done!<\/p>\n CHRISTINE BOYLE<\/strong> stunned many of our visitors with her dyeing-demonstration last year. The owner of the \u201ccolour and cloth\u201d company uses natural dyes only and has done some unique work for Flax-Mill-Textiles recently. Her dye-pot will be boiling all day!<\/p>\n JACKI SLEATOR<\/strong> will come to our Open Day for the first time. The County Tyrone based felter and fashion designer will show how wool is being felted.<\/p>\n SHUTTLES FLYING!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We will demonstrate weaving on at least two of our looms. MAURA McKEE<\/strong> from Omagh is going to take the driving seat at one of them and we expect Ireland\u2019s best designer beyond doubt, SARAH MORRISON<\/strong> from Derry City to give us the honour and give our fly-shuttle-loom \u201cthe works\u201d.<\/p>\n We will have visitors from Ireland\u2019s oldest linen-mill (Clarks of Upperlands), \u201cold hands\u201d in flax-scutching and some of the new crop of our flax here for you to see. Add to that tailors, knitters, and fashion-designers \u2013 where else would you get it?<\/p>\n There will be two blacksmiths showing red-hot skills. BRENDAN COSGROVE<\/strong> is going to give a demonstration in ring-making.<\/p>\n You will find hand-made soap from County Antrim, Ireland\u2019s best wood-turner and his products, unique jewellery, some of it made from bog-oak, coffee roasted in Upperlands<\/strong>, buttons made in Belfast…..you name the high quality product \u2013 it\u2019s there for you.<\/p>\n As always, our visiting crafters are \u201chand-picked\u201d genuine manufacturers. Dealers and \u201ccheap and nasty stuff\u201d won\u2019t be near the place.<\/p>\n Let us spoil you!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n How would a piece of home-made cake, freshly baked by one of Germany\u2019s top confectioners, go down? Or \u2013 if you care to stay into the evening \u2013 a 15 metre long buffet the likes of which you have never seen? Our catering brigade from Berlin is sharpening the knives as we write this.<\/p>\n Very special visitors!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There hasn\u2019t been an Open Day without them and there were always very pleasant surprises. We won\u2019t tell you all of them. We can reveal that BALLYMONEY OLD VEHICLE CLUB<\/strong> is coming to Flax \u2013 Mill with a large number of unique classic cars. Their visit in 2012 was absolutely spectacular and we feel honoured to welcome them back this year.<\/p>\n Old bicycles are going on the road to come all the way from England, a steam engine (first time!) will be there, MARTIN WHITEHEAD<\/strong> from Strangford hasn\u2019t told us whether it will be his one-and-only Lagonda or the equally unique Riley \u2013 car, he is going to land in……<\/p>\n We could fill pages of good news like this!<\/p>\n N. Ireland\u2019s oldest lady on the road!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Our friend CRAIG MATTHEW<\/strong> doesn\u2019t do \u201chalf-measures\u201d \u2013 he will drive the country\u2019s oldest commercial vehicle to the Flax-Mill and rumours are that the 1929 Morris-lorry is going to carry a load of flax from our field in Upperlands!<\/p>\n This short version of the programme shows one thing:<\/strong><\/p>\n It makes absolutely no sense to go anywhere else on September 14th<\/sup> – and that is only the day, never mind the evening!<\/p>\n The Flax Mill Open Day starts at 9 am and runs to 6pm!<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The Evening Concert<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIreland\u2019s most spectacular private gathering\u201d, a Dutch journalist called it once and 2013 will see another event in a league of its own.<\/p>\n WILLIE DRENNAN<\/strong>, folk-singer, Lambeg-drum-Rocker, fiddler and story-teller without anyone to match him, set the place rocking last year. HE WILL BE BACK! We experienced up to 9 musicians on stage in 2012 \u2013 we are going to beat that!<\/p>\n Take this in and tell us where else you could find it<\/p>\n Irelands best bodhran player (and maker), SEAMUS O\u2019KANE<\/strong>! Banjo-maestro JOE DIAMOND<\/strong>! Guitar- and trumpet-virtuoso JOHN TROTTER<\/strong>! \u00a0Songwriter\/singer BOB SPEERS<\/strong>!<\/p>\n That\u2019s just the tip of the ice-berg, we have a couple of real crackers in the back of our hands, watch out for the local press-reports.<\/p>\n Whether you are going to make it for the Open Day only or for day and evening \u2013 I (and all of us here at Flax Mill) would love to welcome you and your friends and family on Saturday, September 14th<\/sup>! Don\u2019t be shy to pass this on to a good friend and remember:<\/em><\/p>\n THERE WON\u2019T BE ANY STRANGERS HERE \u2013 JUST FRIENDS SOME OF WHOM YOU HAVEN\u2019T MET!<\/em><\/p>\n MARION BAUR<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Owner of Flax-Mill-Textiles<\/strong><\/p>\n Please treat this letter as your personal invitation to both a unique day of demonstrations by the cream of crafters from far and near, interesting visitors from many countries, and a memorable evening of music, stories, poetry and craic. With our new outlet-shop in Berlin now open and absorbing a lot of energy (and time) … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6317"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6338,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6317\/revisions\/6338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/linen-sewing-3.jpg\" "\\"linen")
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