Slide 1 The Macraft Files
What are they?
My mother’s documented records of a female entrepreneur’s journey in a 1960s Ireland and beyond
Where are they?
Under beds in my home since 2015
Slide 2 Denise’s 3 Pandora’s boxes, with Glam potential ?
I packed these away in 2004
I finally opened them up on Saturday November 27th 2021
I am addressing one question to you today for feedback
Is this an archive worth preserving?
Slide 3. The beginning How to Gather knitters
Advertise and they will come
And some will send samplers
One advert, many newspapers copious replies
Time to find a partner
Kay Raftery & Maisie McGuire
Co-directors of Macraft Eireann Industries
Slide 4. Prepare
Access the raw material
Boxes big enough to fit 3 children arrived by rail, (to Castlerea Station, on a regular basis over 38 years)
Always from Blarney Woolen Mills, County Cork
Wool on hanks is balled up manually. Little children help aka moi!
Slide 5 Accesorize
Choose buttons also from The Cork Button factory
Study potential designs
Letters keep coming It’s time to set the knitters to the task
A cottage craft industry is born/ HQ is a drafty loft above my dad’s furniture shop
Slide 6 NOW The real work begins
Weigh the wool, post it out to a knitter
A lumber jacket or sweater is posted back
Weighed anew then sized and Labelled
(Sizes 32 to 48 chest measurements or children’s sizes)
Keep Records of all transactions
Slide 7 Some unsold handmade Aran & Crochet garments
taken from my attic on Saturday for a Covid photo shoot
Not necessarily the best examples as they were unsold for a reason.
Think of the real people behind these crafts
Slide 8 (79/79/17) From Cork to Donegal/ From Waterford to Cavan
79 women/79 homes/across 17 counties turned their gift of crafting into economic benefit for their families
In my family it without doubt raised our economic boat and helped educate us/3 children
(Letter in plastic One daughter- in- law writes that the knitter has died and then offers herself as a replacement… she will knit socks for MEIndustries)
Slide 9 The letters reveal
Mothers, Daughters, Carers of elderly parents, 2 patients in mental institutions, a nun in an enclosed order
A Kerry knitter’s: Letter of retirement after 14 years thanks Kay for all her kindness
(letters deliveries, dispatches and remittances are all on record )
Slide 10 All Macraft correspondence written in duplicate books.
Contains instructions, small design sketches and suggestions for improving garments
But quite personable at times as we have already seen
RIP recorded after some names in the ledger
Slide 11 Final Step: Find your market? How? (Shannon Airport)
Network, Network, Network
- Correspondence with several government ministers ( over the years and some replies )
- Prize winning stall at a Trade Show in Athlone in 1968
- Photo op with Mr. Brian Lenihan Senior, published
- Maisie & Kay go on All Ireland Road trip It all works!
Slide 12 The Stitch stories research
The belief that each family could be identified by a different pattern of stitches is considered to be part of the mythology around the báinín sweater.
Tim Robinson for one, who lived for many years in Connemara ecorded such beliefs as mryth and legend rather than fact.
Slide 13 Other records reveal that the different stitches
pertained to the lives of fishing communities
The honeycomb and blackberries the food they foraged and ate in season
The cable, the ropes they pulled daily / The diamonds the famous fishermen’s nets
Slide 14. New Learning: Anything you can do I can do also! (Transition to Retail) Go retail
The partnership is dissolved
In 1969 Kay opens her own retail space in her husband’s declining hardware store.
Customers come calling to buy Aran Sweaters
It’s acknowledged in the research literature as ‘the Clancy Brothers’ effect…!’
Slide 15 Time to access new designs (pattern etc/ agencies)
Postage continues in and out
She networks politician’s and officials to acquire agencies
She purchases ‘ceased trading’ agencies
She acquires (much coveted) Waterford Crystal & Belleek agencies in this manner
Slide 16 She finds new Irish craft workers (booklet)
She commissions articles which will appeal also to the home gift market
She Works retail 10 to 6pm
She Works wholesale after tea in the loft until dark
Slide 17 Right place /Right time /Right Approach
Ireland is being traded internationally
Bord Fáilte goes abroad in search of a tourist market
Cutomer Service is king
A BF Letter of commendation, because they received a letter from a satisfied customer of hers!
Slide 18 Going Global And all by post! ‘Amazon’ ingly!
Surface mail, Airmail, Parcel post
The notebooks of addresses with PO stamp are a record of this international market
And the orders keep coming….
“Could you supply me with an Irish Damask Linen Tablecloth (and A Waterford ship’s decanter)
in time for Christmas? “
Slide 19 Her husband is failing and she wants to care for him
It is Time to close the door in 2004
Go quietly? No!
With a massive public auction, on site, over October Bank Holiday weekend
Kay annotates every lot and every purchaser
And leaves us the data
Slide 20 (The dawn of heaven breaks for Kay Raftery)
Why does Kay’s archive matter?
It matters to me! I quote..
“Do not stand at my grave and weep…
For my sake turn again to life and smile,…
Complete those dear unfinished tasks of mine
And I perchance may therein comfort you.”
Do you consider this archive has value?/ Over to you for feedback….
