Craft shop may set blueprint for others

A group of artists based in West Cork have set up a shop in Skibbereen which could become a blueprint for others.

The West Cork Crafts shop, based at Townshend Street in the town, is run as a co-operative by a collection of 16 members, and arose out of a ‘pop-up shop’ experiment over two years ago.

“When we did the pop-up shop for Christmas one year, on the spur of the moment, the two questions we were asked were — ‘was everything made in West Cork (which it was), and was it going to stay open all year?’” says co-op secretary Adrian Brenthall, himself a glass artist, based in Ballydehob.