PAULA JEFFERS
Resident Artist:
March 2026
-
Paula has dedicated her residency to working with the GIFT OF HANDS volunteer group in the village to assist with new designs for repurposing donated textiles and knitwear into items that can be sold in their Craft Shop. This circular economy generates income to support other volunteer efforts in the village.
In addition, Paula will teach free sewing, knitting and crochet lessons to the teens and young adults during her visits to Mulranny.
She graduated from Central St Martin’s in the U.K. with an MA in fashion and knitwear and has spent the last 40 years working in the the fashion and retail industry , designing, manufacturing and hand creating clothing, knitwear and home wear from high end to high street . Her background is deeply rooted in craft and traditions from hand knitwear, stitching and mending, recycling and repurposing. She loves to find uses for everything! She has taught workshops in knitwear and mending and loves to share her passion for making things by hand.
I was lucky enough to spend my Artist Residency at Mulranny Arts, working with the wonderful artisans at Gift of Hands, as well as giving myself time to develop some new products for my store in Whistler, Canada.
At the craft store, we worked on finding different ways to use some of the many donated textiles to produce new products that were easy to make and appealing to customers, as selling them is the only way to make the store sustainable.
The donated textiles I focused on were wool strips and damaged knitted Aran pieces. As the ladies were already making the most of them, thinking of something different was a challenge, and I had to teach myself some new skills in order to fully explore the possibilities.
As is often the way with creative pursuits, this inspired a few new products to introduce into my own store, as well as giving me the time to work on some new hat designs using local yarn, which I hope to produce for the store by this winter.
I also made the most of my downtime by exploring the area by car, on foot and by swimming along the local trails and beaches. I am co-hosting an Encaustic Painting and Knitwear Workshop at Mulranny Arts in August 2027, and I wanted to become familiar with the area so that I can genuinely share my experience of this stunning part of Ireland with our guests.
—Paula
