Staff discounts for local drugs company

This is the third year that local drugs giant, Eli Lilly, has offered special rates to its staff to take a pottery workshop at Kinsale Pottery. I'm delighted to have them along, as many live locally and might become regular students. This year, we had a class of 19 children of Lilly staff, who came yesterday for a two hour session, making haloween mobiles and sculpting witches in air-drying clay. The parents had to fork out only €10 per child, and the company matched that to make up the full class fees. Emer O'Neill, a young and energetic Crawford Graduate fine artist teaches the children, and is still recovering from the session - better her than me! No really, it is a great fun idea for companies to give staff support without forking out for fancy incentive schemes and the like.

Pottery Hen Parties all the rage

I just finished teaching my seventh hen party of 2006. Now I know I'm a handsome chap and that I attract young women to the pottery all the time (in fact only 2 of my 48 students this terms are men) but what is happening to the binge drinking wildcats who used to fill the bars of Kinsale and Cork every weekend? They're all coming to Kinsale Pottery for a hen party!

In three hours, I took 18 hens through throwing (no, not the full 'ghost' experience) and then a hand-building project. 7 of them made the figures for a Christmas Crib, 7 made the cast of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and the remaining four made the bridal party complete with the photographer!
All in all, they had a great time, even though I found it all exhausting (18 women in three hours, what do you expect...) They paid €30 each, and so I was happy and they were happy. More hens please!