Brief Summary
Hi - My name is Tonya and my business is called Tir na nOg.
Tir na nOg is the mythical irish land of the young - where nobody grows old. At Tir na nOg, I make unique, hand-made puppets - each one totally individual.
Tir na nOg started, for me, with a Eureka moment. After about a year of trying to figure out what I wanted to do since losing my job, I suddenly imagined these puppets. I have always been creative and artistic and I knew I wanted to use this now. I have also always been a bit of a magpie throughout my life and had boxes of beautiful fabrics and jewelry. I knew that, one day, I would know what to do with them. In the top picture on this page is a photograph of 3 old puppets - puppets which were given to my mother when she was a little girl and which, along with about 6 more which did not survive my sisters and I , my mother gave to us when we were small. They are my inspiration - they were the starting point for my Tir na nOg.
When I began, about 6 months ago, I started with a basic idea, a basic design, in mind. All my first puppets were gifts to people I love. Each one was made with them in mind and made with love and care. Every one of my puppets is made like this. I get my inspiration from the fabrics. While I call these "puppets", they are not, in the true sense, puppets. They are really to be hung - in a little girl's boom - or a not-so-little girl's bedroom !
The puppets are made by hand, from start to finish. Will, my wonderful partner, loves working with wood and he makes the actual puppets - every part is hand cut and sanded and shaped. Then, I take over and hand-sew the dresses, paint the faces, sew in the hair and style it, add the jewels and the finishing touches. Because everything is hand-made, no two puppets are ever the same. Each puppet is approximately 40cm from head to toe.
Every puppet is signed and numbered and comes with their own certificate. Your puppet will be yours alone - nobody else will ever have a duplicate.
