the  story  behind  turra  crafts

Hi I'm Sandra, and I'm the founder of Turra Crafts. 15 years ago, my family and I moved from Co. Kildare to our new home in Ballickmoyler, Co. Carlow. Our new house was built on an old open cast quarry/coalmine. My youngest daughter, Sassy, who was three at the time, had an obsession with stones which she found outside scattered around the old quarry. She loved to go out and collect stones of all different shapes, sizes and colours. She saw something fascinating in each stone that she picked up. It was something that nobody else could see. Not after long, we had a windowsill in the house dedicated to Sassy's collection of stones.

Our new house progressed, Sassy grew up, and one day I needed to make a present for my sister. So I got some of the stones from the window, some twigs and glue, and I started making a picture. I am a strong believer in meaningful quotes, I think they can make such an impact on our daily life. So I knew I wanted to incorporate this into my work.

After creating this first picture, more friends and family asked me to create some pictures for them as well. I was asked to create one as a Wedding present, then for birthday, then a confirmation gift, and things started to take off from there.

Many of my picture ideas were thought up over a cup of tea with my five children, all of them having their own ideas and opinions. I think that the best ideas in life arise over a good cup of tea and some great company.  As more requests started to come in, we started to build a team, and who better to rely on than family.

My son Darren volunteered to put his photography skills to use by taking photos of the work and promoting them on our website and social media. My son David, with his software skills started designing creative background layouts for the frames. Daniel, with his practical thinking was our designated stone sorter. Alexandria, with her creative mind works alongside me in creating new image designs. As she inherited my love for quotes, she is constantly expanding the range of occasions that we cater for. Sassy, the youngest member of the Turra Crafts clan, fuels our days with lots of stones and smiles.

Our work is often inspired by our surroundings in the Irish countryside. We strive to create pieces that reflect the wonders and beauty of nature. Each piece of art that we create contains a well thought out theme which evokes a different emotion to the viewer. We use quotes in a lot of our pieces, we feel that words can have such a positive and powerful impact on our lives. They can turn a bad day into a good one, remind us of a special moment, a loved one, or simply make us smile.

We try not to narrate the Stone Stories that we create, as each picture can be interpreted differently by different people, both young and old.