A year ago I went to the Slieve Aughty mountains and stayed there and learnt how to weave a sugan chair. At that time I had sprained my ankle badly but nothing was stopping me from learning such a beautiful craft.( (11 May 2016 - Making a Sugan Chair
http://kreatifhands.blogspot.ie/2016/05/making-sugan-chair.html)
I also wrote an article about it in my column for the New Straits Times Malaysia. (A Chair by Any other Name would make a Great Seat - http://soo-livinglifeasitis.blogspot.ie/2016/08/a-chair-by-any-other-name-would-make.html )
A year later I contributed a sugan chair to the Scarriff Cooperative Cafe. When the director heard about it he contacted me and said there were several sugan chairs that needed repair and asked if I could teach?
I thought it would be a lovely thing to do and so the coop put up a notice. It was a free workshop for anyone interested. The only thing was the participants could not bring the chairs home.
I ordered the rope from Dublin and when the day came I had three eager participants. They were all fast learners and in two hours we wove new seats for 6 chairs.
One of the participants said it was very interesting that a Malaysian was teaching them an Irish craft. He also asked me about the history of the sugan chair and I readily shared whatever I knew. Then he asked whether I knew other traditional crafts. I said yes: willow basketry and limerick lace making. Then he cheekily asked if they would be having Malaysian satay later. In fact, two of them had been to Malaysia before!
It was really great to teach those who are good with their hands and we had a wonderful time that Saturday morning.
