Operating out of the grounds of Drumcondra Castle, CanDo is a social enterprise staffed by people who are vision impaired. Its history spans more than 150 years, originally beginning as a basketmaking vocational centre for blind men.
Its parent organisation, now known as ChildVision, has evolved over time to provide educational services for people who are blind or vision impaired. While social enterprise activity at the site has fluctuated over the years, a renewed commitment was made in 2018 to preserve blind craft as an important form of intangible heritage.
What’s a typical day in the studio like for you?
Our days start in various places. Some of our team live independently and others are in assisted living spaces. What’s shared is that we get in between nine and ten, open our lab and discuss what orders we have in. We like to make our products fresh as we only use natural preservatives (if any), which means we have a high turnover and are constantly busy.
In gathering our equipment for the product we are making, we also gather items that other studios would not have to consider – coloured boards for visual contrast, bright tape for marking lengths and measures, stackable boxes to bring things like weighing scales higher so they are in our often limited field of view. Then we commence – most tasks are adapted, some deliberately so to incorporate what are called “Activities of Daily Living”. These are tasks that lend themselves to different areas across the life of a person with disabilities, such as a vision impairment.
If we are making a hand cream, for example, someone who needs to practice their literacy will read the recipe. Someone who needs to practice their maths may do the calculations to adjust it to a double or triple batch. Someone who needs to practice their gross motor skills may pour the carrier oils into jugs on scales. Someone who needs to practice their fine motor skills may work on closing the tins when we are finished. The point is, no single aspect of our work is passive – each task lends itself to a kind of self-improvement that is rarely taken for granted.
In managing this space, my role is a fantastic crossover between blind craft heritage preservation, business and direct support work. Not one member of our team is not engaged with supporting another person – we weave around and help each other with our processes in a way that feels intuitive. Our output, various kinds of soaps, creams, balms and candles, don’t visibly tell our story but seeing how we work most certainly does. When we sell our products to the outside world, we are lending them a token that’s traded for a glimpse of how we operate so differently to make our products.
We could say that a typical day of production starts at ten and finishes at three, with five people working, but that skips the point – a typical day is held together by a rhythm that blind craftspeople have moved to for hundreds of years.
What do you like most about your work?
Sometimes our work feels like a kind of best-kept secret. Centres for people with disabilities have historically been closed-door affairs and it feels that now we have the opportunity to invite the outside world in to get to know what we do.
It’s exciting to hear people remark that they had no idea we were here – it gives us the opportunity to connect in ways we haven’t before.
Tell us about your first craft item you made
We started with a small, handmade soap mould that made about eight bars. Each bar felt important – they were a sign of what was possible.
We now make up to 80 bars per mould – times have changed! But the feeling is the same – each one is tangible proof of ability.
What advice would you give someone who is considering this craft career?
Dive right in.
Working with colleagues who have disabilities is one of the most rewarding things you can do. If you are fortunate enough to be doing this in such a historical space, explore it.
The spaces around us and the stories they tell can serve as an inspiration and a motivator to do good. To connect. To create.
Do it!
Where do you get your inspiration?
We see what we do as an opportunity to reach out and connect. Named by our trainees, our enterprise serves to show others what we Can Do.
It’s about opening up and creating a space within which we can build bridges between the disability community and those outside of it.
In a sense, our inspiration is an intrinsic openness to being understood – for exactly who we are.
Is sustainability an important aspect of your business?
In terms of transportation, we walk our orders to the post office and we take public transport to events.
While being good for the environment, it’s also great for our visibility around our local community. Many decent practices work well together.
What’s the most challenging part of your craft?
With no pun intended, our visibility!
As mentioned before, we have been engaging in blind craft on our campus on and off since the 1870s but many historical reasons kept us behind closed doors. This has also restricted our funding opportunities.
Part of the challenge of emerging into the local and national markets is finding ways for people to recognise what we do and understand our message. In what can be a very saturated market, we have to be creative to stand out. Anyone we physically speak to about our craft is incredibly engaged by it – the challenge is finding ways to strike up that conversation.
What made you choose your discipline?
Natural soap and cosmetics was both a logical and emotional choice to us – it worked in terms of practicing skills but also had an appeal to the senses that those in the blind community would enjoy perhaps even more than the sighted person.
Using the senses that both the blind and the sighted have in common, in touch and smell, creates a space for shared appreciation and understanding.
What would you say to anyone thinking of becoming a DCCI member
It’s a straightforward process that is accessible and accommodating. It’s fantastic to be among such likeminded people.
