I know from being a child and winning rosettes that that piece of ribbon means everything. You’re bringing it home and it’s [put in] pride of place, so it’s lovely to think that it is created here,” Tara Lane exclaims.“It will be kept somewhere for years by the winner, and when they see it they will remember the day they won the competition, the pony they were on, and the whole family going to watch.”
I know from being a child and winning rosettes that that piece of ribbon means everything. You’re bringing it home and it’s [put in] pride of place, so it’s lovely to think that it is created here,” Tara Lane exclaims.
“It will be kept somewhere for years by the winner, and when they see it they will remember the day they won the competition, the pony they were on, and the whole family going to watch.”
Tara makes her rosettes in the old coach house of Bridestream House, situated 3km outside Kilcock in Co Meath.
She moved back into her family home three years ago with her husband John Gorey and three daughters Emma (13), Lucy (11) and Lilly (8), when it became too big for her mother, Ann, to live in alone.
“I come out here to hide from the world,” she tells us as she walks into her workshop, which has a shelved wall of ribbons in every colour sitting in see-through boxes. She admits she doesn’t feel like she is working at all when she is making her rosettes.
Having recently left a corporate job, Tara is delighted with working on her own time.
“I get up in the mornings and John pops the kids over to school in Clane and I let the ponies out and muck out their stables. I give the ones out in the field hay and I tidy around the house and aim to be in the workshop by half nine,” she says.
Bridestream House was built in 1752, with Tara’s parents buying it in 1960 for £20,000, she confides. The house is set on 30 acres of land and there are nine horses, with two of them out on the liveries in front of the house when Irish Country Living arrives.
In January 2016, Tara took the plunge and decided to start the business.
“Myself and John sat down and said we have such an amazing premises here and all the different buildings that we should do something to utilise the place. We looked at various things – from dog kennels to lamas – and decided that rosettes were the perfect choice,” Tara says.
She started straight away, setting up her Facebook page and buying product in from the UK.
“The ribbon was already pleated and I was getting suppliers in England to print the centre boards, I was very reliant on my suppliers. Orders were coming through on Facebook and the timeline was too long,” Tara explains.
She knew there was a market for her product, considering how many orders she was getting, so Tara did some research and discovered a pleating machine on eBay.
“I am a great believer in things working out. If something is meant to be, it will happen. I was online and I found a pleating machine on eBay in the UK, and they are very difficult to get,” Tara says.
“There was a lady in the UK and she was selling off her centreboard machine, her ribbon printer and a whole load of stock, so I told her I would buy that. We got the jeep and drove over to England and arrived back here on St Patrick’s Day.”
Having worked for over 20 years in the equine and bloodstock business before Tara set into her own business ventures – including a health shop and a therapy equipment business – she felt she had lots of contacts in the horse world.
“I thought I would be dealing with rosettes for horse competitions, but this week I have made 50 sashes for a Strictly Come Dancing competition, a cat show and a dog show,” she laughs.
In fact, Tara has even made rosettes for a dog groomer who gives a rosette to each puppy that gets its first groom, while for a wedding, her rosettes are being turned into pew ends by one bride-to-be.
“There is such scope for these rosettes that I had never even thought of. I can get the exact colour that a company or person wants and I have a great graphic designer who designs the centres with logos,” she says.
While undoubtedly labour intensive, Tara has a unique perspective on the art of making rosettes. “I find it therapeutic, because you are looking at a pile of ribbon and it comes through the sewing machine and turns so pretty – and it’s like it’s sorting out my problems,” she laughs. CL
For more information, see
www.centrepiecerosettes.com
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: