Warmth and beauty at Tíra on Strandgata
The final Christmas Village weekend has now begun. There is plenty to see and do. It's wonderful to enhance the experience further by visiting the fantastic shops on the High Street. Alice Clarke runs Tíru, which is well worth a visit.
Icelandic design on Strandgata
The final Christmas Village weekend has now begun. There is plenty to see and do. It's wonderful to enhance the experience even further by visiting the fantastic shops on the High Street.
Tíra has been on Strandgata since February. Alice Olivia Clarke is in charge there. She designs and manufactures her own products, which she also sells, among other places, at Epal and in the National Museum's shop. Reflectivity is a hallmark of the products, and they gleam. Tíra takes its name from the term for daylight.
Reflection in Icelandic wool
„I have been designing under the Tíra label since 2008. Reflectivity is in everything and is blended into the Icelandic wool.“ The wool is hand-spun in Iceland, and she also uses yarn from Kormákur & Skildi in a weave that she artfully designs, blending Icelandic and merino wool. A picture is worth a thousand words. Gloves with reflective details, hats that glow in the light, shoelaces, reflective badges and so much more.
„I design both on my own and in collaboration with others, because it's so much fun to get another perspective on your work,“ says Alice, who also sells products from other designers.
Long in the business
„I've been in this business for so long and have met some lovely people at shows and elsewhere. Word gets around that I have a shop, and they come to me,“ says Alice, adding that the collaboration with other design shops on Strandgata is good. They point each other out when customers come looking for specific products.
„That's great,“ she says. "It's good for the design shops to have more of them in Hafnarfjörður.".
Alice lives a short distance from the shop and was therefore delighted when the space opened. „I live only 100 steps away,“ she says. „This is very, very convenient,“ she says, laughing. She is from Canada but has lived in Iceland for over 30 years.
„I first visited when I was 22, but moved a year later.“ Asked what she liked about Iceland, she laughs and replies: „You mean: What's his name?“
Moved for love
Love brought her to Iceland, but she met architect Kári Einarsson when he was studying in Ottawa, Canada. „It was exactly 34 years ago on Thursday that we met.“ Iceland has become home for Alice.
„And then my family come to visit,“ says Alice. „It's not as difficult as it was thirty years ago. It's so easy to keep in touch these days, to talk to people and see them when they're on the phone. I don't send any faxes now,“ she says, laughing.
Yes, it's lovely to browse the shops on Strandgata.
Tíra's opening hours are the same as the Christmas Village's.