There is a woman living just outside Boyle, who makes sauna hats by hand at her kitchen table. They are colourful, well-made, and thoughtfully designed, with a fold-down brim for privacy and stitching done with the kind of care that takes time. She is not farming out production to anyone. Every hat is made by her, one at a time.

Her name is Georgette Marshall , her business is called Crack and Crackle, and she joined Florence on Voices of Boyle for a conversation about craft, creativity, community, and how a morning in the sauna with a friend turned into something real.

From Somerset to Roscommon

Georgette grew up in the Somerset countryside in the south west of England, in old farmhouses next to fields, close to Bath. She describes it as an idyllic childhood, lots of freedom, lots of sport, no brothers or sisters, and school at the centre of her social life. She left home at 17 and was working for a scuba diving company in Egypt by the time she was 18 or 19.

After Egypt, she moved through Birmingham, London, Bath and Bristol. She eventually settled in mid Wales, where she raised three children on a beautiful estate and started making cushions and curtains on a sewing machine as a way of keeping her hands and her mind busy. The business she ran from there was called House of Georgette, and it was the beginning of taking craft seriously.

The move to Ireland came from an unlikely source: her mum. The family had been renting in Wales and knew they needed somewhere permanent. Her mum looked online, suggested Ireland, and within about six months they had found a house outside Boyle on Daft.ie, flown out to view it in November, and bought it.

“It was damp, it was smelly,” Georgette told Florence with a laugh. “But I could see the potential.”

Ten Years in Boyle

Georgette has now been in Boyle for ten years. She remembers arriving to a town that felt quiet and a little sad, with a lot of empty properties on the main street. She says there is more energy in the town now, more vibrancy, and she can imagine what the place must have been like in its busiest days.

What drew her in was the people and the sense of community. She noticed small things: the way kids stop for older people at pedestrian crossings, the way neighbours know each other, the way families are still connected to other families up and down the road. She says England used to be like that and it is rare to find it there now.

She found her way into Leitrim Design House in Carrick-on-Shannon, where she has worked part time for around three years, and found a creative community around Boyle that she describes warmly as her Irish family.

“It is being made slowly, with intention. And that is why you are going into a sauna. You are going in for an experience.”

The Morning That Started Everything

The idea for Crack and Crackle arrived on a morning in the sauna with her friend Tara. A man in the sauna was wearing a hat. Both women initially found it amusing. Tara asked him about it. He explained the purpose of a sauna hat, why keeping your head cool lets you stay in the heat longer and get more out of the experience. He gave them a hat each to try.

“We tried it and we were like, wow, this is an absolute game changer,” Georgette said.

She came home, told her partner Nathan about the hats, and Nathan asked the obvious question: why don’t you make them? Georgette sat with the idea for a couple of months. She looked into what was already available, different price points, different fabrics. Then she started making them.

The first few were not quite right by her own standards, so she refined the pattern, settled on fabrics she was happy with, and got it right. She designed a fold-down brim that doubles as a privacy feature: put it down and nobody talks to you in the sauna, put it up and you are open to conversation. The hats come in bright, bold colours and are finished with quality stitching throughout.

The Price of Handmade

One of the most honest parts of the conversation comes when Georgette talks about pricing. Her hats cost thirty-five euro. The imported alternatives start at around twenty. She acknowledges the gap and explains it without apology.

“That fifteen euro difference is my wages,” she said.

She is not trying to extract maximum profit from the product. She says she wants the hats out there, wants people to experience them, and believes that when people understand what the extra cost actually represents, it opens their eyes to the value of other handmade things too. She knows she could charge more and probably should. She has made a deliberate choice not to, at least for now, because getting the hats into people’s hands matters more to her than the margin.

Florence made the point that this is not just about one hat. When you do not support a local maker, that maker stops making things. The ripple effect of not buying local runs further than most people think about.

“You are making something out of nothing. It is functional, it is useful, and the satisfaction on their faces when they have made it, that is what it is about.”

Sewing as a Life Skill

Georgette’s path to sauna hats runs through a much longer relationship with craft. She learned to sew in school, in a textiles class taught by a teacher she describes as quite frightening and good for it. She wanted to do textiles for A levels but the course was dropped. Life moved on. She studied spatial design in Manchester, had three children, and eventually bought a sewing machine that sat on her kitchen table for months before she found the courage to switch it on.

When she finally did, she taught herself through trial and error and early YouTube tutorials. She started with cushions and curtains, moved into interior design work, and never really stopped.

She ran sewing workshops for primary school children in Wales for several years, setting up five machines and teaching children from age six upwards to make something in a six-week course. She ran a workshop at the Boyle arts festival this year and was surrounded by children the whole time, fascinated by the machine.

She finds this both heartening and troubling. A sewing machine used to be in every house. Sewing used to be something everybody could do a little of. Now many children have never seen a working machine in person.

“It is a life skill,” she said. “It is so important. And why are they not teaching it in school?”

Some of the children she taught in Wales are teenagers now. One of them has gone to university to study textiles and is making things on a machine that is far beyond anything Georgette taught her. Georgette could not be more pleased about that.

What Is Next for Crack and Crackle

Georgette has her hats stocked at the Lough Key Forest Park sauna and is working on getting them into more places. She has a website, with a link in the show notes, and is taking orders directly. She is currently cutting fabric in every spare hour between work and family life, and describes it as a three-day job just to get the cutting done.

Her big idea for the future is a Crack and Crackle sauna hat tour, visiting saunas around Ireland with a batch of hats, meeting the sauna community, and spreading the word the way she likes doing most: face to face.

She also mentioned her friend Tara, whose morning in the sauna started everything, is running Friday morning yoga and sauna sessions at Lough Key. Georgette described the view from inside that sauna as something you have to experience to understand. The lake changes by the minute. Rain, sun, mist. It is stunning.

“Just have the confidence in yourself. It is literally just having consistency and having a go. You can only do your best.”

Listen to the Full Episode

This is one of those conversations that moves quickly and leaves you feeling good. Georgette is direct, funny, warm and genuinely passionate about what she does. Florence had a great time and it shows.

To order a Crack and Crackle sauna hat or find out more, visit: Crack and Crackle

Key Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome from Florence

00:26 — Growing up in Somerset, England, a country childhood

02:01 — An only child, freedom, sport and school

02:44 — Leaving home at 17, working in Egypt at 18 or 19

03:33 — Moving through Birmingham, London, Bath and Bristol

03:49 — Life in mid Wales, raising three kids on a beautiful estate

04:40 — Mum’s idea: what about Ireland?

05:14 — Finding the house online, flying out in November, buying it

05:55 — Culture shock for the kids, from Welsh to Irish

07:21 — First impressions of Boyle, ten years ago

09:11 — What Georgette loves about life in a small Irish town

11:02 — The Leitrim Design House, how she got there

12:03 — House of Georgette, starting to sew again in Wales

12:19 — The Singer sewing machine, Ms. Kail, textiles at school

13:28 — Interior design degree in Manchester, the sewing machine sat on the table

16:00 — How the Leitrim Design House job came about

16:32 — The sauna trip with Tara and the moment everything clicked

18:35 — Coming home, Nathan’s suggestion, the start of Crack and Crackle

19:27 — Perfecting the hat, why handmade beats imported

22:24 — Pricing, what that extra cost actually represents

23:59 — Why creativity matters and inspires others

25:26 — Dad: number one supporter

28:49 — Sewing workshops for children, the reaction at the Boyle arts festival

30:20 — Kids from Wales who still have what they made ten years later

31:55 — Why sewing should be taught in primary school

33:44 — Why the name Crack and Crackle?

37:43 — The name landing perfectly when the sauna idea came

38:48 — Where to buy the hats, Lough Key sauna stockist

39:31 — Inspiration in Boyle, the river, the creative community

41:07 — Plans for a shop in Boyle, why the rents make it difficult

43:14 — Future plans: workshops in spring, Crack and Crackle sauna hat tour

44:25 — Tara’s Friday morning yoga and sauna sessions at Lough Key

47:53 — What the Lough Key sauna looks like from inside

Guest Bio

Georgette Marshall grew up in Somerset, England, and has been living just outside Boyle, Co. Roscommon for the past ten years. She has a background in interior design, holds a degree in spatial design from Manchester, and has been part of the team at Leitrim Design House for around three years. She is the founder of Crack and Crackle, a small handmade business making quality sauna hats from her home in the west of Ireland. She also runs occasional sewing workshops for children and adults. Originally from England, she counts Boyle firmly as home.