http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/feed/group_discuss Sat, 04 Apr 2026 01:42:45 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/gaabi/group_discuss/175/combining-your-culture-with-crafting http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/americymru/group_discuss/175


If you`ve ever paid a visit to Wales, you`ll know that it is a country steeped in tradition and that the Welsh are fiercely proud of their heritage. Despite attempts to eradicate ancient Celtic traditions, the Royal National Eisteddford is a ceremonial gathering of musicians, poets and craftsmen that takes place annually and keeps these great customs alive. It`s often said that there`s something about the west of a country that awakens the creative spirit. Wales has long been viewed as a sanctuary for potters and painters, jewellers, weavers, metalworkers, candlemakers, woodcarvers and glassblowers. You can be sure of one thing in Wales - that whatever the art or craft, it will be rooted in its surroundings and heritage. A few of the most prominent are featured here, specifically love spoons, Welsh slate and gold, weaving and coracle-making.

Many of the traditional Welsh crafts stem from the Celtic traditions that have influenced Welsh customs today. An ancient tradition is the carving of a spoon from a single piece of wood, now known as a love spoon, by a young man who would then present it to his sweetheart as a sign of his love, generally considered to be an early form of engagement ring. The carvings would depict symbols such as wheel, hearts, locks and birds that represented love, friendship, health and wealth for example. The tradition continues today (although if you are a novice at carving you can cheat and buy one already made!) and are gifted for weddings, anniversaries, new homes and newborns. There are a limited number of books on the market offering a step-by-step guide to crafting a traditional love spoon, and you can buy a love spoon pattern online to try out yourself.

Dubbed as the "most Welsh of Welsh industries", traditional slate craftsmanship quite literally crowned the industrial revolution and you can witness slate-splitting and creative skills in several locations in Wales. The demise of the long history of mining in the country has since spawned an explosion of superb creations in metal and slate crafts and artistry. Welsh slates now adorn international tables a plenty in the form of coasters and placemats, and there are successful manufacturers of Welsh slate gifts, trophies, house nameplates and ornaments exporting worldwide. Pure Welsh gold is the world`s most valuable precious metal and has been a cherished jewellery metal for centuries since it demonstrated supremacy for Celtic nobles. The Royal family wear wedding rings of Welsh gold.

Once the country`s foremost and most widespread of industries, Welsh wool weaving was once responsible for an immense output of clothing and bedcovers. Nowadays restored mills housing traditional machinery offer demonstrations and workshops for a taster of old weaving methods, including carding, spinning and sewing. The production of Welsh flannel quilts in bold colours and geometric shapes was one of the few ways a woman could earn a respectable living until mass produced items took over. The few remaining quilters flying the Welsh flag produce bedcovers of exceptional quality, often featuring traditional Welsh scenes and emblems such as the patron saint, David, daffodils, leeks, and red dragons.

A weaving of a different kind altogether has long produced small oval shaped boats made from thin strips of wood woven together like a basket and then covered with canvas. Known as coracles, they are sealed with tar and have been used to catch fish in Welsh rivers for thousands of years. If you are interested in learning a new skill that is a world away from Cross Stitch , the Coracle Society offers coracle-making courses for novices.
]]> Thu, 21 Apr 2016 23:37:58 +0100 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/gaabi/group_discuss/161/photos-of-our-work http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/americymru/group_discuss/161
Photos of our work

Posted by Katharine on September 8, 2008 at 6:49pm in Cymru Crafts
I'd like to see some of the work that folks on this group have created, like the wonderful dragon posted by Gaabi. Some of the carved/ quilted / crocheted / painted, whatever wonders you have produced. It's always inspiring to see what others are doing.
Replies to This Discussion
Reply by Katharine September 8, 2008 at 6:55pm
For starters, I'm going to attempt to attach a photo of a black cotton fabric book cover I created for my Welsh dictionary. I embroidered a dragon in gold, and added an appliquéd border. The cover is removable; I've used it on blank journals, also. The size is 4 1/2 inches by 6 1/2 inches.
Attachments:
IMG_2980_2.jpg , 28 KB
Reply by Ceri Shaw on September 8, 2008 at 7:00pm
Hi Katharine ...please feel free to use the image upload icon ( top right in the textbox tool panel, after BIUS and the link icon ) to upload your photos and display them directly in the textbox.

Cofion

Ceri
Reply by Katharine on September 8, 2008 at 7:01pm
Diolch, Ceri! Got it this time.
Your neophyte friend,
Katharine
Reply by Katharine on September 22, 2008 at 2:53pm
One of the things I do is create stoles for ministers, and other vestments. I'll attempt to post some photos of them.

Reply by Katharine on September 22, 2008 at 2:54pm
Yikes! I didn't know it would be so huge on the page!
I'll try another...

Reply by Katharine on September 22, 2008 at 2:57pm
And an animal which was on the gold and white stole (it depicted all four of the Gospel animals - this is the ox for Luke). Custom orders comprise the bulk of my work.

Reply by Katharine on September 8, 2008 at 6:59pm
I just tried to share a photo of a book cover I made, but I must have goofed because it disappeared. so I'll try again. It's made of cotton fabric - I embroidered a gold dragon and added appliqué. The size is 4 1/2 by 6 1/2 inches. If this appears twice, forgive me....


Reply by gaabi on September 22, 2008 at 9:58am
Wow, very nice! What thread or floss did you use?
Reply by Katharine on September 22, 2008 at 2:38pm
Thanks, gaabi. I used a gold thread meant for sewing machines. First I drew the dragon, then used the drawing as a guide to stitch the dragon on the fabric. It's quite sparkly.
Reply by Seraffa on October 15, 2008 at 6:28pm
Katherine - what sewing machine do you recommend for this type of work? ~S.
Reply by Katharine on October 26, 2008 at 8:25pm
I think you could use any sewing machine. Mine does nothing special; I just draw the dragon and then straight stitch on my drawn lines.
These days one can get fancy machines that can be programmed, etc. but mine is just is an old, sturdy workhorse, not electronic.
Sorry to take so long in getting back to you...
Reply by Wild Canary on September 22, 2008 at 10:15am
Hi, Katherine. It is inspiring to see other people's work. I have enjoyed the posts on your webpage and Angela and gaaibe', too. I am going to attempt to carve a spoon, but my web cam is down for now so no photos.
Also, I have to figure out how to get my photos of my quilt work off the floppies and on to CD;s. This computer is supposed to be able to do it, but I haven't learned yet.
So many worlds to open!
(You have checked out the photo section? Angela posted some of her work and there are some caricatures, as well as David Western's lovespoon)
I think it would be good to have some posted here, too, as you say, inspiration.
There are so many talents represented here, it is almost sensory overload:)
I am mostly a dabbler. I will try to scratch up some stuff to post.
]]> Fri, 04 Mar 2016 20:10:30 +0000 http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/gaabi/group_discuss/160/garan-gwyns-gorgeous-t-shirt-quilt http://americymrunet.jamroomhosting.com/gaabi/group_discuss/160
Jen posted this as a wall comment and I wanted to make it a forum cause I think that will be easier to find later -  this is a beautiful, clever quilt with directions, made from tshirts!




Here is the T-shirt Quilt I finally finished for Brian y Tarw Llwyd.  gaabi has asked me to tell a bit about how it was made.
First of all, let me say that I am NOT a quilter.  This is only the second quilt I have made.  It is also the largest quilt I have made.  I don't have a long-arm quilting machine, and I wouldn't attempt to do anything larger than this!  So for those of you who are quilters, forgive me if I fail to use the proper terms, etc...but I trust you will know wht I'm talking about.  For those of you who aren't quilters, I suggest taking a workshop like I did.  LOL  Brian told me I should charge for this information to help defray the cost of the workshop.  
Brian gave me 6 old T-shirts that were wearing out and getting holes in them.  Fortunately, most of the holes were not in the areas where the art work was, so I didn't have to do much there.  Holes can be covered with applique, embroidery, etc...or, if small, simple permanent markers.  You need to measure the largest picture/area that you want to include in the quilt, because all of your T-shirts will be cut to this size.  I had a problem in that the large dragon in the lower left-hand corner was on a large T-shirt, while some of the other T-shirts were smaller...and of course the smaller screen prints, etc., were placed higher on the shirts than the center, so cutting a 15" square, for example, from each T-shirt would have meant some of the art work would have been way off-center.  A little bit is okay...and another way to compensate, again, is with appliques and embroidery.  I considered this but decided against it, and instead chose to sacrifice some of the large dragon picture.  This is where your own preference and artistic judgment comes in.  You also have to take into consideration where the neckband is and the sleeve seams, so be sure to measure your largest and smallest (or all of them) before you cut anything.  Plan it out before you cut!!  You'll be glad you did.

Once you've decided on how large your T-shirt squares are going to be, find the center of your art work (or as close to it as possible without taking in part of the neck or sleeve seam and mark the square.  My squares ended up being 12".  Cut up the side seams and sleeves so the shirt lays out flat and you aren't cutting through both the front and back when you go to cut out your art square.  Cut out the square with a rotary cutter, using a straight edge.  I used the quilter's square that I used to find my center, to make sure I had them all centered (a double-check).

Apply Pellon Shape-Flex Woven Fusible Interfacing (iron-on) to the back of the squares (after cutting the same size).  This is a very soft T-shirt-like interfacing that comes in black or white.  It will help keep the T-shirt from stretching as you sew.  However, I noticed that it did not PREVENT the square from stretching, and I wish I had stay-stitched my squares before adding my strips.  This is not a quilter's trick, but is used regularly in making clothing.  The squares did still stretch, and especially when it came time to quilt the "sandwich."

After applying the interfacing, you simply start building your borders as you would any quilt.  I won't explain that process here because you can learn that from any basic quilting book or You-tube video.  I used a simple cross-hatch quilt pattern because of the fact that I don't have a long-armed quilting machine, and this seemed like the easiest thing to do.  I didn't want to attempt anything new on something I was giving as a gift.

It took me a long time, between other projects and obligations (and migraines), but here it is, finally, a year later...and now that it's not cold enough to use it any more.  91 degrees in Fresno last Sunday, and it's still winter!!  YIKES!!  

So early Happy Birthday, Brian y Tarw Llwyd!! 


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