Another month has passed – I’ve never known such a period of supposed inactivity to go by so quickly. We here in Wales are at last able to travel further afield than 5 miles, but when the big day came I was busy preparing for my open galley so didn’t have my long awaited ‘day-trip’ until last weekend.
Thank you to everyone who visited my gallery a couple of weeks ago. I know, however, that many of you are still shielding and won’t be able to ‘get out’ for another 10 days or so. Please do let me know if you’d like to visit my gallery and we can arrange a suitable time and date. Failing a visit, you may like to peruse my online shop and hopefully see a fabulous wrap or throw for yourself or as a gift. I’m sure many of my feltings will become heirlooms of the future, handed down from generation to generation.
I’m pleased to announce too that I will re-start my workshops from August 10th. I will only be able to host two guests at a time to maintain social distancing and other COVID-19 considerations, but would love to introduce you to the magical world of wet felt-making. Why not make a weekend of it and stay in one of the many lovely B&Bs locally, including www.newwhitelion.com. Not only will you have a grand day out at my workshop but you can explore and enjoy the beautiful Upper Tywi Valley, Brecon Beacons and Cambrian Mountains.
I mentioned above that I finally had a day-trip recently. I took myself off to one of Pembrokeshire’s beautiful beaches to make some seaweed sun-prints in situ. I hadn’t played with so much seaweed since I was a child and had such fun paddling in the rockpools. I have produced a whole collection of cyanographs (sun-prints) for sale – all mounted, backed and ready for framing.
According to Wikipedia – “Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print. Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints”. The process was actually invented in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, astronomer.
I simply love watching the image (flowers and seaweed in my case) appear following exposure, developing and final oxidisation. I often wish I could ’stop’ the process but taking a digital photo is the nearest I can get to capturing these incredible images. All the cyanographs available for sale on my website are genuine images at the end of the process and not digital prints. I have begun to make images on fabric from which I will create nuno-felt. Glossary page
Unfortunately, all the events I had hoped to participate in this year have been cancelled, even so far ahead as the Aberglasney Christmas Fair. In the meantime though, I will continue to update my shop with new items – look out soon for a range of felt vessels – and more fabulous curl items from some wonderful ‘Masham’ and ‘Blue Faced Leicester X’ fleeces which I’m really excited to work with.
Until next month, look after yourself.