WMC Christmas Fair preparations. Messy studio. This weekend!

Last preparations for the Christmas Fair at Wales Millennium Centre this weekend. 

My studio shed may never recover. It's going to take several days to tidy up!

Last night I was making the last few seed packets, to hold my poetry collection

 Blue Moon at the Map Shop.

 I was watched by my lovely flying horse ornament, which changes colour and is rather beautiful.

Wales Millennium Centre Christmas Fair

11am - 8pm

November 20th, December 1st

December 7th, December 8th

https://www.wmc.org.uk/Productions/2013-2014/Other/178793/

Christmas Fayre. WMC Cardiff. The robins are going!

I have a stall at the Christmas Fayre in the foyer of the Wales Millennium Centre.

30th November, 1st December, and the following weekend as well.

This is what the fayre looked like last year.

I have never been confined in a roofless gazebo before, and feel I may need to take some fairy lights to illuminate my space.

The fingerprint robins are definitely going, I hope they like it there,

and Christmas Trees too,

Wales Millennium Centre Christmas Fayre, in the Foyer.

30th November, 1st December

7th & 8th December, 

https://www.wmc.org.uk/Productions/2013-2014/Other/178793/

Crickhowell Craft Fair. A felt Robin & more.

An excellent day at the Crickhowell Craft Fair on Saturday. 

Here is a stallholder's eye view of my stall, illuminated by the sun streaming in through the windows of the Clarence Hall.

And a photo of me modelling a very nice felt scarf.

And a delightfully deranged felt robin, now in his new home, bought from Emma of FfolkyFelt, who makes scarves, robins and penguins, beautiful angels and lots of lovely felted things.

Emma's facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/Ffolkyffelt
worth looking at for lovely felt items!

haiku. moonlit river. distant

The Moon is astonishingly bright at the moment, and is shining earlier as the dusk falls. 

Here's the haiku;

distant

bright attentive moon -

river accepts silver light,

giving no return

Butterflies for Crickhowell Craft Fair

I am really looking forward to the Crickhowell Craft Fair on Saturday, 23rd November.

 

I have got my butterfly prints all framed and ready, and am looking forward to showing them off. Here are spring and summer,

and autumn and winter.

Wouldn't it be great if the Clarence Hall was thronged with butterfly loving haiku enthusiasts!

Hope springs infernal, as my old Granny used to say.

Crickhowell Christmas Craft Fair,

Clarence Hall, Crickhowell.

23rd November.

10am - 3.30pm

The Print Shed, Madley. Christmas Exhibition

Here's a really nice flyer, made for me, for the Print Shed Christmas Open Studio event in Madley.

I was so pleased to see the image of my hand sewn silk Christmas cards!

I am contributing a range of lovely gifts, as well as some home made truffles and of course freshly baked gingerbread men.

Santa & the Three Scrooges

I have been preparing seasonal finger puppet gift cards for Crickhowell Craft Fair, Caemawr Studio in Hay on Wye, and The Print Shed, Madley.

 

Here is Santa, happily taking the money, on his own colourful collage Christmas card.

He is joined by three Scrooges, each one with its own Christmas ghost.

Here's the ethereal ghost of Christmas Past. I found a tiny old edition of A Christmas Carol, and have put little pieces of the text onto each card.

Here's the jovial Ghost of Christmas Present,

and finally the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who does, I admit, look a little like an enraged tea bag. I've had such fun devising these cards - I hope they find new homes over the festive season!
 

Crickhowell Craft Fair, 23rd November, Clarence Hall, Crickhowell.

Caemawr Studio Hay on Wye, open Thursday to Sunday until 21st December.

The Print Shed Madley open weekend, 29th November to 2nd December.

Dinosaurs. New music commission. RAAH!

A new commission! From Ty Cerdd, the National Music Centre for Wales, for a piece for narrator and brass trio. It's for young children, from age 4 upwards, and is about the best of all topics for the very young - dinosaurs!

The title is Teri Dactyl and the Meteor Seven.  I am writing the words, and Peter Reynolds the music. The piece will premiere in early 2014 with me narrating, and the Gwent Brass Trio playing. 

If ever you have wondered what would happen if a stegosaurus was to fall asleep on the road and block the traffic, then the story will attempt to answer that question!

At a recent meeting between Charlotte Griffin of Ty Cerdd, Peter Reynolds and myself, we were joined by some interested parties.

Santa is actually on his way to the Crickhowell Craft Fair on 23rd November, but called in to say hallo. 

 

I'm loving writing the story, but being VERY CARFEUL to get my dinosaur facts right - small children are acknowledged dinosaur experts! 

 

 

www.tycerdd.org 

petereynoldscomposer.blogspot.co.uk 

Poem. War horses. Remembrance.

Thomas and I always mark the Remembrance time, and I think about all the horses that were taken away to War and didn't come back. My beloved horse would have been one of them.

It reminds me of a story of my Grandfather, who fought in the Great War. I never knew him, but the story comes to me from my Mother. Here's my poem, with a photo of my very young Grandfather in his military uniform beneath it.

                                 All Over by Christmas

My Great Grandfather withstood arguments and pleading,

weathered his son’s anger, saying

“You’re not taking him,

He’s mine, not yours,

He’s staying here,

He can go out to grass until you return”

All through cavalry training,

through drill, preparation, anticipation,

My young Grandfather held his annoyance

at the old man’s meanness

until finally,

in action,

he realised his father’s compassion.

 

3 knitted Santas in a boat

I have been knitting Santa finger puppets to feature on collage finger puppet Christmas cards.
The collage is going to have Santa happily agreeing to endorse Coke while still wearing his favourite clothes - the modern image of Santa is often thought to be the invention of artist Haddon Sundblom in his Christmas soft drink adverts, starting in 1931.

In fact, Santa as we know him was created and standardised in the 1860s, when artist Thomas Nast made a series of pictures for Harper Magazine. Santa was protrayed as a jovial chap in red and white, with a toy workshop. The idea for writing to Santa also came from Thomas Nast. Until then, Santa had appeared in a number of different guises.
Anyway, I knitted three Santas and stood them in my open glasses case, and it immediately changed into a rather lovely boat.

I saw three Santas come sailing in...
Photos of the finished Santa collage cards to follow.

letterpress. ampersand. doomed lovers.

In the midst of making jolly festive things for Christmas Craft Fairs, I suddenly had a brainwave about a letterpress ampersand picture. Here it is, in its box frame, lounging against a sumptuous quilt.

 I have printed some of my ampersand collection onto very nice textured paper, and printed on the mount as well. I think it looks rather jolly from a distance, but when you look closely,

the ampersand joins famous lovers, all of whom are

as the printed title explains!

Excellent, now I can get on with knitting finger puppet Santas to put on collage gift cards - but the cards reference sponsorship and Coca Cola, so perhaps the doom isn't quite behind me!

Crickhowell Craft Fair, 23rd November, Clarence Hall, Crickhowell.

Christmas Fair, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, weekend of 30th November and weekend of 7th December.

Christmas Open Studio, Print Shed, Madley, 29th November to 2nd December.

Butterflies. Haiku. Printing.

I found a beautiful scruffy book, published in 1945, with wonderful prints of butterflies, and decided to give them a different life. I've been looking for a way to present some haiku, and the butterflies looked ideal.

First, to decide, from the 12 plates in the book, which butterflies best represent each season. Then I printed the name of the season in gold, and my haiku in black. I am very pleased with the result. Here's summer

and autumn

Printing on old paper gives a really lovely impression. Paper from the 1940s is rough and very nice, and the colours fantastic. I also like paper from the early 20th century. Here's my washing line, which is transformed into a flight of poetic butterflies.

So now I have two sets of four seasons, and will put them in frames to take to craft fairs that are coming up in December!

Christmas Cactus Cascade

I moved this Christmas Cactus plant onto the kitchen table while I tidied my study, and three days later it burst into flower.

As you may know, moving a Christmas Cactus in flower causes the flowers to drop off, so I have had to leave it in this rather inconvenient place!

But it's such an exuberant cascade of flowers I really don't mind. And it complements the orchids on the windowsill behind.

Meanwhile, on the sitting room windowsill, a small cutting which has been slowly growing for two years, has started to show beautiful white flowers.

 There are two pink and one red to come, all still in place in the study. I love these extravagant flowers at the time when the garden outside is fading and wintery.