Oriel 1

Ar 31 Rhagfyr, caewyd yr orielau yn Sain Ffagan: Amgueddfa Werin Cymru er mwyn gwneud lle ar gyfer gofodau addysg ac oriel newydd sy’n rhan o waith ailddatblygu yr Amgueddfa a ariennir gan Gronfa Dreftadaeth y Loteri.Yn ystod project ‘Plant mewn Amgueddfeydd' diweddar, gofynnwyd i ddisgyblion o Ysgol Coed y Gof, Caerdydd, pa wrthrychau ddylai gael eu dangos yn yr orielau a pham.

Hello!

Just in case you don't know - Oriel 1 will be closing on 31 December, so make sure you visit us before then, there's not much time!

The gallery is full of such great objects - my favourites are the good luck charms, the (previously) concealed shoe and the Victorian brooches and jewellery made with woven human hair.

I've pretty much finished my duties for the year! This month we've been busy making Christmas decorations - tissue paper pom poms, paperchains and christmas tree decorations made out of felt - it's been lots of fun.

Next year I'll be starting up two new things - a craft group for adults and a reading group for adults, and we'll also be carrying on with our old favourites - quilt club, craftivism, art cart... it's going to be great!

Wishing you a happy Christmas and wonderful new year!

best wishes, sian.

Did you come to our food festival in September? I hope so as it was such a great event - look out for it next year if you didn't make it.

This summer the Craftivist Collective launched a jamming and sewing project which you can read all about right here and I thought that would fit in perfectly with the food festival, so that's what we did!

The idea is that you make some tomato jam (I am proud to say that I made some all by myself and it tasted good too) following a recipe from an amazing lady called Christine who lives in Africa. Then you embroider a message on a fabric jam lid - maybe something like 'if you don't grow, you don't change' or anything to do with food and global food issues. After you have embroidred your message, pop it on the top, secure it with ribbon and give your pretty jar of jam away! I think the giving it away is the most important part as you are sharing the message, you could give it to your MP or your local shop if you wanted, or just pass it along to friends and family, it all helps spread the word and provides an opportunity for talking about what you eat and where your food comes from.

The project is also linked in with Oxfam and their 'Grow' campaign, and we were lucky enough in St Fagans that Louise from Oxfam was able to come along and lend a hand - she also provided lots of leaflets for further information.

What do you think about the project? did you come to our drop in session? did you make the jam and did you pass your jam along to someone else? I'd love to know!

How was your summer? it was pretty busy for me!

As usual we ran the art cart in Oriel 1 everyday throughout August and our focus this year was weaving. We mainly did paper plate weaving (or circular weaving) which proved to be really popular with all ages and looks really effective too - I am thinking of doing more of it for Halloween...but in black and orange of course.

Quite a few of the museum attendants helped run the art cart this year too and they also brought different ideas and skills along with them so that there was quite a variety of activities. Elen did some drop spinning with visitors and even showed them how to make their own drop spindle, and Elle showed everyone how to make amazing woven friendship bracelets using a circular piece of card.

In July Ian and I got together to plan and run a two day art activity in the Celtic Village. We decided to make Iron Age shields out of cardboard and to get the visiting children to decorate them with typical iron age patterns using stencils or their own designs.

The activity went really well and we were lucky that it fell on two beautiful sunny days (we were outside). It's definitely an activity we'll be running again

Come September and it was back to running sessions for visiting schools, I've written about my art session called 'Looking at Buildings' so won't go on about it again... just show you some pictures of wonderful drawings instead.

Then I took two weeks off work and went on holiday to San Francisco! and now I'm back and all inspired for more arts and crafts and workshops and everything! There are a few things coming up - the big draw this saturday and next (6+13 oct 2012), a couple of craftivist things (one this sunday 7th in gwdi hw which isn't directly linked with St Fagans, and one on the 20th of October as part of the Made in Roath festival whic is), and then it will be half term and time for Halloween!

phew, happy making!

I met a lovely group this morning from 'families learning together' who took part in one of my looking at buildings sessions.

I sent them out to do some sketches and they came back with these beauties! We then turned the sketches in to 3d models and they were really wonderful!

On saturday, the Craftivists (well, the wonderful Sarah Corbett) came to Oriel 1 to help us make mini protest banners dealing with asylum seekers and refugees.

In the gallery at the moment we have an exhibition called Refugee House which is a recreation of a typical refugee or asylum seeker dwelling in Cardiff.

One of the intentions of the exhibtion is to raise awareness about the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in Wales and the rest of the UK.

We thought making banners with other Crafitivists would raise even more awareness about the issues - while stitching slogans and quotes on our mini banners we could really think about the words and discuss their meaning, and when we hung the banners up afterwards other people could read the quotes and perhaps want to investigate more.

It was a really interesting day and I met lots of lovely new crafters, we've hung up most of the banners, but there will be more to come - let me know if you see any!

oh and do go and see what other things the Craftivists do and see how you can get involved.

Thanks to Reynette from Oasis who gave us a bit more of an insight into the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in Wales by telling us about her work and experiences at Oasis Cardiff.

These photos are from february half term, but I'd forgotten to put them on the blog until now (in fact I thought I had put them on the blog already but I must have just popped a few on twitter...).

It may be hard to tell but the art work is based on the mural of Noah's Ark in the church here in St Fagans: National History Museum. I drew the ark on a large piece of paper and asked the children to add animals to it - some they had drawn themselves and some coloured in from pictures provided. I also drew a couple of pictures of a devil and a dragon based on those in the church and they went down a storm! I must remember to bring those nasty creatures back round about halloween!

There will be drop in art sessions over the may bank holiday, so please come by and say hello!

Sian

I met Coedybryn school today who had a lovely sunny day to go out sketching and then came back to create these fantastic buildings! they are of the church and Llwyn yr eos farm... but am sure you already knew that.

Hello!

Just a few pictures of models of buildings made by Cardiff Muslim Primary School when they came here the other week.

They are models of the cockpit and the post office, and are pretty splendid too! look at that thatch!

We have been running a quilt club for just over a year and we've got quite a group of regulars who turn up on the first Saturday every two months for some patchworking and a chat. There must be something quilty in the air for 2012, as last time we met the group had doubled in size with lots of lovely new patchworkers turning up.

Samantha Jenkins leads the patchworking and quilting and you can see some of her work hereshe is full of great ideas and can solve all your patchwork problems!

I thought it might be time to try out some different craft sessions aimed at adults, so much in the same way that quilting club is run (relaxed and informal but with someone there to help if you get stuck) we are going to be trying out some similar sessions providing you with the chance to knit, make rag rugs, do some simple printing by hand and embroidery. Please visit the 'what's on' part of our website for more information, and please remember to book as spaces are limited.

Just to give you a bit of an idea of what is happening... I will be running the printing session, and we'll be looking at some lovely 1950s designs to come up with printing ideas, making simple printing blocks out of softblock (like lino but better) and printing on paper and fabric. I have turned one of my prints into a fabric brooch, and they would also be lovely as part of a patchwork quilt.

Amy Wheel will be taking our knitting session and will be basing the workshop on some of the socks we have in the collection. Amy is a regular at our quilt club and is also a fabulous knitter and super lovely too, so this should be a fun session! If you know how to knit you could have a go at making a sock, and if you don't you can learn and make something based on the sock designs.

Jane Dorsett will be leading the rag rug making session, and she asks that you bring along a bag of clean unwanted clothes, apparently old T-shirts are great for the job.

Jane has run numerous rag rug sessions in schools, community groups and galleries and there is a lot of interest in this session already so book right away!

The embroidery sessions will be run by Becky Adams and she will be basing some of the designs on the needlecases that we have in our collections here at St Fagans: National History Museum.

Becky has previously worked in St Fagans: National History Museum on our Keepsakes project and has run numerous art and craft sessions for all ages as well as being a wonderful artist in her own right.

I've added some photos showing some patchwork made in quilt club. If you have a photo of your work in progress, please email me with it as it's great to see what everyone is making! My email address is sian.lile@museumwales.ac.uk

Here are the crafty dates for your diary. Booking is essential as spaces are limited, so please phone 029 2057 3414 to keep a space.

3 March 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club

17 March 11am-12.30pm - Knitting

31 March 11am-12.30pm - Embroidery

14 April 11am-12.30pm - Printing

28 April 11am-12.30pm - Embroidery

12 May 10.30am-12.30pm - Rag Rugs

19 May 11am-12.30pm - Knitting

26 May 10.30am-12.30pm - Rag Rugs

7 July 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club

1 Sept 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club

3 Nov 11am-12.30pm - Quilt Club

All sessions are free and some materials are provided to get you started. If you are taking part in the rag rug sessions please bring along some old clothes or fabric.