Showing posts with label welsh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label welsh. Show all posts

Monday, 22 April 2013

A day in the past...

So Saturday I took a trip to Flur-De-Lis in the welsh valleys, its a tiny little village hidden away that most people probably never pass through... but its a cute little place.

It is the village where my Gran grew up, so I am always being told about the 'new school' the viaduct and the walk to school... but my Gran is now 90 and a few things have changed.

Ever since my Mum died nearly 3 years ago it has made me realise just how little I really know about the history of my family. My Mums Mum... my Gran has always been a huge part of my life, but since Mums death she means even more.

Often its really hard to spend time together as she reminds me of the good times with Mum. I never want to worry Gran or tell her about how life isn't always going to plan... day to day silly worries. I wish I could sometimes just get a bit braver and not worry about getting upset or remembering the past, often the hardest part is getting the the car, as I know as soon as I walk in to Grans flat everything will be okay... My Gran is the best; shes tried a zillion and one times to teach me to crochet, used to spend hours showing me how to watercolour, trips on the bus to town... she always has an ear to listen, gives me the best advice and never judges. I know matter how long it is between visits... even if she does ask me if I have run off with a china man... I know she will always be there and I hope she knows I will always be there for her too.

So Saturday was my time to show her how much she means to me, after a drive up to the valley we came across Flur-de-lis otherwise known as 'The Flower'...

Doing the tourist thing...

The road on which my Gran grew up...

Grans old house... I still can't believe how big it is as in my head I always imagined it to be a small little terrace house. Im guessing the garage extention is a fairly new addition. It looks like it would have been a lovely family home.

The Pub which Grans parents ran... I didn't even know they ran a pub till the day before this picture!

The viaduct... this just to be a major part of village life but now it is just a walkway which has become part of the Taff trail.


During the drive round the village we were trying to find St. Luke's church but after chatting to a guy in the pub we found out that just a few years ago the church was taken down and a house was built instead. You can just about see the house between the trees.

Spring has sprung in The Flower.

This sculpture made from coal carts now sits at the entrance to the vaiduct path... Its huge and is pretty impressive, apart from the kids graffity underneath the carts.


Dad, Teal and I at the end of the viaduct path...It was a fab day re discovering grans past.


I guess this also counts as one of my 30 before 30...

19. Ring my Gran more and take more time to learn about her past. 

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Rocking dragon...

Back when I was in sixth form...ages ago (geez nearly ten years ago!) I made this 'rocking dragon' in resistant materials, I can't remember if it was AS or ALevel.

Well when I was home the other weekend, I started looking through my old portfolio work. Most of it I binned, some of it I kept and some of it wasn't to bad! But my rocking dragon still sits in our lounge at home and maybe when I have a family of my own I will take it with me?

I spent the second half of my schooling in Wales and now I would say I have more pride to be Welsh than English... and our rugby team is way better! So not wanting to design something that was the norm, I took the idea of a rocking horse and developed it in to being a potenial Welsh selling toy... I did get a couple of offers from galleries at the time. We have since made templates so that it can easily be reproduced.

A few bits from my project work...

Looking at my key customer children aged between 2 and 6 years.

Looking at the antropometrics of childrens hand span and how they relate to the handle size. 

Marker pen sketch.

Getting the perfect Welsh red stain... it took alot of developing.

 Nearly ten years on its still going strong...apart from Teals addition(when she was a cheeky puppy!)

A not so cheeky Teal x