The Tethered Fairy Ring: September 2013

Saturday, 28 September 2013

Purple Alchemist

Sharron Jones is an artist & designer and her specialist skills in textiles were absolute fairy magic for the Quilt-a-thon. Can you imagine designing a logo on the computer and then watching as someone creates that flat image into the most delicious and tactile piece of artwork! I was blown away!

All of these foto's were taken by Sharron as she sprinkled her magic ...

This is how she started out ...

Then Sharron Jones started working her fairy magic

Sharron has a Group Page on facebook called

The Purple Alchemist

https://www.facebook.com/PurpleAlchemist

Making the logo toadstools ...

And then bringing her special magic to the centre piece of the quilt

My Fairy!

Thanks a million squillion Sharron!

Me & Sharron in The Great Glasshouse

Foto kindly by Maria Davies

Shootz by Maria

Patchwork Promises

I can hardly contain my excitement as my Tethered Fairy Ring Story Telling Quilt comes together.

Michelle Williams, bless her heart, has been working tirelessly on pulling all the patches together to make my design a reality.

How exciting!! I am due to pick up my quilt on 9th October in time for you to all come and sit on it at The National Botanic Garden of Wales in The Great Glasshouse on October 13th ...

See ya there ... you won't be able to miss me, I'll be the woman sitting in the middle of a very beautiful, very big, story telling quilt!

Summer Melody & The Waxcap Wizard

As part of The Tethered Fairy Ring Quilt-a-thon Rachel Peachey very kindly donated her fairy Alaw Haf. Alaw Haf is welsh for Summer Melody. I went to Rachel's home to pick up Summer Melody. She watched over us at the Quilt-a-thon.

I spoke with Bruce Langridge, our Waxcap Wizard & he very kindly has housed Alaw Haf as part of his Fairy Ring Trail at The National Botanic Garden of Wales.

Rachel wouldn't mind me telling you that she has a chronic illness, which means that sometimes she is not able to leave her bed and she made Alaw Haf during this time.

And now she has set her fairy free to be in the beautifiul gardens. I wouldn't mind be a fairy at the Garden myself ... oh hang on! I WILL be!!

On Sunday 13th October, as part of the National Fungi Day celebrations, I'll be telling the Story and playing the music for The Tethered Fairy Ring. It will be the first official showing of the story and music although I have tried it out in other venues. I will formally reflect on the piece for my MA Drama at The Atrium, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Studies.

I digress! How unlike me ;) lol!

BUT ... after Rachel had donated Alaw Haf, she started to miss her. She wasn't on the landing making her magic happen anymore, keeping Rachel company. It was suggested by storyteller Rachel Auckland, that Rachel Peachey have a photo of her fairy on the stairs. So, I arranged with Michelle Williams of Shelbyart that she print out a picture we had of her, I bought a frame and we put it together to give to Rachel at Shelbyart Community Workshop. Sadly, Rachel wasn't well enough to pick her up, so Michelle very kindly took her to Rachel's house.

What a lovely story. You know, when you cast out a pebble based on giving, it doesn't just skim across the river: rather, it creates ripples that continue onwards ... in this current economic climate it seems to me the politicians have become more than a tad obsessed with cuts, with taking away from the arts, & using this model of giving for The Tethered Fairy Ring Story Telling Quilt has really pulled into question for me the whole nature of 'creative & cultural industry' & community based arts. Something to mull over in lectures this week!

Saturday, 14 September 2013

First Fairy Steps

This is Bessy!

She is the first child to crawl on my beautiful Tethered Fairy Ring Story Quilt!

She absloutely loved all the patches

Talk about consumer led designs!

Then brother & Mum joined in the fun too.

Can't wait for a circle of children and parents to be sat around my quilt on 13th October for the launch of The Tethered Fairy Ring

at The Great Glasshouse

in The National Botanic Garden of Wales

as part of the celebrations for

National Fungus Day

The Cobbett Community Quilting Library

Many thanks to Mrs Cobbett from Pembrokeshire who very kindly donated her life time

collection of quilting books to:

The Tethered Fairy Ring Quilt-a-thon

To make her collection open to the community

I asked Shelbyart if they would house

The Cobbett Community Quilting Library

so that the books can be used

by volunteers and community groups

Then I made the labels.

Bob Edwards kindly got them photocopied for us

And Patrick Winter patiently spent the day sticking all the labels into all the books!

Many Thanks to:

Mrs Cobbett

Will Cobbett

NBGW

Shelbyart Community

Bob Edwards

Patrick Winter

Telling Stories

One of the things that I did not expect during the Quilt-a-thon was all the lovely stories that people took their time to tell me, once they knew I was an author.

This one in particular grabbed me told by a passing gentleman who was visiting the Garden on his holiday with his wife ... I will try to tell it as he told me, but it won't be as funny without his actions!

One day the children came downstairs for breakfast to find their boiled eggs ready in the cups, but when they cracked open their eggs, something very strange indeed happened!

The eggs got bigger & BIGGER ...

The children looked inside ...

Still the eggs got bigger and BIGGER taking up the whole table; nearly reaching the ceiling.

'Let's climb up & take a look inside,' they squealed.

And when they managed to reach the top and peer in ... they fell ....

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Deeper and deeper they fell into the yolk, swimming round and round.

In the distance they could hear a voice calling them,

'Come on children, get up!'

It was Mum. Thank Goodness it had all been a dream

'What's for breakfast Mum?' they asked.

'Boiled eggs today, my loves.'

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The Tethered Fairy Ring Quilt-a-thon : Shootz by Maria

Many thanks to Maria Davies

for coming over from Pembrokeshire

to take the Official Opening photographs of my

Tethered Fairy Ring Quilt-a-thon

by Deputy Mayoress, Ruth Ferris Price

at The Great Glasshouse,

National Botanic Garden of Wales.

I absolutely love this shot! Thanks Maria!

I look like I am flying through the Great Glasshouse, and do you know what, I think I was!

And also, I love how Maria has captured
my cheeky fairy shadow!!

You'll see that I am wearing my fairy tights from an earlier shoot ... proving that you can sneak a bit of fairy into every outfit!

This is Sharron Jones from Purple Alchemist.

She is an incredible textile designer & artist and worked tirelessly to make the toadstools for the central logo of the quilt. She brought in her portfolio to show me and it is absolutely stunning!

You can find Shootz by Maria on her

Facebook Group Page

Here's the link

www.facebook.com/Mariaphoto

Thanks a Million to Shootz by Maria for capturing the opening of my Tethered Fairy Ring Quilt-a-thon

Massive thanks to Michelle Williams (left)

the founder of Shelbyart Community

for all her hard work in leading the quilting for me.

Here's a facebook link to Shelbyart Community,

a great place to make new friends,

learn new skills and get creative:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ShelbyartCommunity/?fref=ts

To Rachel Gegeshidze (central) the Co-ordinator of Carmarthenshire Time Credits

Here's the link to Time Credits. They are a great way of rewarding & promoting volunteering

in your community ...

www.scribd.com/doc/151597891/Time-Credit-Menu

And the great news is that our very own Waxcap Wizard has said that the credits earned can be used to return to the Garden on Sunday 13th for the launch of The Tethered Fairy Ring as part of the celebrations for National Fungus Day. They'll be loads of fabulous things to do all day long and I feel very honored to be invited to launch my new West Wales based fairytale in the very Garden where the story seeds were planted