It's been a while

I've been neglecting my poor, poor blog for a while. Life seemed to keep getting in the way. So what have I been up to? Well, I am rather pleased with how my yarn bowls have come out recently. So far I have made 4 and a 5th is waiting for the kiln. One had an accident as well but we won't dwell on these things. So here are some pics showing the new yarn bowls. Enjoy! 

My signature on the bottom, CAW.

Again, with signature.

Thanks for reading,
Cath xx
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics  
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCrafts
Twitter: @tysiriolceramic

Introducing Ty Siriol Crafts

I've wondered for some time now about having crafts other than ceramics in a shop called 'Ty Siriol Ceramics'. Finally this year, my mum, Chris has taken over the crafts side of Ty Siriol Ceramics & Crafts and we have opened a second shop, 'Ty Siriol Crafts'. 

Not only does this segregate our stock nicely but it also gives my mum an opportunity to learn to use a computer and run a shop. I have to say that I'm really proud of how well she is doing. I've set her up with a laptop and the basic software to start with and she's hit the ground running. She does the photography and watermarking herself as well as uploading the stock onto the shop. She even has a facebook page now! 

My next task is to teach her to use the teams on Etsy and introduce her to the lovely Golden Threads team. I'm sure she would fit in really well. In fact it could become hard to tear her away. :) 

To give you an idea of what Chris has in her Etsy shop here are a couple of photos. Firstly, Chris is an artist and does some fantastic paintings.

One of Chris' silhouette paintings

This is an original oil painting that Chris has done. I have several of her works in my house.

 Chris also turns her hand to paper crafts and combines them with crochet. I call it mixed media crochet art! 

A mixed media greetings card incorporating crochet art.

Chris is also very experienced at knitting and crochet. Sadly I don't have any of her work in my files but these, which are mine, are also in her shop to give you an idea. 

My rhubarb and custard scarf

A scarlet red scarf with tasseled ends

These lovely wrist warmers are also in stock

Chris is also talented with ceramics and a few pieces in my shop were made by her. Here is an example.

A holly and berry bowl by Chris

I would like to congratulate my mum on her hard work and talents. Mum, this blog is all about you and how proud of you I am. :-)

If you would like to have a nose at Chris' new shop then you can find it here.
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCrafts 

Pop by and please tell your friends. You never know, you might spot a unique gift for someone who has everything! 

Thanks for reading and take care,
Cathy xx


www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics  
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCrafts
Twitter: @tysiriolceramic

Craft fair: sneak peeks!

I'm going to be in Abergavenny Art and Craft fair again this Thursday. I'm looking forward to this one more because I know what to expect this time. We have booked a double table as we found that we were very cramped last time. We have 3 main sections to our stall, ceramics, paintings and crocheted goods. I'm also thinking of adding a small section for Christmas themed gifts. I wonder if it's too early but then I'm surprised at how many Christmas things I've already sold online.

I thought I'd give you an idea of what we will have on our stall. So here are a few examples of the ceramics that will be there. (Unless of cause they are bought online first! Website links are at the bottom of the post.)

My signature piece, the leaf bowls. These are suitably autumn themed.

A ceramic garden plaque for the green fingered member of your family.

'Time to drink Champagne and dance on the table' 

Ty Siriol's handmade and hand painted ceramic ring dish.

My mother's work is showcased in the Art section of our stall. She's a talented lady so I urge you to check her out. I'm working on trying to convince her to make prints of some of her pieces but she's a stubborn lady! Here, check out some of her work.

Wild flowers and butterfly silhouette.

Beautiful snowscape in oils.

Love birds silhouette. My favourite of the silhouette range.

The other section of our shop is the crochet section. We are going to be focusing more on this section at the next fair as autumn is most definitely in the air now. I'll be wearing my gauntlets to keep my fingers warm enough to do some crochet if it's quiet early on.

A ripple wrap shawl in peacock colours of blues and greens.

Crocodile stitch gauntlets. I'll be wearing mine to keep warm on the stall!

Triangular shawl in grey and white sequinned yarn. Beautifully soft.

Infinity cowl. I have several different colours available. See the Etsy link below.

Ripple scarf in midnight blues.

For those of you who saw me at the last craft fair, the scarf in midnight blue (above) is the one that I was making behind the stall. :-) It would make a fab Christmas gift... if I can bare to part with it!

Talking of Christmas... yes, I know, it is early but as I said above I've been getting Christmas orders for some time now. So here are a few Christmas things that will be on the stall for the next few months.

Box set of Christmas tree hangings. 'Peace', 'Love' and 'Joy'.

Christmas stockings with hook for hanging.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with hook for hanging.

Santa nibbles dish.

So that was a sample of what we have to offer on our stall at the Abergavenny Art and Craft fair this Thursday (2nd Thursday of each month). If you are local and can pop by then please come and say hi. It's always lovely to meet you all in person. 

All this talk of ceramics has reminded me that I have to go and see Kenny (my kiln) and see what delights (or disasters) he holds for me today. It's like Christmas all year round with Kenny! :-) 

Thank you for reading my blog.
Cath xx

www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics 

The first craft fair for Ty Siriol at Abergavenny Art & Crafts Fair.

I've wanted to do a craft fair for years but have been putting it off for ages for the fear of not being able to guarantee being well for the day. Unfortunately, I'm not even able to guarantee being well on my wedding day next day and at the moment I'd say it's 50/50. However, I'm not going to get any better so I bit the bullet and went for it any way. 

I choose to start off slowly so I opted for a local craft fair in Abergavenny. It's on a Thursday once a month and has a very relaxed feel to it. I've been to a few of them as a customer and chatted to some of the stall holders who were kind enough to encourage to go for it. So with a great big push from Mr Ty Siriol I signed up.

Thankfully I was aware of how much work is involved behind the scenes after the many car boot sales I've done in the past. Of course, this is not a car boot so presentation was more important. My brother was kind enough to make some props for me to use on the stall. He made me some shelves and a pendant tree. It is useful having a carpenter in the family and all he charged was a few lagers, even better!! So look out for his handy work in the pics. 

I had a practise run in my dining room and set up my stall. I'm glad I did as well as I found a few problems with the set up that were fixed before the day. I have to say a huge thank you to everyone on facebook who gave me some great advice. In particular I have to thank a friend of mine, Cookie, from Cookie & Mo who was invaluable to me. Please help me show her my appreciation by popping by her facebook page and saying hi on her wall. Tell her that I sent you because I'm bossy! 
www.facebook.com/cookieandmo.uk

It's about time I showed you some pics. Here is my practise run. 

The pendant tree that my brother made for me. Isn't he wonderful!

My mock fair in the dining room. Practise makes perfect, or so I've been told!

Finally the day came. I had lots of help so a big thank you to everyone who helped out, whether it was lugging boxes, smiling at customers, or taking turns to keep L'il Miss Ty Siriol happy as it's school holidays and I didn't have a sitter. 

The stall looked like this. 

Me! Standing proudly behind my creations.

These are a selection on my mum's paintings.

Mr Ty Siriol having a well earned sit down. He lugged all the boxes for me.

 Lots of friends and family turned to to show support which was great. I felt really proud seeing all my work on display and being able to show friends and family what I do. L'il Miss Ty Siriol was very good and wanted to help out. She went shopping with Nanny for a bit and came back with lots of books. In the end it was all too much for her and I found her trying to sleep under the table. Take a look. 

L'il Miss Ty Siriol plum tuckered out.

All in all it was a good day. We had a few sales even though it was a slow day due to the summer holidays. I got through it physically and thankfully it finished at 3pm. In fact I have now signed up for the remaining Art & Craft fairs until the end of the year. Happy all around. 

Here's the link to the Abergavenny Craft fairs.  
http://www.abergavennymarket.co.uk/

Cath x
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics 

Crafting is my therapy

This post seems apt today as I'm recovering from a car accident a week ago. Don't worry, we'll all be fine and the crumple zones in the car did their job to perfection. The incident does have me thinking again about why I got back into crafting. 

I doubt many of you know that I used to have a full on career as a medical researcher. Yes, I have the title of Dr. However, things started to go wrong when I was pregnant with L'il Miss Ty Siriol and I became chronically ill with various autoimmune conditions. (I don't like the word disease as it sounds like I'm contagious.)

I went back to work after L'il Miss was born but after about 2 years of getting progressively worse I was medically retired by Atos. And believe me, if Atos says you can't work you must be bad. This came as a huge blow and I tried for 2 years to get back into work. I even volunteered in two places but couldn't cope. I had to admit defeat. It wasn't easy as I've always been very hard on myself and aim for perfection. I was very low.

So I gradually turned to my crafts again. I got the crochet hooks out again and now I have quite the collection of them, including Tunisian style.  I joined a pottery class and discovered a love for clay. Suddenly I found a new outlet. I had something else to focus my efforts on and happiness slowly returned. I was looking for progressively harder crochet patterns and techniques, including Tunisian and hairpin lace and I loved the challenge. Here's a pic of one of my hairpin lace shawls. 

White wedding shawl in hairpin lace and traditional crochet.

The nice thing is that I was able to do something productive on what I call my 'wipe out' days. These are days when my body has given up on me and says, 'NO! You are not doing anything today, you need to rest.' I spend these days on the sofa.

Even though my body might have failed me, my brain is still very much alive and needs regular exercise. Working through harder patterns was the exercise it needed. Craft really did become a therapy as it stopped me from going into a depression and kept me occupied.

Pottery and ceramics is a little different and I have to do this on my good (better) days. I've dropped liquid clay (slip) on the carpet twice now when I wasn't strong enough to carry it!! Good thing it's the carpet in the garage and not the house. No one except me goes out there. ;-) Here's some of my earlier work.

Slip cast ceramic kingfisher, robin and lily pitcher.

Hand built ceramic wall plaque, 'Grandma's garden'.

Hand built 'Wonky Cottage' but unfortunately I dropped it on the floor and destroyed it. :-(

Slip cast candle holders and matching decanter.

After a while I was finding that I had run out of space for all these creations. My friends and family had all been made a gift of some sort as well. I was getting lots of compliments about my work and I could see a huge improvement over the years. Many people said I should be doing craft fairs but unfortunately I'm not well enough to do them without a lot of support. So I turned to Etsy and starting to advertise my work. (I am HMRC registered by the way. :-) ) 

I found yet another therapeutic outlet through having a shop. I was suddenly in contact with so many wonderful people who shared my interests. Why hadn't I done this before? I really enjoy networking and exchanging ideas with like minded people. I'm also a nerd who loves the bookkeeping side!  I've also met a lot of people who are disabled and like myself have turned to crafts. Instead of feeling left out, as I did when I was first retired, I'm now part of something amazing. You guys keep me going through the bad days and I'm pleased to share my good days with you. You might not think that you've done anything special but I can tell you now that you have, you have made my life better and I thank you all for that. 

I'll leave you with a photo of me getting down and dirty with clay!! No Ghost comments please! Oh, go on then. :-)

Me!

Please follow me on facebook to keep up to date with new ideas, stock and offers. I can also be found on Etsy. (Links below.)  
Thank you for reading.  
Cathy x
www.facebook.com/TySiriolCeramicsandCrafts  
www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TySiriolCeramics