“The longest journey starts with a single step.”
And never was a truer word spoken when it comes to starting something creative off – in whatever discipline or craft. As this project will be set alongside The Keepers in Bryngarw Country Park, I spent some time there on a very wet afternoon last week. I find that being outside helps me to form ideas about colours, lines and textures that I want to use.
The first Art Doll is Coblynes yr Afon and, like all of the Textile Art which will be displayed around The Keeper of the River, she will be inspired by the watery setting. I liked the way in which there were forms that came into view and then faded into another world…
Where streams joined the River Garw, curls of foam lifted upwards and fell back …
I look at images like these and I start to see the colours I need for Coblynes yr Afon . Water here in South Wales is not blue-coloured but muddy grey and brown. I can see that the textures will need to be bubbly and layered. I’ll find scraps of materials and stitch them together in a kind of patchwork to form the main body of the doll. At this stage of a creative journey, I find that one step leads to another and it’s important to write things down before I forget them. As I was walking past the The Keeper of the River, I could imagine Coblynes yr Afon standing high on the hillside, drawing all the droplets of water into a single flowing stream. How can I get a doll to show that? What if I position different textured threads behind the doll and anchor them into the ground and then as they come past the doll, they are woven into a single yarn? That could work. Time to do some samples, methinks….
Some Welsh Words – Geiriau Cymraeg
Creative – Creadigol
Craft Crefft
To display Arddangos
Colours Lliwiau
Textures Gweadau
Scraps of material Clytiau
Patchwork Clytwaith
Textured Threads Edefion â gwead
To Weave Gwehyddu
Yarn Edafedd