Treasure - Welsh vintage wool blanket

Took a trip to Brecon today, to have lunch in the the excellent Tower Cafe in St Mary's Church in the town centre (highly recommended, also for nice teas) and to mooch around the three antiques shops there.  We never seem to manage to get away without finding some treasure there, and today's treasure was something I've been looking out for since we came back to Wales 6 years ago - a vintage Welsh woollen blanket.  They are a) usually hideous expensive, b) often not in great condition, and c) frequently in colourways which are just too 'sweet' and pastel for my taste, so to find one which was reasonably priced, in superb, pristine condition, and with a nice punchy apricot stripe was just too good to pass by!  The flash photography makes it look a tiny bit pinker than it is, it's more peach/aqua in the flesh.

The guy I bought it from had got it as part of a stash of vintage blankets he had bought from a lady in her 80s who lived in a farmhouse near Trecastle, and who had lots of blankets stored in a traditional coffer (large wooden chest for storing blankets and linen).  Most date back to when she was setting up home, and many (I suspect including this one) had never or rarely been used.  It is beautiful, and really very pleasing.  The trick will be to keep the cat off it, somewhere so soft and woolly would be Sophie's idea of heaven!

In search of Ryeland fleece - medieval history on the hoof

My latest quest is for Ryeland fleece - I have a contact consulting the flock book for me to track down a source for me!  Why am I pursuing Ryeland fleece?  Well, my current project is connected with Tretower, a historic manor house north of the Brecon Beacons, and I am looking to use some wool in the felting process from a breed of sheep which would have been familiar in the house's heyday between the 14th and 17th centuries.  The Ryeland sheep (named after the rye-growing area around Archenfield in South Herefordshire which was its heartland) was developed by the monks of Leominster in the 12th or 13th century, producing a remarkably fine wool which was greatly in demand - its value was such that its alternative name was 'Leominster Ore'.  As a high-status dwelling in the later Middle Ages, only a relatively short distance west of Herefordshire, it is very likely that Ryeland wool would have found its way to Tretower, which is why I am keen to use this breed in my Tretower project.  Few breeds of sheep in the UK now, other than the 'primitives' such as Soays, can trace their origins back as far as the Ryeland - the 'improvement' of native breeds which resulted in the breeds we now have was largely a product of the 18th century onwards, and continues even now - as with, for example, the Beltex!

Traces - the fascination of the palimpsest

I am thinking seriously about submitting an application to exhibit as part of the Trace project in Bristol. The brief is to 'create work with an idea that there is a Trace – a Trace of something that once belonged, a Trace of something that once happened, a Trace of a suggestion.'

With an academic background in history, principally architectural and medieval history, I have become fascinated by the idea of the palimpsest – where buildings have been altered, remodelled and re-purposed, leaving the traces of their previous selves in roof lines, arches, and the outlines of former windows. In 2010 I visited Tretower, a medieval house north of the Brecon Beacons which was developed between the 14th and 17th centuries. Evidence of the changes to the structure abound in the architecture, but I was particularly interested in the layers of painted plaster which are evident in some of the rooms. As the plaster flakes, it reveals preceding layers of colour and texture, telling the story of human habitation and domestic life through four centuries.

I took extensive photographs, determined that I would work with these images and concepts in some way in the future. Maybe this brief is my opportunity - to juxtapose the photographs with textile pieces which use layering, abrasion and distressing to interpret the idea of trace and palimpsest.

The timescale is quite tight, but even if I don't quite make it to submitting work for this exhibition, I think I want to do this work - to make art which is, at this time of personal change and re-evaluation, exploring the hidden layers of being which are both under the surface, and also fundamental to the nature of present and future.