: Museums, Exhibitions and Events

After two years of stillness and silence, the Weaving Shed at the National Wool Museum is waking up, and the sound of machinery at work once again fills the air.

Now that the work of cleaning, repairing and conserving the building and the reconfiguring of the work space inside, the exciting work of learning how to operate the machinery has begun.

Before Melin Teifi closed two years ago, Raymond Jones was the last remaining maker of Welsh flannel, which is culturally important as it has been used extensively to make National Costume and workwear. This year Raymond has been in helping us to restore and tune the flannel loom, as it has been in storage and idle for two years.

We have produced a flannel warp that is unique to Amgueddfa Cymru and tied it on to the loom. We have learnt to use a warp stop which as the name suggests, stops the loom if any of the 1,500 threads break; reducing damage to the cloth and significantly reducing the time required to mend the cloth.

Also, as the yarn is a single ply it requires a higher level of skill and awareness when weaving with it. Working with single ply yarn has proved to be quite challenging and has presented us with different issues and problems which have challenged our understanding of how the looms function. It has been an interesting and rewarding experience.

By improving our knowledge and understanding of how the looms function we are able to consistently make better cloth. It is our intention to be able to make a variety of different cloth such as flannel, double cloth, and twill blankets. This will help us to generate income for the Museum and provide a more fulfilling visitor experience.

Over the last year, we as craftspeople at the museum have learnt a great deal, have encountered many obstacles and challenges as well as some frustrations. The greatest lesson we learnt as a team was… patience!

This year, the Weaving Shed will become alive again as we continue with the tradition of flannel making here in the Teifi Valley and we look forward to sharing this experience and history with you, our visitors!
 

In the quiet of winter, the gardens of St Fagans National Museum of History are alive with activity. January is the perfect time to prune apple trees, ensuring healthy growth and a good harvest later in the year. At St Fagans, the orchards are home to several heritage apple varieties, each with its own fascinating name and story.

One such remarkable apple is Gwell na Mil, meaning "Better than a Thousand." This variety, known as Seek No Further by English speakers in Monmouth, dates back to at least the 1700s and was mentioned in the Cambrian Journal of 1856. Another is the Pig y Golomen, or "Pigeon’s Beak," a traditional variety from Pembrokeshire, with a name inspired by its distinctive shape. There’s also Morgan Sweet, a favourite among Welsh miners, who valued its refreshing flavour during long shifts underground.

These apples, along with others, can be found in the many orchards across St Fagans. The old trees not only provide fruit but also act as vital habitats for wildlife. Birds, insects, and bats all rely on the orchards for shelter and food.

Every year, the apples are harvested and taken off-site to be pressed into juice, which is then sold in the museum shop. This annual cycle of care, from winter pruning to autumn harvesting, keeps the orchards healthy and productive and reflects traditional care that has supported orchards for generations.

January is also the season for wassailing, an ancient tradition to bless apple trees and ensure a good harvest. Wassailing often involves singing, offering cider to the trees, and sometimes driving away bad spirits. The museum’s collections feature beautiful wassailing bowls, traditionally used during these celebrations. Visitors can see some examples of these in the Gweithdy gallery, including pieces of Ewenny pottery.

January in the orchards is a time to reflect on traditions and care for the future. The pruning done now ensures the trees remain healthy and productive for years to come, continuing a cycle that has been part of Welsh rural life for centuries.

As part of Kids in Museums Takeover Day Ysgol Penboyr pupils enjoyed creative Christmas decoration workshops.

Craftsperson, Non Mitchell, taught pupils how to wet felt Christmas baubles and make Christmas God’s Eyes.

Ellie Smallcombe facilitated Christmas decoration weaving workshops, a good time was had by all!

The Summer holiday period saw the launch of the new sensory toy boxes at National Museum Cardiff. There are 5 boxes which are inspired by our collections and galleries. The boxes were developed to engage younger visitors and enhance their museum visit through multi sensory play. The boxes are located in five of our galleries and correspond with the objects on display such as woodland wildlife, sealife, dinosaurs and historical and contemporary art.

The boxes include a varied selection of toys and books which are accessible for children of all ages and needs. In museum spaces where collections on display cannot be handled, sensory resources allow children to learn through play and can spark intergenerational conversations about our collections.  

Visitors to the museum are encouraged to find all 5 boxes and share any feedback and photographs with us on X at @Amgueddfa_Learn.

When it came to writing this article, my thought space had been taken to the theme of journeys; the unknown ground between a beginning and an ending. My journey as a young producer for Bloedd’s latest project, an LGBTQIA+ oral histories exhibition, has been a nearly yearlong one. What began as conversation in a shared space containing mutual interests and passions, defined the nucleus of my work here. The beginnings of this time had been an unpacking of what we felt as a collective was important to represent for an upcoming exhibition. We knew from the jump that we wanted to represent voices that may often go unheard; those whose experience may not be recounted upon by the mainstream perception of what it means to live an LGBTQIA+ life. 

Moving away from the typical portrait of queerness being a thrown brick in protest, that while important, we are more than our fight for freedoms; our stories can be found in the everyday, in the places we visit, the jobs we keep, the people we love and share our lives with. The given name of this exhibition, Ours to Tell, came only after we had completed our collection of stories, the self-described journey we undertook over several months of visits and interviews, holding dialogue with well over fifty years of experience. But what is in a name? Ours to Tell is a reclamation. It’s our way of saying “here is a story, told by a firsthand account of the storyteller”. It’s our way of saying “these words are cut from a book hidden away in the attic of my mind. I’ve ventured into the attic, and I’m dusting it off for you.” It’s our way of saying “this is where I come from”. 

While the journey of this project has been underpinned by a great deal of planning and preparation, what you can’t prepare for is what you might uncover in someone else’s story. You commit to the routine of presenting a series of questions, from you to the storyteller, with only a table between you. It comes as a surprise the level of detail, which is excavated by the storyteller, they are like a hoarder being handed a stepladder, invited to dig up their stowed away possessions from the attic. Your questions are prompts: “when did you first see your identity reflected in someone else?”, “what does a safe space look like to you?”, the list goes on. The exciting part is that you don’t know what’s coming next, and you are there, alongside the storyteller, who guides you through a journey which may well bring up a familiarity or nostalgia for the listener. During these times when I’ve had the great pleasure to listen to these stories, I can confidently say that I have felt every kind of emotion in response. I laughed. I have cried. I have been moved. I have been taken on a journey.

Enabling the participants of this project to confidently speak about their experiences has proved an undeniable joy, though I cannot understate how this project has affected those coordinating its launch. Fellow young producer Joss Copeman, like me had been drawn to this exciting opportunity, Copeman’s “personal work is largely centred around queer narratives and themes of identity and the self.” The journey which unfolded from Ours to Tell has been greatly beneficial, as it pertains to young LGBTQIA+ creatives and makers, taking inspiration from unheard voices, now affected and transformed by echoes of their experience. This is a feeling I know will resonate with the audience, and I can only hope it will stir others in future, to share what might be put away, gathering dust in the attic. 

I’d like to conclude with a quote that shook me like a cat in a tree, “Art is not just for oneself, not just a marker of one’s own understanding. It is also a map for those who follow after us.”

Written by Ivy Kelly, Amgueddfa Cymru Producer (Bloedd).

Bloedd is the platform for youth engagement at Amgueddfa Cymru.