The Shop Blog

This year our museum shop underwent the biggest transformation in its history, to create a shop that truly represents St Fagans and its collections and allows our visitors to take a piece of St Fagans home with them!

One of the most special things about St Fagans is the variety of buildings and exhibits, we therefore decided to turn the museum shop into one inspired by a department store. Rather than traditional departments such as toys or food, each area of our shop represents a different building or exhibit from across the museum. We have even created a soundscape so visitors can hear the noises of the school playground, farm or sweet shop as they shop from those department.

Working with many local and Welsh suppliers, we have created over 230 new products inspired by the museum. They are packed with stories; from cakes made by the relatives of the original Gwalia Stores baker to an unfinished patchwork from the collection that has inspired a range of handbags and purses. From love spoons to Welsh cakes, items handmade by our craftspeople to school stationery, the shop is an experience in itself. 

We hope visitors will be able to enjoy the museum shop as a ‘best of’ experience; all the highlights of a visit to St Fagans represented through a huge variety of products, and what’s better, every purchase supports the museum.

It’s not just the museum shop that we have been developing though, over at Siop Losin we have created a 1920s inspired period shopping experience. Visitors can now admire the 1920s inspired displays, meet staff in costume and choose from a huge selection of traditional sweets that are weighed out in front of their very eyes! The smells, sights and sound of the past have been recreated through historical research, and we’ve worked with small artisan and Welsh businesses to allow visitors to taste the past now too! The packaging and designs of the products are all inspired by 1920s confectionery and a Siop Losin tote bag has become a sought-after item.

We hope you’ll be able to join us for a fun day out across the summer and call by Siop Losin and the museum shop to experience a taste of the past!

A selection of emotive, thought-provoking images from the period of the First World War has been added to our Commercial Picture Library and Prints Service.

In 2014, National Museum Cardiff held an exhibition, The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals, which displayed a complete series of 66 lithographs of artistic propaganda prints commissioned by the Bureau of Propaganda (later renamed the Ministry of Information) in 1917. 

The aim of the series was to encourage a war-weary public and to raise support for the war effort. The lithographs were published under the two titles ‘Efforts’ and ‘Ideals’ and contain work contributed by 18 artists including Frank Brangwyn, Muirhead Bone, George Clausen and A. S. Hartrick.

Under the ‘Efforts’ section, nine of the artists were commissioned to produce six works under a heading, including Making Guns, Women’s Work and Wounded. Within the ‘Ideals’ portfolio, the 12 artists illustrated the ambitions and aims of the war. The artists were given subjects to work within and each of the images had to pass censorship regulations.  

Each image shows people going about their daily lives during the war. Like so many others, they were ordinary people living in extraordinary times, selflessly sacrificing for others and all of us today.

To read more about this collection, please open the following link to a blog by Rhodri Viney, Digital Content Assistant at Amgueddfa Cymru:

Blog by Rhodri Viney

To reflect upon the centenary of the end of the First World War, National Museum Cardiff is holding an exhibition entitled Poppies for Remembrance. This exhibition will explore how the poppy became the symbol for remembrance, provide an opportunity for contemplation and reflection on loss and recovery, as well as look at the science of poppy biodiversity, the many species of poppies worldwide and the threats to their existence. The exhibition will run from 21 July 2018 to 3 March 2019. Details below:

Poppies for Remembrance Exhibition

Commercial Picture Library

Museum Wales Prints

Spring. A beautiful season which epitomises re-birth and optimism, the awakening of nature to provide us with an array of stunning colours. National Museum Cardiff holds a collection of over 7,000 superb botanical prints and drawings; several depict plants synonymous with the new season.

Principal Curator, Dr Heather Pardoe, from the Botany Section, Natural Sciences, has handpicked a seasonal range of exquisite botanical illustrations to reflect the delightful spring plants that are coming into flower. The Spring Collection provides an exclusive view of some of the illustrations that Botany holds behind the scenes; many are rarely on public display.

If you would like to see more of this beautiful collection, please follow the link below which will take you to the Print section of the online shop. This also provides an opportunity to purchase a reproduction of one of these attractive images, as well as a wide range of other images from the collections.

Museum Wales Prints

We are working towards providing a series of collections for you to enjoy - watch this space for more news!

Don’t forget to follow the Shop blog and Natural Sciences blog for regular updates!

A wonderful new book has been created by  Picture to Share. This dementia-friendly book is the first of this type that has been produced bilingually in both Welsh and English. 

Pictures to Share teamed up with us, The National Library of Wales, Alzheimers Society and the Welsh Poet Laureate to produce Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, a beautifully illustrated book to help carers communicate with people living with dementia.  Pictures to Share have produced many books on this theme but this is the first to focus upon the Welsh language, in order to help people living with dementia whose first language is Welsh.

This was an opportunity to highlight the importance of the work we do to help people living with dementia as well as highlight our collections and showcase our commercial Picture Library. The images used in the book, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, portray many things which people in Wales can relate to, prompting discussion.

Dementia is a subject which many of our staff are passionate about, with many of the staff undertaking training to become a Dementia Friend in order to help enhance the visitor experience of people living with dementia.

After communicating with the editor Michelle Forster, we supplied the images and license to use them in order to comply with copyrights laws.  We have to issue a license to anyone who wishes to use our images. Pictures to Share invited us to Cardiff Library for their book launch in November 2016 to see the completed book, which was attended by staff from our Image Licensing, Photography and Translation departments. We were all very impressed with the end product which is now available at our shop at National Museum Cardiff and our on-line shop.

If you would like to use our images within a publication, please contact us at Image Licensing.
You can also purchase images for your home from our on-line shop.

Thank you to Cardiff Council for permission to use images from the book launch.

The team have been working hard in the last few weeks to get all of the new stock ready and looking lovely for the opening day on Friday 14 July. Our new shop will be full of lovely things from across Wales, including hand carved lovespoons, tapestry blankets from Melin Tregwynt as well as blankets woven on site at the National Wool Museum in Dre-fach Felindre.

The St Fagans shop during and after redevelopment.

Our new range of food and drink includes, Cheddar cheese from Blaenavon, Welsh Lady preserves from Pwllheli and a wide range of Penderyn Whiskey.

We also have a new range of exclusive souvenirs, including our cuddly new St Fagans teddy bears.

Visit us on 14 July and say the word ‘Dragon’ at the checkout to receive 10% off! 

All the money raised in our shops supports the work of Amgueddfa Cymru.