Pupils from Raglan VC Primary School took part in my Looking at Buildings session on Monday. Here are some pictures of just a few of the houses they made. I didn't get a chance to take photographs of all the buildings so if anyone at Raglan VC Primary School is reading this, please email me some more as everyone's building was looking so fantastic!

After being inspired by our Quilting Club (next meeting is March 5th), I have been doing quite a lot of sewing. Over Christmas I got out the sewing machine and made about 8 bags, but mainly I've been concentrating on my quilt (see picture above). I've never quilted before (or sewn much really), so am learning as I go, and have been loving it.

This foray into sewing has meant that I've been spending lots of money on material and equipment and reading lots of books and articles. One of my favourite things I've found out is that on February 8th it's Hari-Kuyo festival in Japan. This festival gives people the chance to thank and appreciate the needles they have used in the past year by sticking them in to a big block of tofu! As one of the monks from the temple said in the article I read on the reuters website 'Sometimes there are painful things and secrets that women can't tell men, and they put these secrets into the pins and ask the gods to get rid of them.'

It made me wonder if there are any pins and needles or sewing customs in Wales (and the rest of the UK), does anyone know of any? In Oriel 1 we do have a charm bottle on display which has bent pins in it which is meant to protect the owner of the bottle from witchcraft, and of course, pins would be used with a voodoo doll or a poppet...

I had a look in Steve Roud's book 'The Penguin guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland', and whereas there wasn't much about needles (other than if a needle breaks when you are sewing it will bring good fortune to the wearer of the article sewn) there are quite a few customs to do with pins. Pins used in the making of wedding dress are particularly lucky, you could also stick them into an onion as part of a love divination, but you shouldn't take pins on board a ship.

And back to quilting, and patchwork quilts in particular... 'If a lady completes one of these without assistance, she will never be married.'

Last week Bishop Childs C.I.W Primary asked: "If you plant your bulb at the same time as your partner will they open their flowers at the same time?"  

This is a very good question and if the bulbs were planted at the same time, were the same size and kept in the same conditions then they could possibly open on the same day. But, all the bulbs are slightly different sizes and some may get more water or sunshine - so they tend to open on different days.

Generally, all of the bulbs in one school will open within a week or two of each other. At first, you get a few then the majority will open within a few days of each other, then a smaller number will take a little longer. It's a bit like a race, there will be a few quick ones, a larger group that arrives about the same time then a few slow ones.

In this experiment, we take the average flowering time. So we record each date from each flower then divide it by the total number of flowers. Look at the results from your school last year http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/2135/

Ysgol Glantwymyn asks: Ydy'r tywydd yma yn dda?/ Is this weather good? The recent warm temperatures we are having are good - as it is getting our bulbs growing. But, if we have a another cold snap it could be very damaging to our bulbs and slow them down again.

Good reports from schools:

Cwm Glas Primary:  We have got some shouts.

Maesycwmmer Primary School: A very frosty and cold week. We have noticed a few of our bulbs have started to grow. We have our chart ready and we are going to keep personal records of how much they grow each week. This is a great idea!

St. Mary's Catholic Primary School: It has been quite sunny this week and we haven't had a lot of rain.

Many thanks

Professor Plant 

During my time as a designer at National Museum Wales I have had to deal with displays of all shapes and sizes and the Dazu Rock Carvings exhibition provided a unique challenge, especially the heads!

The exhibition features many heavy stone heads, separated from the bodies by historical vandalism as well as some wear and tear (well, they are over 1000 years old!).

The problem posed was how to display them securely and yet in a good position for the viewing public. We also needed a flexible system that is quick: there was only ten days from the delivery to the practical installation!

Some weeks ago we had an idea in the design studio and called on the expertise of Annette and Mary from the Conservation department to discuss the merits of our thoughts.

“What if we set the stones in an expanding foam mould? Would it grip the sculpture securely and hold a display position?”

Mary and Annette both confirmed that if we employed a high-grade conservation material and sheathed the stone with polythene film, the stone would not be affected -in Layman’s terms, it would work!

As the icing on the cake we came up with the idea of adding a fabric layer that would act as the finish, ready for display. A mock up was quickly made and, wow! It worked brilliantly!

Mary and Annette made great progress and the heads were set into pre-made display boxes in a secure lab deep in the bowls of the Museum.

The fabric finish was trimmed and the boxes complete with the sculptures were transferred to the gallery for display with specialised lighting.

The heads joined larger items on specialised plinths and some very delicate carvings within cases. Further ingenious display methods were devised for each and every sculpture to ensure this truly amazing exhibition is as inspiring as possible.

We are all very excited to see this exhibition come together and are sure the public will love it too.

Simon Tozzo, Three Dimensional Designer, National Museum Wales

See more Dazu images on Flickr, keep up to date with Dazu on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @museum_cardiff  #dazuwales

Do you enjoy watching birds in your garden? Do you have a favourite place to go to watch birds? This coming weekend (29th and 30th January) is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual survey of the nations birds.

All it takes is an hour of your time to record which birds visit your garden or local park. For a list of local parks in Cardiff, click here.

You could even visit us here at St Fagans museum to record which birds you see from our bird hide. Wherever you choose to go, make sure you wrap up warm, it can be very cold work!

Registration is free and all the information you need is available from the RSPB's website: www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch 

What will you see??