Here we are again – Made By Hand and fireworks

Wow a year rolls round fast!

It seems like no time at all when this blog was shiny and new and I was writting possibly my second ever post about Made By Hand. How time flies!

And it really does fly.  This post was meant to get out to you at the start of the month, and it’s now its the start of the month after!

Anyway, once again, I’m filling you in on all our Made By Hand sightings. As most years, we combined it with a trip to the dentist. It always seems to fall on the same day. Luckily, we have a lovely dentist, so we don’t mind. Plus it mean that we could kill two birds with one stone AND give us an excuse to have breakfast out. I love going out for breakfast.

Tummies full and new toothbrushes in our back pocket, The Mother and I headed to Cardiff City Hall.

Nice isn’t it? This is a work building for me, but every so often, it transforms into a place of delight. At these times, I can actually take in the splendour of the building. I’m sure I said it last time, but look at this ceiling.

Once again, my pictures will never give a good enough impression of how it actually is. There’s no sense of scale. The upstairs ball room is huge with this marvellous domed ceiling, windows that defy physics and these elephant sized chandeliers. My photos are coming out blurry at the moment for some reason, but if you zoom in you can see how intricate they are and wonder at how heavy they must be!

(Looking back, I have indeed added a picture of this ceiling. Tough. Be sure to expect one every year!)

Anyway, back to the matter at (Made by) hand. For those who didn’t read last years seemingly identical post, Made By Hand is a showcase of the best contemporary craft people in the country. There are products here that you will never see anywhere else. One of a kind, lovingly created works of art. Lovely stuff. Now this isn’t like your Yarndales and your Wonderwools. Its not stuffed to the rafters with lovely things you can touch, feel, take home with you and create something from it. Its stuff that you can ooh and aah at, take out a small loan and out in a very safe place. On reflection, I prefer the former, but these shows have their place and they’re important to go to.

I’ve tried to get all the links right, but please let me know if I’ve missed or gotten any wrong. You should be able to click the links to go through to the website in question.

There was definitely an animal theme running through this years crop. Most importantly we have the Fauxidermy team.

(I’ll apologise now as taking pictures is always very difficult!)

I’ve been fascinated by this lady ever since Mrs B wrote about them earlier this year. (She explains it better than I ever can.) It was lovely to see some pieces in the flesh. Pictures do not do them justice – and especially not mine! The fabric is so luxurious and the detail is insane. All the muscles are defined. So lifelike. If you ever get the chance to see them, please do.

The animal theme continued with these felt birds..

There were also these dolls, which were amazing (especially the Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon) but also freaked me out a bit.

Have a look at these ceramics pieces.

Yes, they’re ceramics. Can you believe it?!?

They’re so textured you’d think it was wood, or at a far push fabric.

Made By Hand is always ceramic heavy

These lampshades were absolutely beautiful. Again, so much detail. Real works of art.

The real reason The Mother wanted to go was for the Gosier Weber stand. We found them last year and The Mother fell in love with their bags.

They are wonderful. This year, she was looking for a new purse. The colours are what rally stand out on these products and the purses were no different. We spent some time looking at all the options of course. As she is the best sort of mum, she got me one too. Ta Mam! Good thing too. I’d picked this one up and just didn’t want to put it back down again. Eventually I did, but to my horror someone else picked it up! I uneasily hopped back and forth on my feet watching it. I wanted to scream at them to leave it alone, or tell them I’d licked it or something. Much relief when she finally did. If nothing else, it told me that I wanted it.

Our eyes sated by beautiful craft, we made our way home to rest our bones. I seem to be non stop busy recently, so I took the opportunity to nap.  I must have needed it, I slept for 4 hours! So long in fact, that I nearly missed my next event…

This shows you how long ago this post was meant to be written! Now I’ve told you before how much of a firework geek I am. I get giddy. Our local castle put on displays twice throughout the year, but this one is the big one. The important one. I never miss it. No matter what the weather I’ll get wrapped up in hats and waterproofs and attend. It brings back so many memories. To the times when I was little with The Parents, the times where I was older where I went with friends, older still and we had to remember to run out of the pub in time, to taking favourite little miss when she wasn’t a year old, to now, where Himself and I can walk 3 minutes down our hill and be there. It’s the rules. I have to go. It made me broody to bring our own kids one day.

This time however, I was on my tod. My socks and I got wrapped up and plodded down to sneak into a space. It’s been a long time since I’d seen it so busy. It’s amazing to see the fireworks shooting out of a castle, but this is the norm for me. I think I must think it strange when they don’t appear from a castle. Where else would the come from?!?

Anywhoo, I’ve left you with some of the best. I’ll restrict myself from putting all of them on. I do realise that others don’t love them as much as I do..

 

 

Much love xx