Tuesday 17th September
Yesterday I forgot to mention that I had discovered something
very romantic whilst in Wales…lovespoons…
The carving of lovespoons
is a centuries old tradition in Wales. Young men used to lovingly carve a spoon
from one piece of wood to give to their loved one. The lovespoon
was given to a young woman by her suitor. It was important for the girl's
father to see that the young man was capable of providing for the family and
woodworking.
Certain symbols came to have specific meanings:
a horseshoe for luck, a cross for faith, bells for
marriage, hearts for love, a wheel supporting a loved one and a lock for security, among
others. Caged balls indicated the number of children hoped for. Other difficult
carvings, such as chains, were as much a demonstration of the carver's skill as
a symbolic meaning.
Today lovespoons are given as wedding and
anniversary gifts, as well as birthday, baby gifts, Christmas or Valentine's Day gifts.
They are now mostly seen as a folk craft.
This
morning we said farewell to our lovely hosts in Llangollen and set of for the
Wedgewood Visitors centre in Stoke-on-Trent. We arrived just in time for a
factory tour and were suitably impressed by the craftsmen and artists involved
in the making of the pottery. The tour takes you through all aspects of the
traditional and modern production processes.
Using a lathe to hollow out
a shape.
These
bell shaped Christmas decorations have been embellished using the Jasper
technique…really fascinating to watch.
This
artist is freehand painting a beautiful fairy on the vase.
Our
favourite was this pate'-sur-pate', in which thick slip applications are painted on. A
thick layer of slip, in one or more colours, is built up and then allowed to dry.
This
is a close up of the same piece, again it’s freehand. When this one is fired it
will have a pale brown background and the owls will be white…I’d love to see it
when completed.
We
also visited the Wedgewood Museum…very interesting, it chronicles the life of
Josiah Wedgewood …did you know that due to Smallpox, he had to have one of his
legs amputated at the knee. The amputation was carried out at his home, without
anesthetic! He didn’t want to have a peg leg like Long John Silver so he had a
realistic, correctly shaped leg made which was quite revolutionary.
The
museum also houses an outstanding display of some of the world’s finest ceramic
pieces.
I
was very keen to visit the retail outlet and we had spoken about perhaps buying
a new dinner set and having it shipped home. Andrew was quite pleased when
there was nothing there that we LOVED enough to do that. I did buy a smallish
jug that I plan to use as a vase.
We
had lunch in the café at and then set the GPS for Bourton-On-The-Water, in The
Cotswolds which will be our home for the next three nights.
Our
accommodation is SPECTACULAR and we are self contained…
I’m
sitting at the table writing this blog right now!
The
whole place is beautifully decorated.
A
bit romantic!
The
washing machine is in the kitchen cupboard
beside the little fridge.
We’ve
had the washing machine/dryer going ever since we arrived…visited the local
supermarket, picked up some supplies and cooked our own dinner tonight…quite a
novelty!
We
drove through Moreton-in Marsh and Stow-on-the-Wold before reaching Bouton-on-the-Water
this afternoon…we’ve only driven through these three villages and now really
look forward to exploring them on foot…we have a huge list of other things to
see and do as well…we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll see some
sunshine tomorrow too.
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