More Cyanotypes

When we first moved into our home 42 years ago we found a large pile of discarded bottles in the top corner of the half acre of garden. This place used to be a small farm and was first built at least 200 years ago so some of the bottles, most of which are broken, are very old.

For a long time I have wanted to make a record of each bottle and prompted by an idea which I had for an exhibition I finally got around to making cyanotypes of some of the bottles. As you can see from the tomato ketchup bottle, I have included some which were in recent use as we are also part of the history of this place.

I have made some of the cyanotypes into books for an exhibition at Le Porte Peinte Centre Pour Les Arts in France.

The images are stitched onto tea stained paper. Guessing at the possible contents of each bottle I created cyanotype words in Cymraeg (Welsh). 

Wool From the Scrap Store

We are currently Making balls of lovely quality wool which came in large bags from our local charity run scrap store Trysordy (Treasure house). The wool looks like a tangled mass, but winds quite well into balls.

If anyone has a spare moment or is sitting watching the television they are winding the wool into balls. It has become a bit of an obsession.  

We have separated the wool into two piles as some of it has grease from the machines at the ends, although this does wash off quite well. The whole house now smells of wool and engine oil. 

Some of the wool is what is left on the cones, which is much easier to use. The paler colours will be ideal for dyeing.

It seems that it was donated to Trysordy by a nearby woollen mill which makes beautiful Welsh blankets.