Back To The Beginning: Trying To Be What I Am

It’s beautiful but it’s not me.

Life can be terrifying. In life we get pushed to and fro and sometimes we’re brave enough to push back. It is often said that a person is made up from their surroundings and that in itself can be difficult as we don’t have control over what our brains circle round and round, repeat to itself and put in our dreams. It can be difficult to understand who you are meant to be, when there is so much precedent, expectations, lessons to be learnt and ideas to take on board.

It is often only in hindsight that we can comment on our making, how we were brought up, what we were taught, and what mistakes we have made. It is how I can see my education and see that much of it was based around getting a job to earn a wage at the end of it. I can see now how much it effected me that the Arts didn’t get the same focus as Humanities, Science or Mathematics. I can see how despite my dislike of sales-talk, dislike of everything having a price on it, dislike of houses full of stuff and the consumer attitude of success; despite all this I felt the need to set up a business, to focus on what I could sell, to give my time to producing stuff.

Half of me is wanting to call it a failure. That half would possibly suggest that everyone fails, everyone makes mistakes, and there are plenty of examples of people who have learnt from those to go on better things. It might also say I’ve just not tried hard enough, I haven’t pushed hard enough, I haven’t waited long enough to see results, I haven’t given it a chance. It could be a bigger failure to give up on it now.

The other half of me is seeing this as a point in my life where I learnt a little bit more about myself, became a little braver, and moved towards something I am passionate about rather than trying-to-be-passionate about.

I am talking about Ceilidh & Cwtch.

An Artist’s Place In Christianity

I went to university and completed a Theology degree.

Now I’m trying to place myself within an artistic vocation.

How do these two link together? Sometimes I’m not sure but then I remember what drew me to both.

My first theology class (excluding Biblical Studies which was also incredible) allowed me to look at the world and link everything. I could go from political history in El Salvador, to the music of Italian Requiems, to film musical adaptations of WWI, to children’s book and the use of colour in the Prince of Egypt. Theology covers everything because it relates to humanity, who we are created to be, our values, creativity, and beliefs. How could I not be enthralled by the breadth of knowledge and depth of humanity?

Art has always been much the same. I was the girl who would link anything to anything in order to arrive at a subject I was more interested in. For example, “trees” could link to “age lines” because of the way the rings tell how old a tree is; “age lines” could link to “time lines” and hence to “history”; this could give me a way into fashion, politics, families, even medical history or bacterial and viral cells. If my final piece ends up looking at cells I can easily write about the inner cell structure of trees, and all living things and create beautiful images of microscopic cells. My final piece at first look may not have anything to do with trees, but with a little imagination I can still start my project off named “Trees” and explain how I got there. I could even talk about how even the tallest trees when taken to the most basic components are made from the smallest pieces, as is everything. See? Easy and also quite a lot of blagging.

Seriously! How beautiful is this?

What was incredible is that when I combined these two amazing subjects the world was my oyster. I could explore thousands of years of history, theories, ideas, philosophies, and just so much through art and I didn’t need to scramble for links because beneath Theology is the basic idea of a God above it all. There is already this incredible link between even the most distant of pieces of creation.

What sucks is that despite Theology being so awe-inspiring and good for my artist side, is that often church can be a place that doesn’t feel too comfortable. I recently read an article which managed to put into words some of the issues I have felt within a church community. I wouldn’t ever say that all christians, or even all churches, have behaved like this, but some have, and it only takes one to make someone like me feel pretty useless, feel like I don’t have a place, and, despite my gifts, feel pretty useless in the grand scheme of things.

I’m just going to add a few words to each of the points the article brought up to explain more fully why from an artists’ point of view it’s a rubbish thing for those in a church to act. I think that although the article makes plenty of reverse psychology statements of how to discourage artist’s, it didn’t go into depth about what art can really be within the church.

“Treat the arts as a window dressing for the truth”
Somewhat understandably since the Reformation churches have focused strongly on the Word. Of course Biblical support, study and focus is important, but the myth of the reform is that the Word was the only thing said and listened to. Martin Luther and many others opened the doors to everyone being able to read, and read onto, the Bible. Interpretation, translation and inspiration began to have far more say from far more voices than when one man at the top told the congregations what to believe. One of the great freedoms we have to delve into the complexity of the Bible, of God and of belief in order to be closer to the truth. This will often require questions and art is both an amazing resource in which to work them out, and a great challenge. Artists can produce work which reveals a truth, whilst asking questions about God and humanity. It was a painting of St Matthew that really helped me work out how God used us and what we are called to be despite our flaws and failings. To suggest that skill and challenge ended with the Renaissance.

“Embrace bad art”
Although I understand it can be wonderfully helpful to add visual images to slide shows, connect with the emotion and feelings behind the worship, it often feels far more manipulative than useful. It’s also somewhat horrible as an artist to feel that only the simple, easy and commercial images will ever get used, thought of, bought, etc. When you know that it took about 3 seconds to produce an image of a woman standing arms wide in front of the ocean/mountains/sunset/sunrise in the same way of the other thousand similar images online, and in comparison it took days, months, even years to produce images of incredible beauty that deal with some of the hardest theological concepts in existence, it feels rubbish  to see which one a church might choose for a preaching tool. It makes those of us searching for truth, praying for inspiration, and putting our lives on the line to follow an often thankless path like a nobody, like there was no point, or possibly worse: that the church doesn’t seem to recognise something you are yourself sure has come from God.

A whole google search of “Christian” worship images… yay!

“Value artists only for their artistic gifts”
It shouldn’t that hard to understand this: artists are normal people too, artists can be normal Christians. It should also be pretty clear that people often have multiple gifts, and in the Church it seems ridiculous to pigeon-hole people into one specific task. I think that has been easy for me to understand, even as an artist, because of the amazing examples around me. I know that artists can also be an amazing force behind charity and children’s work, I have also seen an artist become a great teacher and leader within a church. In the same way it might be an idea to remember this when dealing with anyone in a ministry role: just because someone is amazing in the Sunday School doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be amazing preaching passionately to the rest of the congregation too..

“Demand artists to give answers” OR “tell them what to do and also how to do it”
I’ve experienced quite a lot of this and it always made me feel patronised and used; as if I was being told to copy out the dictionary rather than being asked to produce a poem. If you think someone has a gift, and you need a creative input, don’t then take it upon yourself to create a specific image and expect the artists to copy it from your mind. It is not useful, it is not encouraging, and it does not treat God’s gifts with any kind of respect. When you ask for the simplest of images, when you come requesting the clearest of moral lessons, or pick up on any ambiguity and ask for it to be removed, it hurts.
Art is fully of complexity. One of the best lessons I was ever given was from C S Lewis‘ “The Great Divorce” where an angel speaks to an artist about his ability to see heaven and catch a glimmer of it within his work to show humanity. I’m not sure I can say that this process works when given such a tiny space in which to be inspired. How much beauty could be in a sonnet if Shakespeare was only allowed to alter 2 words of it? Freedom allows the Spirit to work in us, and the result is rarely clean. Either the Church needs to accept this or stop claiming their simple clean lines are of God.

“Only validate art that has a direct application”
This is one I have often struggled with. I have been asked to use art for prayer resources, for evangelism, and although at times it’s been wonderful to have a reason to be inventive, creative and inspired, sometimes it’s felt like forcing a square peg into a round hole. When you force art to be practical in a way that says “this was created in order to pray with” it takes away from the breadth of what art can be. Of course art can be utilised to tell a story, talk someone through an issue, help question and answer questions, but when it’s simply a product like a tool to be used, it’s just so much less. Art is not just decoration or background to a point you’re trying to make. Saying so is like saying poetry is only for a speech at weddings. Art is expression and passion and feeling and faith incarnate. It is a piece of inspiration painstakingly prepared in a physical form. Treat it as such, or try to understand a little more about it.

There were far more points that I won’t go into, but I hope I’ve given something a little bit of explanation behind the thousands of artists who don’t know where there place is. We’d love to feel at home, but art is part of us, a God-given part, and it hurts when it’s taken advantage of or dismissed.

An Artist’s place is within the Church, just like everyone else. It might be that the Church needs to understand us a little more, but we’d love to help with that.

Digging Through Layers: dealing with my feelings of guilt and fear

This time last year I was trying to deal with my first miscarriage. Since then I have gone through that horrific experience for a second time, and I didn’t expect it to be harder. I also didn’t expect how much time it would take to dig through all the layers of feelings and issues I would have with anything with even the slightest connotation of children.

I recently realised that I’d been hanging onto a lot of guilt, because I blamed myself for my second miscarriage. I had experienced a far more physically traumatic time of it but the thing I remembered so strongly was the pressure and the need to push. This won’t necessarily make sense to guys, but the only way I can explain is discomfort, the feeling that I was blocked and I couldn’t lie still. For four hours I struggled, not knowing what was happening, whether it was normal, and what I should be doing.

Eventually I started bleeding and that pushing released what was my baby. Nothing will ever really describe the feeling that you’ve pushed your child out of your body – mothers will tell you that with the joy that only birth can bring. That wasn’t my experience because it was birth, it was death.

Letting go of this guilt, now I’ve accepted that I was keeping it locked up, is allowing me to properly question the fear I’ve been feeling for the past 6 months.

Any idea of me getting pregnant petrified me, the idea of having children at all suddenly took a big turn and started to feel like something that would hold my life back rather than having a priority place within it. I felt much too young, much less in control, much too ambitious to have children. The world started to feel like a bad place in which to bring a new life, money was just not enough to pay the bills, everything far too overwhelming alongside the idea of a child. And what if my child had a disability, or was ill, or I just couldn’t cope. I could barely cope with the thoughts.

Bear wants children, he always has, and he is broody most of the time. He would never push but what if I figured out that I couldn’t cope with children? We’d got married having known where we stood in that regard, could I keep him in a relationship that he might resent when we were old and childless when that was never part of the plan?

Actually a lot of these questions were covering for the bigger one: will I kill my next baby? Will I be able to hold onto them long enough to hear them cry? If I can’t even have children, should I even try if it just brings more pain?

Accepting this deeper layer, and understanding my subconscious reasoning makes it far easier to handle. I am finding it easier to think about, easier to think of the future at all, easier to deal with the broad topic of children, families and parenthood. Understanding how fear had been effecting me has been freeing. There is a long way to go but I’m getting there, and digging through the layers has been useful.

I didn’t expect it to take this long to feel OK, but I guess this is just proof that recovery isn’t something you can plan, grief isn’t easy or quick, and none of this is the same for everyone that goes through it. I pray I don’t go through this all again any time soon, but on the other hand I hope I can show myself a little more grace in dealing with it.

Uncovered by Fashion: Expression Rather Than Oppression

I feel I need to automatically explain the title of this post. I wanted to think about fashion and fabric from around the world without picking up the covering up function that clothes have mainly been required for. If we take away the obvious weather-related concerns, clothes relate mainly to covering up certain areas, those we wish to keep private, and emphasising others, those we wish to show off. This weird mixture of shame and pride has had a devastating effect on body image for women particularly for generations. I do not want to believe that fashion is, however, completely flawed. Fashion can be art, expression, emotion, cultural and worshipful. Fashion relates to colour, imagination, beauty, and creation in so many great ways that I can’t tear it away from Eve completely. Eve covered herself when she realised she was naked, when she felt the shame related to the Fall and her sin. I wanted to experiment with what fashion across the world might look like without the shame-induced cover-up of the female body. I tried to look at shape and style of the clothing and take parts from it that could be beautiful in themselves, as expression of colour and style. This was obviously difficult but I came up with a series of 18 pictures inspired by photography in a collection gathered by National Geographic. Below you shall find my examples and a little explanation of why they were portrayed in the way they are.

The colours, the beads and the design done the front of this woman stuck out to me. It seemed unusually natural, and despite a modern design reminded me of similar historic tribal styles.

There was the temptation to get rid of any piece of fabric or clothing that covered up the woman’s body. This is a temptation I fought off because actually just because a dress covers a woman up doesn’t mean that it does that due to the shame of areas covered. For example, a floor-length ballgown isn’t created because of the need to cover ones ankles. I decided to include this wrap because it was a beautiful example of the colours and style of South African women, it uses the tones of the earth and natural surroundings of S. Africa.

Although somewhat reminiscent of a show girl, these items were taken from a dancer, wearing red and gold, popular symbolic colours within the culture. To me she seemed a kind of priestess in worship, crowned with feathers.

This white flamboyant piece is reminiscent of the dramatic culture that surrounds this area. I did not want to include a mask, to hide her identity, so instead transformed this into a robe of sorts, with new symbolism but holding onto the older creativity.

This piece was taken from a photograph where a woman held a photograph of herself 17years early. She is wearing a full face-covering and yet her younger self has these eyes taking in everything, and showing part of herself. The fabric complimented this look beautifully.

The colours were significant in the designs of the clothing a group of girls were wearing. In bright, sunny colours, there wasn’t an aim to stick out but seemed simple and beautiful. This was another example of how clothing doesn’t have to be about covering up, even when it seems that way.

These baggy, expansive trousers were a great addition because to me they represent the fun and frivolity that can come through fashion. Yet there is definitely room to see this with the connotations of mother with the culture of hips being a symbol for fertility. Of course this is part of womanhood, but it should be carefully made so as woman is not ONLY mother.

This was taken from what looked like a plainly dressed girl, but the white shone in the sunlight and the shape around her arms made her seem stronger.

This was an interesting image for me because it reminded me how subjective body image is. There are cultures where women are topless as much as men and not due to sexual reasons. When a woman is reminded that her breasts have a functional purpose, it can take away some of the shame felt my the leering over them.

This was a difficult one for me to work with as the woman in the image was wearing a Burkha-like covering. Trying to work out how to see this fabric in another way was very difficult, and it seemed to become this cape, a symbol of heroism. Without shame maybe this is what women can become?

Despite this style of fabric was on little girls in long white dresses, the cross across the chest reminded me strongly of a warriors chest-piece. These simple connotations are often the strongest in simple pieces of textile work.

This was actually inspired by a baby photograph but it reminded me not to forget the more modern fashion design. These dungarees reminded me of the breadth of fashion – practicality, style, fun.

Inspired by a Zulu dancer I loved how the detail of beads moved with her, not restrictive, but vibrant and colourful.

This geisha-style fabric is very common in certain parts of Japanese culture, and yet geisha have such a contradictory feel. On the one hand they are very much seen as sexual objects. But on the other hand, they are seen as elegant, precious, and beautiful..

Taken from an old photograph of a sheer head scarf I loved the beauty of the lace and detail, and the softness of her face through it. Although it could be seen as a covering, this “veil” did not seem to distance her from the viewer.

Again this solid connection with the surrounding nature is clear. Simple function designs are created and yet have huge significance in the culture of the people.

This grass skirt is possibly one of the most well-known cultural fashion styles in the world, but it reminded me of the nature we came from. This is so strongly connected, so beautiful and simple, that it had to be included in this study.

Headscarves, hats, and bonnets are often a large part of cultural styles. This was one of those where artistry and skill of embroidery, lace and layers of fabric were shown in a headdress.

As you can see there is a huge variety, and there is so much more in the world’s diversity. This idea may take a great deal of thought and work in order to gain a balance between the image of Eve and her “fashion sense” as I don’t want the power of her alone to be over-powered. I will be looking at styles of art work in which to show power and personality (possibly including that of graphic novels) as well as the symbolism of clothing within Biblical books, particularly early pieces and those of revelation. If you have any thoughts or feedback I would love to hear it!

~*~

Through The Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs, (National Geographic Society, Washington DC, USA, 2003).

Career vs. Motherhood: Politics of Guilt

Women as a whole are very good at judging other women and using guilt to tell each-other that we’re not doing woman-hood properly. I’ve seen it massively in feminism and wedding prep, and it is often in the church too, and it’s sad that it is likely this that is starting to give the basic feminist ideals a bad name. I was told that if I changed my name I wouldn’t be a feminist because I was agreeing with the patriarchy  I was told that by not taking my husband’s name I was not being the Godly woman of Christianity I am meant to live up to. I was told that if I fell in love with a man I wasn’t really a feminist. I got so annoyed at the judgements upon my wedding plans, marriage ideals, and feminazism that I started to feel guilty about every decision I could possibly make. This guilt-inducing judgement is the worst way of forwarding the equality women have been asking for, and it is very rarely men who get involved. If women can’t support each other in their diverse decisions, how can we expect the politics of the world to change.

I saw this again this morning when the BBC Breakfast show held a debate about the guilt felt by working mothers leaving their children. Stupidly this was brought about by a comment made by Tony Blair, neither a mother or a woman, saying that in hindsight he struggles with guilt at leaving his children and that his wife often guarded him from seeing/feeling it during his time in Downing Street.

How did a comment made my Tony Blair spark off a debate about working mums? I’m guessing because no-one would dare complain about a dad leaving to go to work each morning, but it is still very much seen as a woman’s job to stay home with the kids. Once you add in Cherie Blair and her condemnation of mother who do not go out to work, in her opinion not giving their kids the best example of woman in work. Both these attitudes anger me greatly, the generalisations are awful, and both viewpoints basically claim “if you are a woman and not doing it this way, you’re wrong, should be ashamed of yourself, and you are damaging your children”.

I’m going to throw my hat in the ring, but I want to make it very, very clear. I am not a mother, but I would love to be. I am trying to be a working woman, and hope to continue in academia and the art world for as long as I can. I am also a child of my mother, a GP who was the first female partner in her surgery, and did leave every morning. I’m going to try to be honest about everything and see what you think at the end.

Mother’s can make up their own mind. Leave them to it.

I know incredible example’s of mothers, working mother’s and just working women. They made their choices and it was their right to do so. Every mother considers what she will need to do to be a great mother, and whether that will include work or not. It was unbelievably arrogant and short-sighted of Mrs Blair to claim that she had the right way and that others were creating dependant children. She didn’t mention the fact that as a barrister she could be earning in the range of £225,000 – £750,000 (nevermind the £163k probably earned by Tony Blair, not including the millions he’s received since his resignation); she also had a nanny. I’d suggest that very few families are able to pay a full-time nanny to look after their four children, nor £225k between both parents, nevermind just the mother. To suggest that the way she has decided to be a mother and working-woman is possible for everyone is ridiculous. The average salary across the UK according to reed.com is around £30k. That’s not a bad wage bracket but when you’re supporting multiple children, adding in rising fuel costs, food costs, and taxes, it gets difficult. How dare anyone criticise another mother who is trying to do the best for her family.

My Dad was the “Housewife”. He did fine.

When I was growing up, my Dad was a medical photographer and a very good one. He also did art shots and had a huge amount of passion for biology and photography combined. He supported my mother in her career from the moment he met her and it was never a suggestion that she should give it up in order to settle down with kids. When I was young I was in the hospital nursery for a while but it soon became clear that my Dad’s wage barely covered the childcare costs. He took the hard decision to stop work and instead become a full-time father. He was judged for it, but he made the most of it: he became the life of the party that was the group of mums outside the schools as he picked up my siblings and I, he became involved in the school government and was passionate about education, particularly supporting assistant teachers and those involved in special needs education. He was involved in every school fayre, working hard to give everyone a good time, and on a number of occasions was even Santa (not that we were allowed to tell our friends this). He did the best he could, but it also took its toll on him. I do feel he lost a lot of confidence in his work abilities during that time as medical photography moved on without him. I do think that men have a hard job of keeping their self-worth intact when they are in this situation because for years work has been what they do, who they are, and it’s been their responsibility to provide for the family. My dad was a great dad, and carer to my Nanna when she was ill, but I think he found it difficult. I don’t ever think he’d blame us or my mum for this, he wouldn’t even think it, but I have a huge amount of respect for the sacrifices he made.

My mum was a wonderful mother, and a wonderful doctor. You only have to look at the regular gifts of fresh eggs, flowers, cards, chocolates, and much more, to see how much her patients appreciate her. She supports her colleagues as best she can and also trains new registrars. She is great at all of this and often doesn’t get the credit she deserves. On the other hand she was away from home a lot. I do remember having nightmares about her walking away, being blocked by crowds, and me running and screaming for her to come back. I knew from a very young age that she didn’t want to leave us. That wasn’t the point. She wasn’t trying to escape, and she loved us very much, but that didn’t stop the nightmares. Every morning I would run and hug her as I tried to stop her leaving. Every evening it was me, my siblings and the barks of the dog that greeted her in a flurry of questions, and hugs, and noise. That can’t have been easy. I don’t blame her, or resent her, for the choices she made. Every decision was considered, discussed and rooted in the best intentions. My brother, sister and myself turned out fine.

Honestly, I think this gave me a broad understanding of the debate. Mum deserved to be the best she could be and has become an incredible doctor. But I missed my mum. I had nightmares. My dad did a great job but I think took an emotional blow for us. Does this mean that I think mother’s should stay home? Or that men should all go out to work? No.

Generalisations do not help anyone.

There are two women who come to mind when I think of the two ideas about being a mother. I am going to avoid names because I don’t want to embarrass them and if I say something they don’t like I would hate to hurt them.

The first is a woman I have long admired for her ambition, her creativity, her ability to draw people together around a project, and her determination to see things through. She assists so many people in so many areas, she runs businesses and charities and she’s not much older than myself. I feel tiny in comparison to this incredible woman on innovation and energy. She is married and now has a young child. She has managed to keep both work and her family as her priorities in life, and takes each challenge as they come. If she is working, the likelihood is that her little one isn’t far away. She supports other mothers, and is a great mum. She adores her child and there is no doubt in my mind that this woman would do anything for them. She work hard, and her life is obviously crazy busy sometimes as she juggles parts of her life.

The second woman has two children, and is a stay at home mum, and she is incredible. She is warm and hospitable. She supports a number of people, leads a homegroup with her husband, is wonderfully wise, leads a children’s group for a range of ages and is loved by them all, entertains them, trains others to do the same, and has that motherly quality that means you would love to get a massive hug off her, but you know if you did something wrong she would use that voice and you’d obey instantly. There is no way she just didn’t want to work. She just knew her main priority was her kids and family. She does it incredibly well and so many people appreciate her for it, although she probably doesn’t know it and might not believe it even if we told her.

These two women decided for themselves, and made the best decision they could for themselves and their children. There is no way I could suggest which was better, I don’t think there is a “better”, there is only “trying their best”. Generalizing all women, in all economic situations, with all children, work, education, etc is a stupid idea. Could I say that my first example would be a better mother if she wasn’t working as well? No! Nor would I dare. Her child is one of the happiest I have seen. She is happy. She makes other people happy. Could I say that my second example would be better mother, a better example, if she went out to work? No! Nor would I dare. Her children are beautiful, intelligent examples of humanity and I can’t possibly suggest they could be any better if she had done it differently. Women have got to stop judging the decisions of other women trying to do their best. It doesn’t help anyone and it gives us all this guilt that we might not be doing a good enough job in comparison to someone else. How about building each other up for a change? Feminism suggests that women can choose a career, choose how to live their life, not be pulled down by stereotypical roles for us. Yet we seem to be giving each other more roles to avoid, more choices labelled “wrong”. It is these statements, the bitchiness, the condemnation, the arrogance, that pulls women down.

If the kids are happy, if the mum is doing her best to love them the best she can, if she is also happy with her decisions, what right does anyone else have to judge her life.

Leave her alone.

Embrace the individuality of your life choices.

Stop comparing lives, choices, and self-righteously claiming yourself as the perfect female example. God created us women. Women are full of diversity, potential, and strength, but that doesn’t mean we’re all the same or will all live the same lives. Instead, we have free will and freedom to choose whether we want a career, a family, a mixture of the two, a dog, a collection of cats, a backpack and a series of tickets. We have the freedom to choose and if someone else picks a different path, it doesn’t make yours any less. Embrace the individuality of your life. Do the work you love. Have the family you love. If you feel that you need to choose one or the other, that is your path.

Personally I hope to have a big family. I hope to continue to study and work hard to be the best in my field I can possibly be. Do I freak out over whether it’s even possible? Of course I do. I question it not because I shouldn’t but because I wonder if I am capable of it. I will find out I guess as life happens. Life may be hard but life often is.

I would love to hear your comments, your experiences, but I would ask that you be kind and graceful to all those who disagree with you. I realise this a difficult topic for a number of people and so am nervous about writing it. Please be kind.

 

Adopt A Dragon: Illustrations Become Pets

Sometimes something little in your mind will become something you end up spending a lot of time on. My dragons are like that. They grew in my mind from illustrations, little tadpole-like lizards hanging out at home, curled up in front of the fire, playing with teapots, and they were pretty cute. Obviously baby dragons I thought I would try my hand of giving them a physical presence as part of Ceilidh & Cwtch.

Ready to meet them? Good, here they are!

Belindo

His name is Belindo, he is a Welsh dragon by blood and is only young. He would love a warm place in your home to hide away and cwtch! Belindo, is made from a mixture of fabrics: a beautiful thick floral patterned piece makes up the back and tail of the dragon, a shiny soft red belly and ears, with white felt spikes down his spine. He has beautiful oily black eyes and is approximately 37cm long and 18cm round his belly.
Born 16th April 2013.
Available to adopt from Folksy.

Darcy

Her name is Darcy, and she is a cousin to the well-known Welsh dragons. She is only young and we think has a little bit of dragonfly in her heritage which gives her a beautiful blue nature decorated coat. She would love a window sill in your home to watch the world go by. This particular baby dragon is made from a mixture of fabrics: a cotton floral, butterfly and dragonfly patterned piece makes up the majority of the dragon, and is complimented by a shiny light blue belly and with white felts ears and spikes down her spine. She has beautiful oily black eyes and is approximately 37cm long and 17cm round the belly (although she might not be pleased I told you that!).
Born April 17th 2013
Adopted 20th April 2013 and currently living in York!

Aashi

His name is Aashi, he is cousins with the Welsh dragons, but this young one is far more rooted in the golden suns of India and the blue mirages of the desert. He loves to bathe in the morning light and would brighten up your day with his joyful disposition! This particular baby dragon is made from a mixture of fabrics: a beautiful lace piece makes up the belly of the dragon with a secondary layer of light blue lining, with a shining back and tail of gold. He also has white felt spikes down his spine and little white ears above beautiful oily black eyes and is approximately 39cm long and 19cm round his belly.
Born 23rd April 2013
Available to adopt from Folksy.

Llyr

His name is Llyr, and he’s a special kind of Welsh dragons, from the wild windy coastline and that’s where he’s picked up his deep blue coat. He loves to swim and dive and brings a salty fresh sense of humour to any fun-loving family! This particular baby dragon is made from a mixture of fabrics: a beautiful lace piece over a soft fleece gives him a bright spine like froth on a wave. Little felt spikes and ears are accompanied by his beautiful oily black eyes. His belly is a shining blue and his back a deep midnight blue velvet. He is approximately 39cm long and just over 20cm round his belly (that due to his Whale appetite).
Born 28th April 2013
Available to adopt from Folksy.

Avani & Abzu

Avani‘s from the Eastern family of dragons, and is one of twins with her boisterous brother Abzu. Her earthy tones help her play and hide in the wild exotic gardens in the hot sun before she pounces on her friends. She loves the pretty things in life and always brings a little bohemia wherever she goes! This particular baby dragon is made from a mixture of fabrics: a beautiful patterned piece of cotton gives her a subtly feminine body. Little felt spikes and ears are accompany her big beautiful oily black eyes. Her belly is a smooth brown and a slim 17cm around, whilst being approximately 39cm long.
Abzu is boisterous personality contrasts with his grassy tones earthy tones which allows him to hide from everyone other than his sister. He loves playing and would be a fun cheeky companion for anyone! This particular baby dragon is made from a mixture of fabrics: a beautiful patterned piece of silk gives him a lithe camouflage body. Little felt spikes and ears are accompany his big beautiful oily black eyes. His belly is a shining dirty green and he is the bigger of the twins at 18cm around his belly, whilst being approximately 39cm long.
Both born 27th April 2013.
Available to adopt on Folksy.

Ereboa

Her name is Ereboa, and she is cousins with the Welsh dragons. As a young little dragon she is a little shy and tends to stick to the shady cool breeze of the evening. Named after the dusk she loves to cwtch in blankets by a fire when the light flickers across the scales. This particular baby dragon is made from a mixture of fabrics: a beautiful shining piece of light grey makes up the belly of the dragon while a slate grey covers her body. She has white felt spikes down her spine in a textured purple fabric and little white ears above beautiful oily black eyes. She is approximately 39cm long and 18cm round her belly.
Born 29th April 2013.
Available to adopt on Folksy.