November meeting - a hands on experience.

Margaret under the tutelage of Alun Evans

It is not often that our meetings are noisy. Indeed speakers are usually given the best of order, however since Mr Alun Evans of Blaendulais had lost his short address in any case, it was a matter of looking and learning since the members were treated to a master class in ancient carving and masonry techniques by Mr Evans and his able assistants including his wife.

A selection of tools and the church hall floor

Mr Evans is a qualified Master Craftsman and tutor and indeed was a finalist in the Welsh Artist of the Year competition in 2005. His day work includes working with people with learning disabilities in both one to one and group situations. His belief is that using the tools to carve, hone, chisel and smooth have a therapeutic and indeed spiritually uplifting effect on practitioners. This was certainly true of the members who quite happily used adzes, chisels and various wood carving tools for well over an hour. The scene in itself was timeless and explained graphically how many of our grand buildings and statues came into being.

Carvings from the Mabinogion

Another notable feature of a very enjoyable evening was the exh

ibition of stone carvings from the Mabinogion with Branwen and Blodeugedd featuring among others.

Mr David Woosnam is shown how to carve a stone block

Normally, the evening concludes with a cup of tea and a biscuit but this time the added dimension was sweeping up the splinters of wood and stone dust which were the result of the evening's activities - nobody tell the vicar !!!

Many thanks once more to Gwyn for the photographs of the night.