MY FIRST BLOG - An introduction....

My First Blog

I am working on My new website.
https://sites.google.com/site/elwynsweb/
This shows my adventures into Elven dresses. When I make these dresses I think of the culture of the Elves. I want to make a believable Cultural 'costume'. I start with the layer closest to the body and then work out wards. I choose the fabrics that I feel encapsulate Elven aesthetics.

I am always aware of the integrity of my work. This goes for every aspect of my many different activities:

I also Volunteer at an Open Air museum in Singleton. Here I undertake all sorts of domestic tasks of a Tudor or pre-Black Death House wife.
The museum saves and re-erects buildings that would otherwise be lost. The era in which they will be interpreted is chosen and then it is 'clothed' appropriately for that time. We (the interpreters) then inhabit the house to breathe life into history. I am often a Tudor housewife or Yeoman's daughter, through the Summer I can also be a Medieval housewife.
These houses are a window into the past. They present life of the normal man and woman with the emphasis on vernacular life. What is also very important in our interpretation is seasonality. Everything we do is dictated by the season.
I am usually demonstrating spinning within the beautiful setting created by the hard and dedicated work of the museum. I am not a great or even good spinner but I enjoy trying! I also demonstrate fleece preparation.

Another addiction is Natural Dyeing. This started off small. I used (and still do) dye hanks of wool for my own use. This gets used in my period embroideries and various very small scale weaving. I do like to try and dye my own spun wool. Needless to say this addiction then got out of hand to the point that I now dye metres of cloth in the piece. The cloth then gets used to make period clothing that is worn at the open air museum. To supply this addiction I have had to start growing some of the dye plants I use.

The resulting cloth also gets made into Saxon clothing. This gets worn at Saxon Living History displays at various locations around the South of England. I am a member and Living History Co-ordinator for Sveinshavn which is a re enactment group based in the Southampton area of Hampshire. I am very much interested in the low class domestic interpretation of the time.

To help in the 'authenticity' (a word I am not very keen on), I try to grow my own period foodstuffs in my postage stamp of a garden. This produce is then used in the various ways in which it is intended some culinary, medicianal and in other countless ways.


Another very large part of my life is Native American art. I love to make original pieces based on the Plains Indian style. This includes both modern contemporary and historic styled pieces. For this I use Brain tanned buckskins, seed beads, porcupine quills (some of which I dye myself), and many other natural resources. This above all has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

On top of all this I suffer from Depression. This slows me down considerably. But my creative aptitude is sometimes all that carries me through the worst storms my mind can create.