If you were at the WCE and you missed it or you just want photos of the work that was there, including Jen Delyth's amazing and gorgeous egg tempera piece, Lorin Morgan-Richards' book is now out on Amazon -

A Welsh Alphabet Over 30 artistic interpretations of Welsh mythology and legend set to the poetic work of author Lorin Morgan-Richards. Includes a special preface and notes throughout the book by Welsh storyteller Peter Anthony Freeman and artist contributions by Jen Delyth, Monica Richards, Casey Ruic, Frankie Babylon, John Charles, Gina Turcios (rabbit), Phresha Le Vandale, David Richardson, Adrien Burke, Spinestealer, Nicole Josephian, Kelly McCartin, Gaabriel Becket, Nicolas Caesar, Rick Dienzo Blanco, Meiling Chen, Nichola Hope, Chris Mann, Andrea Gutierrez, Calan Ree, Kimberly Wlassak, Sarah Hope, Jo Mazelis, Rochelle Shelly Rosenkild, Michele Witchipoo, Lorin Morgan-Richards, Xavier Lopez Jr., Rhys Jones, Liam O'Connor, Jeremy Cross, and Jason Shepherd.

Get it now!

This year's choir at the North American Festival of Wales in Cleveland, Ohio, from both sides of the Menai Straits, Yns Mon, was Hogia'r Ddwylan . You can see them perform next in the US at St Jerome's Parish Church in Chicago, Illinois. See samples of their performance below:

If you would like to own some of their music, you can purchase their two albums, below:

Today was Day 2 of NAFOW. Lots of wonderful people came to our booth and I, personally, had a swell day of talking to people about books :D which I love.

Today's activities included the beginning of the eisteddfod, with Adult Recitation; a bunch of seminars, including genealogy by Darris Williams (americymru member) and others, the history of Welsh law, Welsh language , Welsh history in Ohio and a lot more . Tonight was the banquet, with entertainment by Megan Morris and Alan and Greta Upshall, which I missed but peeked in for a pic.

Ceri and I made it to Cleveland, Ohio, to go to this year's North American Festival of Wales. We've set up our table in the Welsh Marketplace with David Western's incredible 2011 West Coast Eisteddfod Lovespoon on display and piles of great books from Y Llofa and Cinnamon Press heaped high in front of us and more incredible titles from the University of Wales, via the University of Chicago Press, behind us.

When we got in, we were very happy to find that lovespoon carver Laura Gorun is sitting right across from us. She and David Western collaborated on last year's gorgeous LCE lovespoon but I hadn't ever got to meet her in person and neither had Ceri. Her work is completely incredible, totally different than any other spoon I'd ever seen - very delicate and full of curves and beautiful detail. She laid out dozens of spoons along the table in front of her and then sat down and pulled out her tools and continued working on a new spoon. She said that all her spoons are carved by hand, she never uses power tools, which is amazing when you see the detail on them and how thin she gets some of the elements. You can see some more of her spoons on her site: http://www.blakespa.com/

On our other side is My Grandmother's Teapot , with three tables heaped with gorgeous stuff - all kinds of beautiful pots and cups, quilted covers for tea pots, runners and aprons and napkins and other linens, Glengettie tea from the UK, some Welsh dolls, jewelry and a lot more. I've fallen in love with a beautiful tea set with daffodils on it and the Glengettie tea, which I hadn't ever had before - the ladies at the booth cackled evilly when I said I drank Lipton, called me a Glengettie virgin and said I'd be addicted after my first cup, and they were right, it was really good tea.

The Great Plains Welsh Heritage Project is just down from us and at their table you can get information about getting translations from Y Drych, the more than a hundred year old America-Welsh newspaper which once listed every arrival from Wales and all their births, deaths, marriages and news, as well as copies of "Hanes Cymry America = A History of the Welsh in America (1872)" - I'm still reading this and will do a review but this book is an inventory of Welsh communities in the United States in 1872 and is an original primary source document, absolutely packed with the most amazing historical and genealogical information about Welsh heritage in the US and if you're interested in that (and I am), it's gold.

I also went over to the Infamous Welsh Cookie Company table and they have lots of delicious flavors this year (some of which are also in this year's tea room), including traditional Welsh cakes, chocolate mint, blueberry, pumpkin raisin, lemon sunflower, apricot almond, cranberry orange, chocolate peanut butter and limited supplies of two new flavors they're introducing: spiced apple cranberry and coffee cocoa almond. So far I tried the cranberry orange and it was delicious.

Lots more to look at - the Moch Pryderi table and they're performing as I write, and more and more and more! If you're at NAFOW this year, come say hello to us in the market room!

Ceri's out of town so I get to step in for him - I'll announce our winners below and Ceri will post the scores in a few days.

In first place... Swansea Jack! He wins a Gold Sheep of Excellence!

In second place... Gillian Morgan! A Silver Sheep of Excellence to her!

In third place... Paul Dicken! A Bronze Sheep of Excellence to him!

Bravo to all our winners and thank you for your fabulous blogs!

(I sent this out as a broadcast email but putting up a blog, too)

Reprinted with permission from David Western's blog, all material 2011, David Western --


I've been beavering away on the sections of the Americymru spoon which our prize winning design ideas are to fill. Everything went very well and the front face of the spoon is almost completed! A bit of tweaking and some judicious shaving here-and-there is all that is required now!





I'm more than pleased with the beautiful grain and colourful figure of the birch used for this year's spoon. It is gorgeous stuff!! Like last year's spoon, the carving has gone very well and the wood seems to handle all the various design ideas without getting crumbly or cracking. I think itwill be a lovely spoon when it is done!

I really sweated about carving Laura's Daffodil design...both because we worked together on last year's spoon and I know how elegant and delicate she makes her flowers and because I decided not to fret cut through the design. Usually Laura's flowers have their surroundings cut away sothat they can stand proud without the weight of the background pulling them down. This year I didn't do that, so there was pressure on me to get the flowers nice and light and not have the background become too obtrusive. Hopefully, I've done it right and Laura will be happy with it.... otherwiseit is back to the drawing board for me!!! I positioned the Daffs design at the foot of the dragon's body so as to make a symbolic link with the ground. I also thought the earth makes the right metaphor for growth and that is what our Eisteddfods have been all about over these last 3 years!!

The Harp design came out very well too! The harp seems nice and full and stands out clearly from the background with the text bringing some action to the big space on the right side of the circle. I think this design will certainly illustrate the importance of music both to the Eisteddfodand to the Welsh people. It's location at the Dragon's heart is also critical with the metaphor a simple and fairly obvious one!



The Awen was another design I sweated over a bit. I was tempted to fret cut it out to really make it bold, but in the end I decided to stay with a very simple and elegant low relief carving. Because of its etherial nature, I felt it was ideally suited for the wing area of the dragon as it would have an association with flight and with other-worldliness (is that a word...it is now).



The Dragon's head is nicely set off with this lovely little piece of abalone inlay. (In case I am about to take a hammering from the environmental crowd for using abalone, I cut this particular piece from an old ashtray I found at the Salvation Army Store a few years back. It seemed a shame for something sobeautiful to be used for that purpose, so I have recycled, using it in dozens of spoons over the years.....besides, I don't even eat seafood!!!) The figure of the wood perfectly accentuates both the body and the back scales of our dragon and brings some extra zip to the Celtic knotwork....niiiice!!





So there it is so far! I hope that now you can see it is, indeed, coming along, you will be inspired to donate a few bucks to the Eisteddfod for your chance to win it!! Someone will be taking it home after the Eisteddfod (and no, you don't have to be present to win) so enter now and enter often!!!

Your donation (whether exceedingly generous or very close to the bone) will be used to make our Eisteddfod better and better!! Help hoist the Driag Goch amidst the sea of tartan and shamrocks that is Celtic North America!!!

If you've got a google account, google has unveiled a new recommendation system, Plus One.

To sign up and use plus one to help us tell the world about how awesome Wales is, first sign up for a gmail account at: http://gmail.com

Next, sign up for google plus one at: http://www.google.com/+1/button/

Last, google "americymru" and click the plus one button next to the title of the entry (see graphic below, in which I have helpfully circled it in red):

Use plus one to promote what you think is good, especially Wales and Welshness!