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Bryn Seion Church celebrated its 125th anniversary this last Sunday in Beavercreek, Oregon. A church service was held at 11:00AM, the first sing of the annual Gymanfa Ganu at 1:45PM, followed by an afternoon tea and the evening sing at 6:00PM.
From the Gymanfa program:
"Musical guests in alphabetical order:
"Rhiannon Acree was born and raised in Dolgellau, North Wales, to a distinguished musical family. She now lives in Long Beach, CA where she has a home-health care company. She has conducted many Gymanfaoedd including the National North American Gymanfa Ganu in San Jose in 2001. This is her third time directing Bryn Seion's Gymanfa.
"Reverend John O. Hasenjaeger, co-pastor of Bryn Seion church is a minister of the Presbyterian church USA and has been preaching [at Bryn Seion] regularly for just a year. John teaches philosophy and religion in Mt Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon and is an active volunteer with the music program there; he also assists in the ministry of several congregations in the area.
" Bronn and Katherine Journey are from Sultan, WA. Bronn's grandfather directed Bryn Seion's first Gymanfa Ganu in 1936. Bronn has performed for many Welsh functions in the northwest. Katherine is from Calgary, AB and has a Master's Degree in vocal performance. Her parents moved to Calgary from the "old country" of the Netherlands shortly after the close of WWII. Bronn and Katherine recently returned from a 13,000 mile US concert tour to the east coast, presenting programs for community concerts.
"Peter Kramer is a music student at MHCC, emphasizing composition, also studying piano and violin, and singing tenor in the MHCC chamber choir and playing violin in the orchestra.
"Quinland Porter is retired from Lewis and Clark college where she taught English and Humanities. She has been participating in Bryn Seion's Gymanfaoedd since 1952, and has sung locally with the Symphonic Choir, Portland Camerata, Portland Revels, St Steven's Cathedral Choir and Ascension Chapel.
"Owen Hofmann-Smith, cellist, has played with several regional symphonies and jazz combos including the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Mount Hood Community College and Mount Hood Symphony.
"Teresa Vosse is currently organist at Glenfair Evangelical Church, Portland, accompanist the classical choirs at [Mount Hood Community College], and plays violin in the MHCC orchestra. Teresa is retired from a career as a music educator, specializing in the classical strings."
Betty Pierce corralled as many of the children as she could to sing "Calon Ln" to a packed house during the morning sing, and joined them. The church building was completely full and the audience spilled out onto the lawn on both sides.
The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod will this year be taking centre stage in Washington D.C as one of the 160 organizations, musicians, poets, scholars, artists and craftsmen representing Wales as the Guest Nation at the two week long Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington D.C. 24 June 5 July.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival , which takes place every year and attracts over one million visitors from the USA and overseas, will welcome Wales as the featured Nation providing visitors with a unique opportunity to learn about Welsh culture. As representatives of Wales festivals, Llangollen will be an integral part of the Wales and the World Pavilion where they will be telling the unique story of Llangollen and the Welsh Eisteddfodic tradition on which it is based./p>
The International Eisteddfods presence in Washington will highlight the parallels between both events as the International Eisteddfods Executive Director, Mervyn Cousins explains, It is a great privilege to be part of such a major world festival with similar aims as ours. In the same way as the Llangollen Eisteddfod aims to promote world peace through music and dance, the Smithsonian Festival aims to do this by showcasing the best the Guest Nation has to offer to the rest of the world and we are very proud to be here representing Wales festivals. Llangollen is where Wales and the World meet and therefore this is an ideal opportunity for us to take Llangollen to the world!
During the two-week festival, that takes place between 24 28 June and 1 5 July senior Llangollen personnel will lead various presentations. The talks will range in their themes from how the Eisteddfod came into existence 63 years ago, through to the Festivals commitment to sustainable development and the environment, to how a small town in North Wales was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize!
Betty Belanus, Curator of the Wales Smithsonian Cymru program expressed her enthusiasm for the collaboration: "Having visited the Llangollen area during my extended research stay in Wales in 2007, I was very impressed with the beauty of the area as well as the obvious positive impact the International Eisteddfod has had on the town and environs. The idea of an International Eisteddfod illustrates the warm welcome that I have always felt in Wales. Although I have never had the pleasure of attending the event, its vision of promoting peace through mutual cooperation is much like that of our own Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We look forward to hosting the representatives of the International Eisteddfod who will be participating in the Festival, and we hope that visitors will be inspired by the global reach of Wales through finding out about events such as the International Eisteddfod. I believe that the depth of pride and determination of the Welsh people will shine in our event, through one on one interaction with the participants from all around Wales, including Llangollen.
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival has collaborated with the Welsh Assembly Government to select the best that Wales has to offer. First Minister, Rhodri Morgan said: "No longer will Wales be Europes best kept secret. The Smithsonian is one of the worlds biggest cultural festival events and we have a unique opportunity to raise our profile in Washington and right across North America. Visitors to the festival will be able to learn more about our traditional and contemporary cultures and we hope that inspires them to visit, study or invest here."
David Western will be appearing, speaking on the lovespoon carving tradition and showing his work, including the Left Coast Eisteddfod lovespoon - which David will award at the event - at the Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland, Oregon on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22, 2009. Get your tickets now.
As I've been compiling this little blog following the twists and turns of carving a lovespoon for the Left Coast Eisteddfod, I've received a number of emails from fellow carvers, lovespoon enthusiasts and a few people who are 'just interested' wanting to know how I got into this and what my inspirations are.
I can tell you that I basically fell into lovespoon carving. Although I have been aware of what they are since childhood, and have tinkered with carving them since my teens, the really serious obsession (or as I prefer to call it, professional interest) with lovespoons is about 10 years old now.
My main inspirations were, and still are, the lovely antique spoons housed at the National History Museum of Wales at St Fagans (near Cardiff). I always make time for a day or two at the museum studying these little gems of fervent workmanship whenever I am in Wales. A finer introduction into the craft cannot be found anywhere else (except maybe in my book The Fine Art of Lovespoon Carving - how's THAT for a shameless plug??). I encourage anyone keen on lovespoons who plans on visiting Wales to make time for this marvelous museum. Even if you could care less about lovespoons, the outdoor museum is chock-a-block with tremendous things to see. But if I were to single out one spoon which above all others has been my greatest source of inspiration and as acted as a beacon guiding me to strive to constantly improve both my carving and my design it would be this one.
For me, this spoon epitomizes all that is great about the lovespoon. Masterfully and elegantly carved, the spoon appears deceptively simple, yet every feature is flawlessly carved and the represents the very highest level of craftsmanship. If you want a spoon that 'has it all'...this is the one. Whoever the unknown craftsman was who made this brilliant offering, I sincerely hope that he won the heart of his intended and lead a long, happy and productive life! He deserves it!
After that masterwork, this little spoon may seem like the 'ugly duckling', but what I love and find so inspiring about this spoon is the passion which seems to almost emanate from its fibres! Lofty talk, I know, but despite its rather rudamentary craftsmanship and design, this spoon has tremendous emotion. Made with the simplest of tools by someone in the deepest thrawl of love, the bowl is exquisitely formed, showing an amateur carver giving it his very best effort . For 'feeling', this spoon has always rated as one of the most inspirational for me!
The last example from the St Fagan's collection is this completely over-the-top example of woodcarving virtuosity. A riot of chainwork, balls in cages, swivels and a fiendishly difficult diagonal chain pattern, this spoon was carved by a very, very serious professional. It would have taken months and months of patient and extremely nerve-wracking carving to create this magnum opus! Whenever I think I am getting fairly good at carving, I study this spoon and realize just how far I have yet to go!
But it isn't just ancient history which inspires. Recently, I had the very good fortune to meet carver Alun Davies of Wales, whom I believe carves the most technically perfect lovespoons I have ever seen. Alun's mastery of woodcarving is so complete that his spoons are almost unbelievable in their perfection. No single aspect of them is any less than stunning. In fact, the first time I laid eyes on them, I felt like I really needed to get some carving lessons and to practice a LOT more!! Alun's spoons aren't just technically staggering though, they have a soft and elegant charm which is really the root of lovespoon carving...they have feeling!!! It was Alun who told me something which has become my lovespoon carving mantra... "A lovespoon is not a lovespoon unless it is carved with love; love for the wood, love for the tradition and love for the person who will receive it." Hang that above the workbench and you have all the inspiration you'll ever need!!
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My last lovespoon inspiration has probably had the most profound influence on in my lovespoon carving as he has shown me that the possibilities for the tradition are vast, varied and exciting. Mike Davies is probably the most well known of all the Welsh lovespoon carvers and for many years has been a one-man promotion for this venerable tradition. Thousands of people around the world proudly display Mike's work on their walls and for good reason....Mike was one of the first to really realize the design possibilities for the lovespoon outside the 'antique traditional'. With dramatic Celtic designs, dramatic modern pieces and delicate foliage inspired spoons, Mike's work is always adventurous. Realizing that there were so many unexplored avenues available to the lovespoon carver was probably the greatest inspiration for me and I will always be grateful to Mike for so vividly pointing that out!
I have enjoyed great generousity, cameraderie and inspiration from many lovespoon carvers over the years and I know that like everything else, the more influences, techniques and ideas are brought to a subject, the better it gets. Hopefully, one day I will be an inspiration to a beginning carver or my designs will spark inspiration for someone to take the craft another step further and that will be a very happy day for me.
Reprinted with permission from David Western's blog , all material 2009, David Western --
This week I'm doing the back side of the dragon's wing. Because this particular design is kind of a 2 1/2 Dimension carving, I want to make sure that I don't just repeat the front pattern as there is a wing passing over the other. As with all the other sections of the spoon, I do a quick bit of pencilling to make sure everything is where it should be...THEN I commit to the knives.
Here I cut down a section to separate the back wing from the front wing. Visually, the back one should overlap the little visible section of the front wing just as the reverse has happened on the front of the spoon. Confusing? It can get that way if you don't sketch things out! As I'm only working to 2.5D and not a full on 3D, I will keep the wings as opposite faces of the spoon, rather than trying to separate them completely. If the spoon were a bit thicker and I wasn't concerned about it getting too delicate, I would be inclined to do separated wings. Doing that would leave me with very thin wings which would be extremely susceptible to breakage...probably not a good thing for a dragon who is going to brave the hurly burly of an Eisteddfod evening!
With the facets of the wing marked out and the front portion clearly deliniated, I can start getting set to shape each section of the wing.
I have started to clear out material to create each fold of the wing. I use the bent knife to do the bull work and then smooth things out with a straight knife or with a bent knife with a shallow curve. I like to leave the surface a bit textured as it makes the wing look a bit more lively and a bit less processed than dead smooth faces. I generally cut from the bottom fold and move up to the top of the wing. That way, if I have a knife slip and take a bit off the fold in front, it isn't as calamitous a situation as it is to whack a finished section!
And thar she be. This is far as I will take the wing for the time being. After the spoon is pretty well completed, I'll come back over any rough areas and tidy things up for the final inspection, but this is pretty good for the moment.
These two pictures show the effect I am after with the wings passing over each other. A bit more exciting than 2D but not as dangerous as 3D! But don't despair if you are like a car racing fan who has come to see the pile-ups....I may have got this far unscathed, but there are plenty of opportunities for disaster still to come! It's what makes lovespoon carving the thrilling pastime it is!!
