A leek in resin!

In schools throughout Wales, today will be celebrated by special services or concerts and many will hold an Eisteddfod. I consider myself to be Welsh, as do my children. There can be no doubt during the six nations series. If asked for nationality, on forms etc, I declare myself to be British. However, if ever described, while traveling as 'from England', I am very quick to point out that  I LIVE IN WALES, I was born in Wales, and my school education was in Wales. If I had ever shown any sporting tendencies, an amusing thought to those who know me, it is for Wales that I would have been eligible to compete.

Most people in Wales will proudly wear a daffodil today. There is, I believe, a tradition in at least one of the Welsh regiments of the youngest recruit eating an uncooked leek while on parade. My Brownies have daffodils made of felt ( some even have the correct number of petals!), with pipe cleaner stalks and pony bead trumpets. My daughter has hers from her days in Brownies. My son has his leek which he made in his days in cubs. A rolled strip of green felt, fringed at the top, with frayed white fabric at the base and a safety pin on the back. Many of us will be wearing the daffodils of Marie Curie Cancer Care in support of their work. I have recently sold this knitted brooch. The new owner emailed to say she liked it very much and it will be worn today. (I gave a little extra to Marie Curie in case her purchase from me deprived them of a donation).

I have always enjoyed craft work. Scattered through my possessions in various tins of buttons etc, I sometimes come across things I have kept from my childhood efforts. Now up-graded to a special place in a jewellery drawer, not as grand as it sounds - I don't own anything of financial value, is my leek brooch. A roll of white and green paper, made into a leek, by a process I would now describe as quilling, and set in resin ( I think the child's kit was called 'Plasti-craft'), with a safety pin on the back! I seem to remember a very sturdy, ceramic mould, which although highly polished and greased with vaseline, stubbornly refused to give up its treasures. My father ran a village garage, fuel and servicing, and we lived next door. It was, for the most part noisy, smelly and oily but the one main compensation was the compressed air line. How anyone, without such a tool readily to hand, ever managed to remove their Welsh leek brooches from their mould, I can't imagine!

The following items are available from my Folksy shop:

One or two other Welsh items from Folksy: