12 Responses

  1. Anne Lindkey
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    Hia

    I have received your email as I am the Secretary for the Gwynedd Guild WSD, and have shared your details with all our membership of nearly 50 members from Anglesey and Gwynedd. We card, blend, spin, weave, dye, needle felt and wet felt, knit, crochet, etc. We all have passions for different sheep fibre, but also like other animal and plant fibres.

    We take part in the Spin in Public Day in September, we have stalls at the big shows such as the Anglesey Show and the Caernarfon Show as well as many other local show days. We also like doing courses to improve our skills. New members are encouraged to join, and we all help to get them started at spinning or weaving and with the loan of equipment from our small equipment store. When we attend shows we have equipment for the public to have a go at spinning or weaving or wet felting or peg weaving, etc, children love to have a go and that inspires adults too.

    We have a coach going to Wonderwool in April, so will look out for your stalls.

    Anne Lindley Scretary Gwynedd Guild WSD

  2. Debby
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    Hi Anne
    Lovely to hear from you. That’s a good variety of crafts with wool and I’m sure we all enjoy working with other fibres too. I enjoy spinning with Shetland wool of many natural colours as well as dyed, which I blend with silk for a change in texture and appearance. It makes interesting projects whether a shawl or gloves.
    If you have a Facebook page feel free to look us up and pop some photos up:
    ‘British Coloured Sheep Association’
    Don’t be put off by it being a closed group, just ask to join and they will let you in, honestly…
    Hopefully we will see you in Wonderwool in April.
    Best wishes
    Debby
    (BCSBA Website Manager)
    : )

  3. Lorry Turpin
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    Hallo Anne,
    I live just to the south in Oswestry though I have a special friend living in Denbigh, who has Icelandics so am often visiting your neck of the woods!
    I won’t be manning the stand at Wonderwool this year though hope you enjoy your visit ; but if any of your members would like to join in, our members have great success selling fleece as well as the woolly items – this is a huge benefit… as individually the cost of a stand and the necessary insurance is covered by the Association and in this day and age the 15% commission is very reasonable the Lake Vyrnwy group charges 30%.
    I am sure Debby has posted all the other advantages of linking up with us, which includes being able to communicate so easily with each other!
    Best wishes , Lorry

  4. JaneDobson
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    Hi Anne,

    Welcome. Lovely to hear about your guild and the lovely crafts you all do.
    Regards
    Jane (Newsletter Editor)

  5. Mary Hicks
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    Dear Lorry
    Many thanks for your mail and introduction to BCSBA. I’ll forward your mail to our members and make the Directory available to them all as a very useful source of information.
    Kind regards.
    Mary
    West Essex & East Herts Guild

  6. Debby
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    A warm welcome to you Mary! We look forward to hearing further from your guild about your latest projects and news.
    Thanks
    Debby
    (BCSBA Website Manager)

  7. Lorry Turpin
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    Hallo Mary!
    Seeing your location and knowing Northants Guild have been one of our joint status Members for many years so they are enthusiastic supporters, helping man our Stand at Fibre East, perhaps this might be something your Members would be interested in too.
    I am wondering with the talk of video and diary making the various Guilds would send in an odd video even of the monthly meetings!
    This is certainly making my little grey cells work overtime with excitement!
    So welcome !!
    Lorry

  8. Sara Clayton
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    Hi Debby
    thanks for the directory – so often we are asked where do you get your fleece from? Where can I get a …… fleece from.
    I’m editor of the Hallamshire guild newsletter, May I publish the link to the directory to all our members, or do you want access only via secretaries?
    Personally I adore coloured fleece – keep breeding them please!
    Sara

  9. Debby
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    Hello Sara and Welcome!
    Yes, the Directory is very useful as a good source of fleeces and much more. You will see that I emailed a reply earlier, as I was having net issues. However, now I can greet you here too. I look forward to hearing what your group have been doing lately on the Facebook page too. Feel free to include photos.
    Best Wishes
    Debby

  10. BCSBA-Lorry
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    Hallo Sara,
    I was introduced to the BCSBA many years ago by my friend Beryl Hardie of the Wealden Guild and we had several adventures making trips to go in search of beautiful fleeces. Although Chair for the Association I am only a ‘craftworker’ as despite the name we are a good mix of people all supporting Coloured Sheep in our own way. Please do tell your members we now have our Directory online but we are an association of people, who do love coloured sheep and the high quality coloured wool …. so not just a source of the fleece but an association we hope more people will join to promote our wonderful Woolly Wonders!
    Fun n Adventures at the Shows or even visiting our members!
    Cheers! Lorry

  11. Carey Godwin
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    From Crickhowell WSD Guild. Your message has been forwarded to our members and we will also be talking about the email at a meeting in the near future. Thank you for approaching us and we hope that some of the members will become members.

  12. BCSBA-Lorry
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    Hallo Carey!
    Hopefully there was some interest from your members … and just to say our Show secretary has confirmed our Stand at Wonderwool and that we have been accepted by Woolfest..
    Also I gather from Debby our web provider has done some work to improve the speed of the response on our website!
    So advertising and ‘chatter’ faster!!??
    Regards and thank you for replying!
    Lorry