Well we’re now in lockdown due to the coronavirus so we’ve had to cancel all our face to face sessions.

But that won’t stop us making art and getting together virtually!

We’ve set up weekly Zoom sessions for all our members and anyone else who wants to join in. In fact we have people from Yorkshire and Conwy and may even have our first international participant from South Africa this week. It’s a chance to see other people while chatting and being creative.

We are on our fourth session which will be run by Amanda, our voluntary co-ordinator, in creative writing. Last week we had a pencil drawing workshop by our member Julia, which was good fun.

The week before that it was me, Sue, Celf-Able chair, showing how to make a book from one sheet of paper and two bits of card. The task was then to try and fill it for the following week.

Some of us even made little pockets for pretty little things.

Our very first session was a general chat and trying to get to grips with the technology. We are getting there but the rural internet is not as good as it could be!!

Do go to our Facebook page and click on the link which will take you to the next session. We are running every Wednesday at 11am onwards. I hope to see you there.

Well, Celf-Able have been busy again. Despite the dreadful flooding we have only had to cancel one meeting. Unfortunately we couldn’t get to Machynlleth due to flooding and a land slip.

We also held another very successful ‘Upcycling’ workshop at the Insitute in Llanfair on Saturday 29th Feruary a range of things were up cycled, some provided by us and some items brought by individual participants, involving mosaics, decoupage, glass painting and upholstery!

We have also started a great new relationship with the Enterprise Hub in Newtown and will now be holding our art sessions at the Pryce Jones Building on the third floor sharing their excellent space. There is a lift and it’s very handy for the station too. We start there on Wednesday 25th March and look forward to seeing our members there and also welcoming new members.

We have upcoming excitement when we produce ‘zines with artist , Nicky Arscott. You may ask what ‘zines are – we did! They are hand made magazines using collage, paintings and text either written or printed and stuck in. We gained funding for this from Age Cymru as part of the Gwanwyn Festival and will be thinking about how ageing has affected or will affect us. The project starts in April and will run through to June.

But that’s not all we have two other exciting events in April.

Firstly, we will be holding a fundraiser in Welshpool at the Corn Exchange on Saturday 25th April 11-3. We would love to see you there. We will be holding a raffle, there will be art work for sale along with some of our upcycled products. There will also be a ‘Have-a-go’ table were you can pay to paint your own mug or tile or decorate a bag for life.

There will also be books, bric-a-brac, hand made jewellery and handmade cards for sale along with a refreshments stall. Please come and support us.

Our second event is a visit to Tate modern in Liverpool on 28th April. The National Lottery have given us a grant which will enable us to visit the gallery and take inspiration from the artworks there in order to produce our own pieces for an exhibition.

Talking of exhibitions we have an exhibition on the theme ‘Art Ability ‘ which will be showing at Celf O Gwmpas in Llandrindod Wells in April it will then move to Newtown library the following month. Speaking of library exhibitions we currently have work on display in Llanfair Caereinion Library. We hope you get a chance to see them.

Well we certainly had an exciting year. We gained a great new patron, Andrew Logan and a new logo.

We also had some exciting activities throughout the year.

We had a name our dragon mascot competition with Billy being the winner.

We also held a great dragon fundraiser at Oriel Davies in Newtown. The venue was given to us by Oriel Davies and refreshment by Newtown Tesco and Morrison’s.

In terms of other fundraising we have had stalls at the Llanfair Carnival, Llanfair Show, Newtown Food Festival and Llanfair Lights. We hope to do the same again in 2020 so it’s a great opportunity to come and meet us.

We had a grant from Tirgwynt wind farms which we used on 4 workshops in Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinion making mandalas, collages, jewellery and copper pictures which were very successful.

We must also thank community foundation wales who have once again supported us with funds for room hire travel and materials and Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn town council for a grant towards materials.

We also held 2 ‘have-a-go’ sessions, run by some of our members, which were great fun, one on up cycling and one on creative writing. They were so successful we are holding another up cycling session in the institute in Llanfair on Saturday 29th February 2020 11 till 3. It would be lovely to see some as many people there as possible, all materials provided for £10 for members £15 non-members.

We have increased our membership to over 50 and it’s only £10 per year which gives cheaper regular sessions,only £3 instead of £5, again all materials and tea/coffee provided.

We are hoping 2020 will be as exciting as we have had a grant from the People’s Post Code Lottery for travel and materials and the National Lottery Community Fund who have given us a grant for a visit to Tate Modern in Liverpool which we hope will inspire our art!

We have also had a grant from Age Cymru, Gwanwyn festival for a series of 5 workshops in each of our locations to produce ”zines’ on the topic of ageing in April, May & June 2020.

We’ll also be holding a fundraiser in Welshpool on 25th April 2020 so come and support us if you can.

Check out our calendar and events page for all our dates. Hoping to see you at one of our groups soon.

Sue Chair Celf-Able

Celf-Able would like to thank Tirgwynt Community Foundation for the grant which enabled members of Celf -Able to produce some lovely mandalas on old 78’s under the expert guidance of mosaic artist Terri Sweeney.

The workshop took place at the Ann Holloway Day Care Centre in Welshpool.

It was interesting that from the same materials so many different designs came out.

Next month we’re there again making collage pictures again with the very talented Terri.

Our first member to be brave enough to share her story is Pamela Clare-Joyce also known as Kelsang Khonchog.

Forty years ago Pamela left a highly toxic marriage and began wandering the country moving from rotten job to rotten job but was much happier if unsettled.

Then hearing a talk on Transendental Meditation her life changed and within weeks she had moved into the community.

Some years later she began to find Buddhism more satisfying and moved to the Lake District where she lived in a Buddhist Centre and took ordination. It was here that she was given her Tibetan name Kelsang Khonchog. The meaning of this name being Fortunate Supreme Jewel and Pamela has now taken this as her artists name.

She then moved to Wales where more opportunities came her way. A friend twisted her arm to take an art course. She recalls thinking

‘Me an artist? Get away! Miss primary school mud puddle?!’

But join the course she did an gives credit and thanks to Oriel Davies Gallery in Newtown for

‘Transforming this gallery hopping art lover who always claimed she was rubbish at art into an artist.’

The course encouraged free experimentation which was fun. This sent Pamela’s mind into overdrive. In no time she was exhibiting regularly and as she says ‘even selling a few!’

Here are some examples of her work

We have been so lucky with our call out for postcards for our fundraiser at Oriel Davies on 20th July (1-3;30). They just keep coming.

We had 3 lovely drawings from local Artist Tim Edmunds and a beautiful pastel from Kristoffer Richard Jude. Just thought you might like a sneak peak before they get sealed in their envelopes!

Remember each sealed envelope only costs £5 and you will be the owner of an original artwork. You may even get an Andrew Logan for £5 or perhaps one of these beauties.

Celf-Able will be having a stall at the Llanfair Caereinion carnival on Saturday 15th June 2019. We will have bric a brac, toys, books, jigsaws and jewellery for sale. We will also have our ‘lucky square’ raffle tickets for sale. the tickets are only £5 and you could be lucky enough to own an original or signed print by local artists, Ceridwen Powell, Brian Jones, David Bannister, Linda Jane James, Ann Jeeves and the Rayven Studio to name but a few. Here are some examples;

Linda Jane James

Brian Jones

David Bannister

one of which could be yours if you’re lucky when we make the draw at our second fundraiser at Oriel Davies gallery in Newtown on Saturday 20th July from 1 til 3:30.

Also at oriel Davies we will be holding a ‘secret post card’ raffle. each post card drawn cost £5 and will contain a piece of art work. We have a post card from the internationally renowned artist Andrew Logan who is based in Berriew.

Other examples are as ;

A lovely water colour by Celf-Able member Gay Saddler

A beautiful pastel squirrel by Celf-Able member Julia Graham

A collage by Ceridwen Powell

A cute cartoon by Celf-Able member Marilyn Phillips Aka TKO

A pastel by Celf -Able artist Bev Jones

A lovely pencil and pastel study by Celf-Able member Pamela Clare Joyce

A lovely little portrait by Stefan Jones-Hughes of Oriel Davies in Newtown he has also donated a hand drawn picture book for the lucky square raffle

Two lovely prints by Celf-Able member Ann Conway

A lovely collage of Sorrento by Celf-Able member Cath Thomas

A dragon by Sue Patch Chair of Celf-Able in support of our new logo which will be introduced officially at Oriel Davies on July 20th

A lovely bird by one of Celf-Ables new members Roger Thacker

A picture of a lovely mosaic elephant made by Terri Sweeney a local artist

A lovely abstract by Local artist David Bannister entitled ‘Once upon a time”

Wee really hope you’ll be able to join us at both our fund raisers and get yourself a piece of original art work.

We are delighted to say that the well known artist Andrew Logan has agreed to be a patron for Celf Able Ltd.

Members of Celf-Able spent a lovely afternoon with Andrew looking around his wonderful museum of sculpture in Berriew, near Welshpool. It was a really inspirational place as was Andrew- we can’t wait to have a go at similar things.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Well this is the first blog I’ve written for Celf-Able. My name is Sue Patch and I’m one of the directors of the company.

We have been going as a disabled volunteer led not for profit art organisation since 2016.

During this time our membership has been steadily growing. We run workshops for anyone of any age or ability wanting to take part in an art session. Our venues are in Newtown, Welshpool, Llanfair Caereinion, Machynlleth and Caersws. Check out our website for dates times and venue addresses. We charge an annual membership of £10 and sessions are £3 and include materials and refreshments. Non members are £5 and may have an additional charge for some materials.

We don’t teach art but help each other to achieve pieces we’re pleased with. We do take part in special projects where artist lead workshops for us allowing us to learn new skills. Here are some things we’ve tried.

I really hope you’ll be able to join us.