Action Shots of Welsh Blanket

"I thought you might like to see some pics of traditional Welsh babywearing. I managed to get a Welsh shawl today, I was carried this way by my Grandmother. About a century ago it was the usual way to carry your baby in Wales. It's 100%, wool, it measures 1.6m square and is usually folded into a triangle. The traditional method is a one shoulder carry where the ends are tucked in, I also managed to get a Rebozo hip carry out of it!" Kathryn, Swansea, UK

Many thanks to Kathryn for sharing these photos, she also has a cool sling shop called Evolving Colours.

Art and Illustration

This looks like a cradleboard...

A medievel sling...

I love this illustration!


This painting is beautiful...and is this a bog!


Here's the link to the Danish sling website, where I found these images. Obviously the chat is in Danish, but there are a few images that are new also!

I found an interesting blog...

I was rooting around on the internet and found this interesting blog, with a great article on worldwide baby carrying here.

Contemporary Coorie

I was at a sling meet this week and we were playing with slings. I thought I'd share this modern fleece coorie with you. Coorie is the traditional Scottish sling.

It's a lovely cosy way to carry a new born and young baby. It can then be used as your child grows, as a hip carrier for toddlers. It's great to see it continued to be used isn't it?

(and the baby is a weighted doll, not a weird looking baby! lol)

Coorie

Coorie is a Scottish word for a pouch sling. Here is an old folk song mentioing the word.

Here is a link to this song

Words and music Matt McGinn

Coorie doon, Coorie doon, Coorie Doon, my darling,
Coorie doon the day.
Coorie doon, Coorie doon, Coorie Doon, my darling,
Coorie doon the day.

Lie doon, my dear, and in your ear,
To help you close your eye,
I'll sing a song, a slumber song,
A miner's lullaby.

Your daddy's doon the mine, my darling,
Doon in the Curbly Main,
Your daddy's howkin' coal, my darling,
For his ain wee wean.

There's darkness doon the mine my darling,
Darkness, dust and damp,
But we must have oor heat, oor light,
Oor fire and our lamp.

Your daddy coories doon, my darling,
Doon in a three foot seam,
So you can coorie doon my darling,
Coorie doon and dream.


It's a beautiful hypnotic lullaby by Matt McGinn (1928-1977) one of the most prolific songwriters of the Scottish Folk Revival.

"Coorie doon" means to "snuggle down" as well as "courch down". McGinn does an amazing job at applying the images of a child in going to bed and the miner going down into the mines.

From here

Cwtch

Cwtch -

Welsh word for an affectionate hug. There's no literal English translation, but its nearest equivlent is "safe place". So if you give someone a cwtch, you're giving them a "safe place".

It can also be used as a place to store things safely (usually a cupboard under a staircase)
"Give me a cwtch"

This can be used for baby carrying too. Cwtching can be used when a baby is wrapped in a shawl.

Sketch of Polish Mama

On my sister blog Creative Mother, I did a giveaway of this original pencil sketch.
It is now on its' way to a new home!
Bye Bye lovely Polish Mama!

New Shawls for sale

I've found this shop selling new and vintage shawls. They are based in Herefordshire in Wales. Very beautiful!

I think I'll do a Wales trip this summer in our campervan. I'd like to visit all the different shops and mills and share them with you.

Here is another site selling vintage shawls - Linda Clift

John Elwyn -artist

Here is another John Elwyn (1916 - 1997)

''Mother and Child''
oil on canvas 1952 50 x 40cm

Image is from here

The Mothers

Here is a photo of Evelyn Hobbs with her baby carried in a Welsh shawl. This picture is from Neath Museum.

This is a painting by John Elwyn (1952) showing two women carrying their babies in Welsh shawls. It is in Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

This info is from here

Joyful January Giveaway!

My sister blog has a giveaway on for the next couple of weeks!

The prize is a sketch of the photo of one of the Polish Mama's.

Check it out!

http://creativemother.blogspot.com/

And Goodluck if you enter!

xxx

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all!

I've found another online shop selling Welsh nursing shawls -

http://www.welshblankets.co.uk/index.php

There are some beautiful ones on there! x

Art

This etching is like 'spot the sling'...there are a couple!

It is from this site:

http://www.litencyc.com/images/HogarthFinchleyB.jpg

What a lovely etching!

This Rembrandt image is taken from this site:

http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rmbrdnt_selected_etchings/three_beggars.htm

This collection is great, there are a few we've not come across before...

http://flickr.com/photos/35697848@N00/sets/72157603879294041/show/

Don't forget!

I'm still looking for your contributions!

If you have photos of you playing around and testing out shawls, or have found any old photos of baby carrying. Also any stories from family or passers by...

please send them to me at - creativemother@live.co.uk

I will try and get some more posts in before Solstice and Christmas!

xxx

Swedish Family

A cool image of a traditionally dressed Swedish family.

Here's a link to Didymos sling site's history page...

http://didymos.com/index.php?s=historisches

there are more images on there!

War widow and miners wife

This image is called 'The Soldiers Widow' and is from a Dutch book.
http://www.peau-a-peau.be/port_prq.htm

She would certainly need her hands free to manage with her children and work as a widow.

Shown here is a statue of a miner and his wife, erected in Llwynypia in 1993. The man is carrying a typical miners' lamp. His wife is carrying her baby in Typical Welsh fashion - wrapped in a shawl.

Roma People/ Gypsies across Europe

This is a Russian site with some great illustrations....

http://zigane.pp.ru/history21.htm

"FWIW, the article is not about BWing, its title can be translated as something like 'National Dress of Roma People and their Ethnocultural History' ... BWing there is 'cos they use those paintings and drawings of Roma people in France, Spain etc, and they are BWing in those."

- Olga from The Babywearer

Photos from Poland

Gorgeous Polish Mama's...

Here are a few photos I've found on The Babywearer.com, beautiful aren't they?

(copyrights http://www.szukamypolski.com/data/media/316/arg_005.jpg and http://www.bagnowka.com/media/ww/3/94/212Bozena%20197.jpg)

Great Grampy Moses - Welsh Shawl

"Went to visit my mama this weekend and found the most amazing photo! When my Nan died my aunty sent my mum some pics and along with the hideous 70's ones there is one from (we think) the 30's of my Great Grampy Moses carrying a teeny tiny baby in a welsh shawl (we are all Welsh by the way, this would have been normal!) I couldn't believe it, a rufty tufty miner with a baby wrapped up on him how very cool was my Great Grampy!

-young woman on far right is my Nana who died 2 1/2 years ago in her late 80's, she was one of 8, all of the boys and my G Grampy worked and died in the mines. Not sure of who the younger children are!!

-Liz ( Cornwall)

Thanks for permission Liz! xxx

Comments about Welsh Shawls'

Here are a few comments about shawls that some mothers have made from iwantmymum.com...

"I've got a lovely Welsh shawl my Mum gave me." Zillah (Fife - Scotland)

"I met an old lady when I was in the library with the Rosebud in a stretchy wrap who said it reminded her of being a little girl in Wales when people carried their babies in shawls." Rosered ( England)

"An elderly Scottish lady saw me with my daughter in a sling fashioned from a pashmina. So quite shawl like. She said' it has been a long time since I saw a baby carried that way!" Dalerose ( Scotland)

"My great grandma Alys used to carry my great aunts like that. She claimed my grandad was too much of a porker though!" Sheitl (England)

"I have one of these and used it to carry Danny all the time round the house when he was smaller, it's the first baby carrier I had although funnily enough I never really think of it as a sling. He's too big and wriggly these days." Nismy (England)