Helfa wyau 
As it’s Boat Race day, I thought I’d post this ‘bird blocker’ I made for my back door to stop birds flying into it.
It’s a stylistic form of a quadruple scull, sadly a type of boat I never got to try in my rowing days (the club didn’t have one at that time). It’s made entirely from wooden skewers and copper wire with a dab of sugru (a type of silicon putty) at each end.
‘bird blocker’ - atalydd adar
quadruple scull - bad rasio rhodl pedwarplyg
skewer - gwäell
A brilliant solution, and a typically improvised and lovely piece of artwork. 
And thanks too for ‘skewer’ / ‘gwaell’ - a useful addition to my Welsh vocab, even if a bit difficult for me to pronounce correctly. I’m trying to expand my ornithological vocab, so it prompted me to look up the Welsh word for a ‘skua’ - it’s apparently ‘sgiwen’ (‘sgiwennod’, pl.). Siaron, can you think of any Welsh homonyms (as opposed to English ones, like, well, ‘scull’ and ‘skull’ . . . or the famous Two Ronnies’ ‘four candles’ / 'fork ‘andles’)?
There are quite a few. Some of the ones that spring to mind are:
llaeth (milk) and llaith (damp/moist)
tŷ and ti - and with mutations you can add du to dŷ and di (say “your black house”), although in some dialects you will notice a subtle difference between a u and an i.
Dulyn (Dublin) and dilyn (to follow)
rhydd (free) and rhudd (red/crimson)
saeth (arrow) and saith (seven)
gwaeth (worse) and gwaith (work)
and of course the infamous rhyw (some), rhyw (sex) and rhiw (hill) 
However, I’m not clever enough to put together a whole collection in the manner of the masterpiece ‘Four Candles’!
The ability to create virtual 3D objects on my iPad that have very different kinds of surface colours and textures, and even to adjust their levels of opacity, using an affordable app called ‘Nomad Sculpt’, enables me to design objects that appear to be made of metal, glass, plastic, wood etc. etc… I don’t wear any jewellery myself, but I enjoy creating ‘shiny things’, ranging from rings and brooches to kitchen saucepans, pieces of armour and all sorts of other stuff. I made my very own ‘Croes Geltaidd’ last year. As it’s Easter weekend, I thought I would post it here today.
That’s lovely, Jason. I can almost feel it in my hand! Have you ever experimented with Celtic knotwork on your virtual jewellery?
Oooh, yes, those are good ones. Diolch! I’m eighteen months into my efforts to teach myself Welsh. I speak German fluently, but it has always been a source of frustration to me that I don’t speak Welsh. Mind you, I wasn’t even five when we moved from the Rhondda and crossed the border, so that’s the reason. I’m enjoying the ride and, even at this late stage in my life and despite only being able to visit Wales very occasionally, I’m determined to get as far as I can. Thank you for your help and inspiration. 
Not yet really. Only dabbled a bit. I’ll have to have another go. But I have done stainless steel saucepans and various other kitchen utensils! I’ll get around to posting them here in due course . . . but first I’m off to visit family for cinio dydd Sul. Speak later.
Another one of Lichfield Cathedral which I did a few years ago. Most artists tackle the imposing west end first, but I also enjoy the quieter east end of the leafy Cathedral Close and the way shafts of sunlight, towards the end of the day, bring out the warmth of the sandstone.
sunset = machlud
Lichfield = Caerlwytgoed
cathedral = eglwys gadeiriol
leaf / leaves = deilen / dail
leafy = deiliog
sand = tywod
maen = stone / rock
sandstone = tywodfaen
You have captured both the tranquility and the glowing sandstone perfectly Jason. THank you!
This is almost mysterious–both shiny and metallic, but almost like liquid metal too as if it were cast in an invisible mould. You have certainly mastered this and inspired my interest.
Cof annelwig, neu feddwl dymunol–vague memory or wishful thinking? When it rains here–and it rains a great deal, I create places that are an amalgam of memories.
Garden–gardd
Stair–gris
Waterfall–rhaeadr
Pond–pwll
Gazebo–golygdy
Shrub–prysgyn
During Covid lockdown, I found myself drawing and sculpting 2D & 3D still life compositions with some of the domestic objects around me. Does someone kindly know (yes, Siaron, I’m looking at you!) the Welsh words for the kitchen utensils used to a) mash and b) peel potatoes? And is ‘caead’ the correct word for the lid of a saucepan? And, yes, that is a Covid lateral flow test strip next to my iPad (goodness knows what that is in Welsh😱).
Small saucepan = sosban fach (not shown here, but frequently sung!)
Large saucepan = sosban fawr (shown)
Small teapot = tebot bach (also shown)
a potato masher is stwnsiwr tatws, a potato peeler is pliciwr tatws, caead is correct for ‘lid’ and a lateral flow test is prawf llif unffordd
As I’ve said before, it’s really hard to imagine that those utensils have been drawn rather than photographed. The scale and perspective is so perfect!
Diolch, Siaron, am eich help!
I enjoy the technical challenges of attempting realistic / hyper-realistic representations, but I understand that the result can be unsettling for the viewer and is definitely not to everyone’s taste. As a hobby artist, I try to explore as many different 2D & 3D mediums and styles as possible.
Beautiful painting!
Love that Mari!
A perfect picture to go with the WIND of Storm Kathleen here - I wouldn’t fancy trying to walk along any CASTLE ramparts today!
Brilliant clue for others guessing Siaron
‘Robin Goch’: This is the image I made for Christmas cards I sent to family members and friends in 2021. Having digitally sculpted and then painted something (in this case, a bird) on my iPad, it’s then a question of choosing the best angle from which to view it for potential use as a 2D image. Creating a 3D sculpture takes me many hours of work but, once completed, it can then be used to produce an almost infinite number of different 2D images. Another example of this would be the kingfisher images (‘glas y dorlan’) I posted on this forum a few days ago.
I love the way you have been able to tilt the angle of the robin’s head, to make it looking up or straight ahead, and presumably you can adjust it to look down.
Looking up—edrych i lan (disgwyl sha lan?)
Looking down—edrych i lawr (disgwyl sha lawr?)
