Casgliadau Arlein

Sampler commemorating Garden Festival Wales held in Ebbw Vale, 1 May – 4 October 1992.

Rectangular sampler in portrait format; cross stitch embroidery in multi-coloured cotton? yarns on 14 count cream cotton aïda ground.

In the upper centre, there is lettering stitched in green and set within a thin red border (made with back stitches), reading:

GARDEN FESTIVAL WALES

with bouquets of flowers, held together with blue bows, stitched on either side.

In the centre of the piece there is a large red Welsh dragon with two different blossoming plants on either side, and below is what looks like a Chinese pagoda-style structure with a tree on either side. The Ebbw Vale Garden Festival Funicular Railway is depicted in red to the proper right of the dragon. There are also two different styles of what appear to be show tents which are stitched on either side above the dragon.

Below the dragon is lettering stitched in green, reading:

EBBW VALE 1992

Gryff, the festival mascot, (a small figure with green jacket and hat, red trousers and yellow shoes) is stitched in the upper and lower centre of a daffodil border which surrounds the central images. Details of figure are enhanced with backstitches.

Back stitches are also used on the bouquets, the tent structures and the train.

The embroidery is 'signed' B I CONNICK on the lower proper right using pink thread.

The embroidery is mounted in a wooden, glazed frame. The frame has not been accessioned and can be discarded in future. The back is covered with a wooden board which is held in place with small steel nails and the gap is sealed with clear adhesive tape. A length of twine is used for hanging from 2 copper alloy ring hooks. If the other sampler (F2023.31.1) is any indication, then this sampler may also have a fine white cotton fabric underlayer in-between the embroidery and the mount board.