Casgliadau Arlein

'Blanced Casgliad Clustnodau' by Anna Pritchard. Double-cloth blanket woven in wool with complementary designs on each side in teal, black and cream, the motifs based on the tradition of 'clustnodau', notches cut in the ears of sheep as a way of identifying their ownership.

This example is from a series that uses the tradition of cutting notches in the ears of sheep as a way of identifying ownership; she also makes individual examples to commission using the ear notch designs of particular families. Anna Pritchard’s use of colour is inspired by the landscape of Eryri, its weather and seasons.

Rectangular woven blanket made from 100% wool. The following description regards the blanket in 'portrait' format (with the warp running in the vertical direction). The design is of small leaf-shaped 'ears' in teal and black on a cream ground. The blanket has 7 tiers: the 5 central tiers each consist of 3 horizontal rows or 'ears', while the top and bottom tiers each have 2 rows. Each tier is divided by black horizontal lines. Within each row, the 'ears' are grouped into 6, with a small space in-between each group. There are 6 groups (of 6 'ears') in each row. This grouping and arrangement results in blocks of 18 'ears' (a group of 6, over the course of 3 rows). Each of these 18 'ears' has a different pattern of black 'notches'. However, across the blanket these blocks of 18 are identical and occur in a repeat pattern. The blanket is a double-weave with a 3/1 twill binding. Each yarn is 2-ply, S-twist. A woven label of black synthetic fabric with gold lettering is machine stitched to one of the corners. Selvages along side edges (long edges); these edges are finished with a single turn back which is machine stitched in place using black thread. The top and bottom edges (short edges) are finished with a double-turn back which has been machine stitched in place using green thread on the reverse and black thread on the outer face of the blanket.