A large circular wooden bench has been donated to the Primary School in Johnstown. The bench was made at Trysordy during private vocational training sessions by a number of fully supervised individuals serving Probation orders, as part of their rehabilitation programmes

From mid February, we will have a basic range of items; starting off with Water based Paint, Acrylic Paint, Paint Brushes, Glitter Paint. Kids Glue, Clay and Scissors. Other items will follow, and we will try and respond to requests from members when possible to stock items that they have trouble finding locally.

Sarah joined us in January to work on Thursdays and Saturdays. She is particularly involved in helping Members find and get ideas for using Scrap Materials, as well as managing volunteers to design and present Displays.

Since opening for members to join and buy scrap materials at the end of October 2007, over 160 different members have joined…..including students, families, schools, guides, nurseries, craftspeople and colleges. Quite a few have back again already, some more than once.

We have over 200 items now in Stock. Latest additions are Rolls of Carpet at £1 per sq metre and Large (120litre) Blue Plastic Barrels with Lids £6.50. We are now dealing with over 30 business suppliers across Dyfed. But to get the volume and variety we need,  we periodically swap a few items of which we have an excess supply, with other Scrapstores.We have already begun “one-to-one swaps” with Cardiff, Ebbw Vale and Swansea Scrapstores…..but twice a year we are going to join in “multiswaps”. This is when 20 or so Scrapstores from all over the UK each bring a large van full of scrap and meet to swap amongst each other (no money changes hands). The nearest good “multiswaps” seem to be Portsmouth in July and Exeter in mid February. So, by the end of this month we hope to have a lot more new items out on display.

For a full list of Scrap Materials we currently have in Stock, click on “What you will find at Trysordy” 

Throughout the year, we want to facilitate a variety of workshops on and off site that mark the changing seasons as well as celebrate special days; some that are precious just to Wales, others that are important to a host of cultures around the world.

We started this off with Nursery School teachers at Trysordy and schoolchildren at 2 nearby schools… making Christmas cards, decorations, figures, animals and wrapping paper.

By the end of April 2008, Trysordy will have 4 separate training spaces available for members to hire……for delivering workshops, holding meetings and exhibitions.

In addition to the existing large meeting room (with its range of audio visual equipment), a well equipped kitchen will be ready later this month for teaching cooking skills and developing nutritional knowledge; a large garden with raised beds, polytunnel and clay oven is well underway and building work on a customised craft workshop area is just about to start.