A ‘Scrappy Ideas’ course was held at Trysordy for the ‘Children’s Partnership’. This is a two day theoretical and practical course aimed at play workers, which explores play, creativity and the use of scrap materials. It is a ‘Playworks UK’ course accredited by Skills Active.

Trysordy is keen to deliver this course again in 2009 if there is a sufficient demand, so please let us know if you would like to join in.

We now stock Water-based Paint, Acrylic Paint, Glitter Paint, Pearl Paint, Paint, Glass Paint, Fluorescent Fabric Paint………Water-based block printing ink……..Chunky Paint Brushes, Synthetic Sable Paint Brushes, …..Washable Eco Glue, ……Air-dry Clay, Childrens’ Rainbow Coloured Clay……Plaster of Paris Bandage…… Children’s and Adult Scissors……. Dried Willow withies 3-7ft lengths……A4 and A3 Coloured Card (much of it recycled)……Coloured Feathers…..Chunky Chalks……Chunky hard to break Crayons…..Skeleton Leaves…..Masking Tape, Double Sided Tape, Silver Duck Tape…….Wooden Lolly sticks……Coloured Pipe Cleaners…..Glitter shakers….Masks to decorate……Googly Eyes. Other items will follow, and if you have trouble finding something locally, please do let us know and if possible we will try and stock it.

We’ve over 300 items available.(a comprehensive list of what we have in stock is on our website, together with pictures)…. and we now deal with over 40 business suppliers across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion. But we are always on the look out for more regular business suppliers. So if you think of a business near you that might have interesting, safe waste, please do let us know and we will make contact with them.

Kirsty Williams, Liberal democrat assembly member concerned with social enterprise paid a flying visit on November 10th. She had a special interest in the structure of Trysordy, how it got off the ground and how it was maintaining itself. She was interested in passing on ‘best practice’ to similar endeavours. Kirsty then visited the craft workshop and met probation clients and the SMART group.

There have been a variety of groups attending training sessions at Trysordy in order to develop and enhance personal creativity as a skill to be used in work, play, and volunteering situations. These were primarily practical sessions involving the choosing and using scrapstore materials.

Groups have included Homestart, whose volunteers attend as part of their training programme, primary school teachers, After School Club leaders and students from the School of Early Years Education at Trinity College.

Trysordy has been out and about at various events in the community, including:’s way into the parade, having been refurbished and animated by the carnival committee.

Johnstown carnival – We took a selection of scrap materials and had a busy day helping carnival goers to make a variety of hats and skirts. Our blue willow dragon also found it

Llwynhendy integrated play centre – we took part in a series of outdoor and indoor play sessions for children, encouraging free creativity with scrap materials

Botanic Gardens – ‘Freaky Friday’ on 31st October was a very busy Halloween themed event aimed at families. Trysordy offered witch making, dream catcher and mask making workshops. Another event held in the gardens on 5th December was a Christmas tree decorating competition for Carmarthenshire schools, all with a recycling theme. Here 5 different schools took part in Trysordy’s ‘Christmas wreaths’ workshop.

Drefach Velindre Christmas Craft Fair – where we helped people to make their own Christmas cards with scrap materials we brought along from Trysordy.

Our partnership with the Dyfed Powys Probation Service continues to be a productive one. Twice a week people recovering from substance misuse meet at Trysordy to take part in a program that aims to help restructure their lives and increase life and vocational skills. Activities include major wood work projects .3 large circular wooden seats have now been built, one for Trysordy, one donated to Johnstown Primary school and one to Aalton House inclusion unit.

The relationship with Johnstown School continues to flourish. Clients on the program responding to a request to build a picket fence to enclose a memorial garden that is in development at the school.

Over the course of this year the allotment has developed from a bare corner of field into a productive vegetable garden complete with polytunnel and raised beds. Clients have created this garden from scratch with recycled materials sourced from Trysordy, sown the seeds, tended the plants, harvested the produce, then cooked and eaten the results.

An exciting project about to start is the building of a yurt from locally sourced wood, for use both at Trysordy and in the community. ( A yurt is a traditional Mongolian nomadic dwelling, shaped like a giant marshmallow!)

The new craft workshop and the kitchen, built thanks to a grant from the Drugs Intervention Program, have really come into their own.

The craft workshop has enabled us not only to be more ambitious with our probation service activities, but also to enable substantial craft projects with other groups, such as the Carmarthenshire Youth services.

The kitchen is used twice weekly to cook a communal lunch by clients on the drug rehabilitation program and is a vital resource at other times for Trysordy staff and volunteers. It has also started to be used by Carmarthenshire Youth Services to deliver basic cooking skills sessions.

This autumn we started work with a number of departments in Carmarthenshire Council Youth Services.

A group of year 9/10 pupils on the S.M.A.R.T. project (a wider curriculum programme for those not in formal education) spent six mornings in our new craft workshop making a mosaic topped table for their base at Dr MZ and a bird table for a local residential home.

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Youth First’ (a European Social Fund Programme to extend entitlement to young people aged 11-25) also brought a group who wanted to make something for the community. In a brainstorming session they decided to make brightly coloured tissue/willow sculptures for the sensory room in the unit at their school, (Queen Elizabeth High) and a bird table to put outside the window.

We are now actively looking to build up our excellent team of volunteers, particularly with work in our warehouse, the maintenance of our databases and the development of our website.

With our rapid growth also comes the need to have someone on board with more experience and expertise in financial planning and management, to guide us into making wise decisions. For more information, please contact Wendy or Jonathan.

Since opening the Scrapstore part of Trysordy at the end of October 2007, over 650 different members have joined. With so much interest in using our weird and wonderful materials, we’d love to hear about the exciting things you are making….and if you have instructions or pictures we’ll try to publicise them in future newsletters, on our website or in our shop.

In 2009, we will be trying to encourage more people from Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion to come along. We would be delighted to give free guided tours and presentations to any organisations who ask.

Thanks (again) to a grant from Carmarthenshire Childrens Partnership we arebuying an Acucut machine; a device which Members can use here at Trysordy, to cut out a variety of shapes from materials found in the Scrapstore…..for craft projects and decorations.

Thanks to a grant from Carmarthenshire Childrens Partnership we will be extending our free Lending Library over the next 2 months…. for teachers, carers and parents working with children. If there are books you feel we should include in it, please do let us know…books giving practical guidance on using a wide range of arts and crafts materials as well as environmental education issues; particularly the reuse of materials.

Scrap Packs have been recently developed as an extension of our ‘Bright Ideas’ activity leaflets and make ideal little gifts. They contain everything you need to make a particular creative project e.g. Christmas angels, pop–up puppets, block printing and dream catchers. They are sourced entirely from the scrapstore, including the packaging and are on sale for £1.50.

Students from Coleg Sir Gar in Llanelli studying Level 1 Art, Design and Media were responsible for putting the packs of ingredients together; an activity which will count towards gaining their Welsh Baccalaureate qualification.

Students from Coleg Sir in Llanelli studying the BTEC First Diploma in Art, Design and Media visited soon after, and came up their own ideas for new Scrap packs, which they then designed and developed themselves. This work will also count towards gaining their Welsh Baccalaureate qualification.