In folklore, gnomes are said to bring good luck, prosperity and protection to the home and garden. They have been, since the 1800s, used to protect crops and livestock, which may be why you'd see them in gardens today. Real gnomes are said to live underground and guard nearby plant life, as well as their own treasure. A gonk, which some people call these, is a gnome-like figure with a bulbous nose and long beard. They are also said to bring joy and good fortune to any household.
A gnome is seven times stronger than humans and live for around 400 years. They greet each other by rubbing noses.
These gnomes are destined for indoor use only so they can bring this good luck and protection to your home, your indoor plants, you and your pets.
Blank gnomes waiting for decoration
It seems like only yesterday we were asked by Y.E.S. to help them with this project. They asked our 'casting director' to help them cast as many gnome pairs as possible and asked us to help with the painting and decorating.
This has been an amazing community project. We have been proud to support Y.E.S. and proud to have been supported by all of our community members. It was great to see everyone working together on this project. It's been exciting and amazing to see the diversity in the finished pieces.
They range from covering all the seasons of the year with inspiration also coming from a wide variety of sources including: A Nightmare Before Christmas; Frozen; witches and wizards; Smurfs and, of course, let's not forget Christmas.
We would not have been able to complete the assignment without community input. We would like to thank all the remote community artists, workshop attendees and other beneficiaries.
Nordic Gnome (L) Lady Gnome (R)
Thank you to Devon Dotting for permission to use these images.
The Nordic Gnome and Lady Nordic Gnome moulds were purchased from Devon Dotting, by Y.E.S. with funding from Invest Local Ynysowen and cast by our very own 'casting director.'
From a 25kg bag of Herculite 2, a total of 140 were made with 136 passing the QC process. Four had to be written off. Two took a tumble during the curing process and two hats from the tallest gnomes snapped off following a miscalculation in the curing time. But the moulds did not fail us once!
Having spent a few days casting the gnomes, it then took some time for them to fully cure in order for them to be painted. We left them for a few weeks due to time constraints and booking workshops.
Image from one of the undercoating workshops.
Thanks again to the funding that Taff Rocks receives from Invest Local Ynysowen, we were able to run free workshops for the whole community to be involved in this, one of the boring parts of the process - the undercoating.
We could not have imagined that the whole lot would have been completed in just two workshops!
A very, very small selection of finished gnomes.
The dry, undercoated gnomes, were gathered into groups of five pairs (10 gnomes) and 'shipped out' to local community artists with the following project brief:
Use acrylic paints only,
Paint them in matching pairs,
Artistic licence encouraged but there must be festive ones in there,
Return them within the deadline in order for them to be lacquered and have their felt bottoms fixed on,
If you're unable to complete the pair, just return them with at least the base colours,
Don't sign them.
Taff Rocks also invited our community to participate in the painting process with more free workshops.
All our artists 100% understood the assignment with amazing works and ideas. Some could not be finished at the workshops so others completed them, calling these 'rescue gnomes', hoping that we maintained the original artist's idea as close as possible.
This would be considered another 'boring' part of the project, but we needed to put it in so you can see how much work our volunteers have put in.
The final step of the creative process, a very vital one, was to lacquer / varnish the gnomes and add a little felt pad on the bottom of each. This felt pad will help protect your surfaces at home whilst the little sweethearts stand proudly on display for, hopefully, far longer than the festive period.
Yes you can!
The gnomes will be available for purchase, hopefully in pairs, at the Ynysowen Christmas Fayre on Friday 29th November 2024 at the Community Centre in Aberfan from 4.30pm until 7.30pm. You can find the Community Centre on Google Maps here.
The funds raised from the sale of the gnomes will be used for the continuous running of the Christmas Fayre as well as the annual Ynysowen Carnival. Without the help of these funds, these events would not be able to continue.
In addition to helping run future events, a small portion of the funds raised may be used to help pay for base costs and new a mould, or moulds for the 2025 community project. We don't know what this will be yet but we hope we will be involved along with all the members of the community again.
This has been such a fun project and we just can't thank you enough for the opportunity and the support.
We couldn't possibly say.
Not because it's a 'secret' but simply because there have been so many artists and community members who volunteered their time and resources for this project, we just have no idea who painted individual ones.
We do know the artists that supported us but, as for the individual gnomes they painted, we simply can't remember them all. But, if you happen to be at the Gnome Re-homing Centre at the same time as one of the artists, ask them, they may let you know which ones they painted.
The mould for the 'Welcome Gnome', seen here, which does not form part of the fundraiser, can also be purchased from Devon Dotting here. These come in two sizes at the time of publication, small and large. The large one was used for the gnome shown.
Please take a moment to view the gallery below of the finished work. It was not possible to get a good close up of the whole number of pieces so we have taken a few at a time and showcased them in the gallery below.
At the time of publication, there are still gnomes to be photographed and added to this gallery.
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By actively seeking customer feedback we can build trust with our beneficiaries or future beneficiaries.
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Smyrna Chapel Community Hall,
Aberfan Road, Aberfan,
Merthyr Tydfil CF48 4QN
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