Beddgelert Woodcraft

Sunrise

As I look at the calendar in front of me it tells me that it is 3rd February! A month of 2012 has already flown by and despite the streets, ok the street, of Beddgelert being practically deserted we have been very busy here at Beddgelert Woodcraft.  We take advantage of the quiet days to get all of our stock in the shop, tidied, polished and ticketed before we (hopefully) see some customers returning at February half term.

Wayan and Agung

As many of you will know the majority of our goodies here are sourced from Bali in Indonesia, and begin their journey well before Christmas.  Jane and James head out to Bali in November to meet with their local host and very good friend Wayan, and the buying process commences.

In addition to being a fantastic excuse for a month of Indonesian sunshine (while some of us are left shivering in Beddgelert) by traveling out to the country of Bali and working very closely with the artisans Jane and James get a real chance to work on their own designs and incorporate the local skills in their ideas, resulting in some truly unique pieces.

Many of the families they work with have become good friends and it is now the second generation of the trading relationship, so as well as lots of hard work during the time in Bali there is always plenty of socialising to be done, children, grandmothers and new babies to visit as well.

Once all the designs have been agreed, samples approved, new inspiration sought and the suntan topped up Jane and James return to Beddgelert.  In Bali the orders are delivered and the container is all packed up under the watchful eye of our shipping agent Agung.

After a month at sea the container docks on the shores of the Uk and after clearing all of the necessary checks it is delivered to our warehouse in Prenteg.

Container Day

“Container day” is always a big event for us, we gather as many willing, strong looking men as we can find and within the three hour time limit, unpack a full, and I mean full! container.  It is a challenge to get everything out and we marvel at how these items have been so carefully packaged, manouvered and wrapped without the use of any machinery.

The unpacking of the container is a race against time but also a memory test for Jane and James, who look on either enthusiastically saying, “It was a beautiful house where that was being carved….” or more worryingly, “I have never seen that before!?!”   But by far the most heard statement has to be, “it didn’t look that big when we left it in Bali”

With some gentle persuasion and major reshuffling most of the “big” pieces have found homes in the shop, and I am writing this while taking a break from polishing the many smaller items.

The chilly -6°C temperature and the snow covered mountains here in Beddgelert today are a far cry from the tropical climes of the Balinese mountain forests where Jane and James commission their designs but through our long association with our Indonesian partners we have found a mutual appreciation and respect and we are very proud to be bringing Buddhas to Beddgelert.

The shop is open every day from 10am until at least 4pm.  Alongside the Buddhas, we have a huge range of new wooden delights as well as the old favourites.  We hope that you will call in to see us soon.

We are open as usual for the next few days from 10am to 4pm.

Christmas Eve – 10am – 3pm

Christmas Day- Closed

Boxing Day – Closed

Tues 27th – Closed

Wed 28th – 12pm – 4pm

Thurs 29th- 12pm – 4pm

Friday 30th- 12pm – 4pm

New Year’s Eve – 12pm – 4pm

New Year’s Day- 12pm – 4pm

Monday 2nd- 12pm – 4pm

Tuesday 3rd – we will be closing, reopening on Saturday the 14th of January 2012.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and hope to see you all sometime soon.

James, Jane and the Beddgelert Woodcraft Crew.

As of the 1st October 2011 the Welsh Government has introduced a blanket charge for carrier bags. This means that unfortunately we have to make you pay when we give you our recycled paper carrier bags. We can understand that this is mainly as a deterrent from using plastic bags from supermarkets – and I am sure we all do our bit by buying a ‘Bag For Life’ and trying to remember to take them with us when we go shopping.

In our case, we do not expect people to be carrying bags when they visit the village. This is a tourist destination where most people are heading for a walk down the river when they come across our shop. I think this ruling makes a mockery of the fact that we have our own bags made from recycled paper which we happily give away.

We rely on the goodwill of our customers returning and hope that having to charge for these bags will not leave a lasting impression. We shall be looking for a solution, maybe cotton bags (which are exempt from the charge) at a price we feel comfortable with giving away. Until then we have to comply with this new law.

On to happier news. In a couple of days we will be flying to the other side of the world on our buying trip. We have quite a few new products under development and are hoping to find many more on our travels. Of course we will be continuing the old favorites but there will certainly be something exciting to keep your interest. We hope to see you all soon.

The Team at Beddgelert Woodcraft.

We have recently taken delivery of our new stock for the year and have now begun putting our beaded necklace range up for sale on the website.

We are also looking forward to Easter as it had been quite a long quiet winter here in Beddgelert! We hope to see you soon.

As I am sure you are all aware, this Friday the 18th of March is Red Nose Day 2011.

Please come and spend, spend, spend! We will donate 100% of the day’s profit to Comic Relief.

We hope that you can join us, if  not we are sure that you will be doing something funny for money of your own invention.

Visit the Red Nose Day Wesite for inspiration.

We have finally lanuched our online shop! So far we only have a small selection of our huge range of products available, but over the next few months we shall be adding many more new and exciting items.

Secure payments will be handled by PayPal, so no need to worry about entering your card details on the internet. Look out for the “https” in the address bar during checkout, this indicates a secure payment server. Postage on all orders will be £2.95 initially, we’ll see how it works out.

Many thanks to those of you who voted on our last post about which products we should make available. We have taken your feedback on-board and shall be updating our website accordingly. Voting is still open.

If you have any further feedback about the look and workings of the website and shop, please feel free to leave a comment. A full website redesign is in the pipeline. Hopefully towards the end of this year.

As you may or may not know, we have been preparing our on-line shop for ages but we’re nearly there now. So;

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Here we are again, March already!

We have been buried beneath mountains of boxes and shredded paper. Our first container arrived on a beautiful sunny day in early February.

Many of our old favourites are back in stock along with many exciting new lines.

• The colourful mosaic plates are back in stock. This year we also have mirrors and coasters in similar wonderful designs.
• Stunning teak root chairs, benches and display pieces.
• Our range of hand carved and painted wooden birds has been extended to include many unique items.
• Windchimes, nodding birds and dragons in adbundance.
• Strings of beads, necklaces, bangles and earrings in every colour.

Our second container is on its way so our complete range for this season will be in the shop for April.

We look forward to seeing you soon.

On-line shop

Now that our new stock is arriving we have begun the huge task of photographing and catalogueing our extensive range to put on-line; sorry, it’s taking ages!

Watch this space…

In the meantime, do email or phone (01766 890 586) as we can send anything mail-order.

Just a quick note to wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year. This last year has seen the thirtieth anniversary of Beddgelert Woodcraft, the production of our new line of postcards (following our photo competition) in support of the local primary school and has generally been a busy year for the village.

Our stock for the coming season is currently out at sea on its way to us, and will be arriving mid February. We shall have the old favourites — wooden birds, mosaic plates — and some new lines too. We’re looking forward to having our new shipment as there are quite a few special and unique pieces this time.

Yet again, the village put on a stunning fireworks display to see in the new year and new decade. There was a great party atmosphere, music and dancing in the streets and the river too!

Many thanks to all of you who have been to visit us. We hope to see you again in the near future.

Ho, ho, ho. Peace, joy, merriment and all that kind of malarkey. The Big Day is almost upon us yet again.

To celebrate, from midday on Christmas Eve we shall be serving up mulled wine and mince pies and having a sing along, closing at 3pm.

You may even find that last minute gift that is just a little different from the run of the mill high street fayre!

So; Come All Ye Faithful, join us to give the Christmas Festivities an early start!