Welsh Gifts That Aren't Love Spoons or Dragons

There is nothing wrong with a love spoon.

They are Welsh to the core, they are carved by hand, and the tradition behind them is beautiful. The same goes for the Welsh dragon, which appears everywhere from a tea towel to a glass ornament, and if that is what someone wants, they should have it.

But I speak to a lot of people every autumn who are looking for something Welsh and are not finding it. They want to give someone a piece of home, or mark where they are from, or send something meaningful to someone who has moved away. What is usually on offer then is souvenirs.

So what I design and create is something different, Welsh gifts, from someone who has spent her working life designing and making them.

What people are usually actually asking for

When someone says they want a Welsh gift, they very rarely mean they want Wales printed on something. They mean one of three things.

They want to give someone a reminder of where they are from. They want to mark a Welsh occasion, a wedding, a graduation, a birthday. Or they want to say something in Welsh that does not translate into English, which is more common than you would think and is usually the real reason.

Once you know which of the three it is, choosing becomes much easier.

A word someone can wear

The most personal Welsh gift is not an object with Wales on it. It is a word.

Gyda'n Gilydd means together. I etched it in my own handwriting rather than setting it in type, because the word is about two people rather than about design. A printed letterform felt wrong for me, it had to come from the heart, therefore it is my handwriting, not a machine. It is the piece people most often choose for an anniversary, or for someone they have come through something with.

In the Dathlu Collection I use the word Cariad. It is the Welsh word for love, and it is the ordinary daily kind rather than the grand kind: what you call a friend, what a grandmother calls a child. That is exactly why it works as a gift. It carries warmth without ceremony.

And Cofio means remember. It began with a poem by Waldo Williams, and it has become the collection people come to when they are buying for someone who has lost somebody, or when they want to mark something they do not want forgotten.

If there is a word that belongs to the two of you, that is the gift. Everything else is decoration around it.

Welsh, not Celtic

This is worth saying plainly, because the two get muddled constantly online.

A great deal of what is sold as Welsh jewellery is Celtic knotwork, which belongs to a much wider tradition across several countries and is not specifically Welsh. If knotwork is what someone loves, that is genuinely fine. But it is not the same thing as giving them something from Wales.

My own work comes from somewhere more specific. The Carthenni Collection, a collaboration with the artist Bex Elliot, takes its shapes from the Welsh blanket, the carthen, the woven pattern that has been on beds and over the backs of chairs in Welsh houses for generations. Bex brought her knowledge of the old weave patterns to it. Anyone who grew up with a carthen recognises it immediately, and that recognition is the whole gift.

That is the difference between something that looks Celtic and something that is actually from here.

For someone who has left Wales

This is the request I get most, and it is the one I care about most.

There is a Welsh word, hiraeth, usually translated as longing or nostalgia, which does not begin to cover the emotion it carries. It is closer to a pull towards a place that is part of you, felt as strongly by people who left willingly as by those who had no choice.

If you are buying for someone living away from Wales, you are almost certainly buying for that feeling rather than for the object. Which means the piece should be something they can wear every day rather than something they display. A pendant they put on without thinking does more than an ornament on a shelf.

For men, without resorting to a rugby shirt

Welsh gifts for men tend to be sporting, edible or drinkable, and then the ideas run out.

Cufflinks, a tie or lapel pin, or a plain heavy band are all worn rather than kept, and none of them require anyone to announce anything. Most of my collections carry pieces designed for both men and women, and some are men's jewellery.

What makes a Welsh gift work

Three things, in my experience.

It should be wearable rather than displayable. Things that get worn stay in someone's life. Things that get displayed get dusted and eventually moved.

It should mean something specific. A word, a place, a pattern they recognise. Generic Welshness is the thing that makes a gift feel like a souvenir.

It should not need explaining to be liked. If the only reason it works is the story behind it, it will live in a drawer. The story should be the second reason, not the first.

Where to start

Everything I make is designed and made in the workshop and gallery here in Llandeilo, and the gallery also carries work by other makers, several of them Welsh.

If you are choosing for Christmas, my Welsh Christmas gifts are the easiest place to begin, and the wider Welsh jewellery collection has everything else. All of it has Wales running through it.

And if you would rather just tell me about the person and let me suggest something, that is always welcome. It is how most of the best gifts I have been involved in were chosen.

Mari Thomas designs and makes from her workshop and gallery in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.