CelticJourney-gifts: August 2014

Spanish born Carmen Garcia moved to Ireland in 1994.

A self-taught artist and crafter, plus a trained Complementary Therapist,

She has always been interested in Celtic Art, Irish Mythology and ancient Irish culture.

The combination of all of this makes her art and crafts an extension of her healing.

The new pieces that she has created using the ancient Ogham writing, gives her the perfect ground for the healing energy to flow.

All wood used is sourced in Ireland and the whole process is hand made, which allows Carmen to create custom pieces to suit the needs and the imagination of the customer

“Since I moved to Ireland I have been in love with everything Irish. When I discovered Ogham writing I was so

excited I started making cards for friends and family. I loved the idea of sending different wishes for different occasions.

If a friend was ill I'll send a card with Healing wrote in Ogham. They all ended up framing them!

When a very good friend moved to her own house I thought a frame with "Home is where the heart is" was in order.

After that I got few custom orders, " One road together" as a wedding gift, "Kelly" as a family name......

Each piece is handmade. Wood is sourced in Westport, Co Mayo and I pyrograph Ogham writing in it.

I might use a Celtic design as background, keep it simple or try

a new idea; it all depends on the mood at the time.

The final piece is mounted and I hand-write the translation in Irish and English and is framed in Westport in a window frame either

in white or black.

When the framing is completed I channel Reiki energy.

As a bit of fun I have also made bookmarks, bangles, keyrings and my Celtic horoscope pendants are proving very popular.”

Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to write the early Irish language (in the so-called “orthodox” inscriptions, 4th to 6th centuries), and later the Old Irish language (so-called scholastic ogham, 6th to 9th centuries).
There are roughly 400 surviving orthodox inscriptions on stone monuments throughout

Ireland

and western

Britain

; south of

Ireland

, in Counties Kerry, Cork and Waterford.
A rare example of a Christianised Ogham stone can be seen in St Mary’s Collegiate Church Gowran Co. Kilkenny. The largest number outside of

Ireland

is in Pembrokeshire in

Wales

. The vast majority of the inscriptions consist of personal names.
Ogham is sometimes called the "Celtic Tree Alphabet", based on a high medieval Briatharogam tradition ascribing names of trees to the individual letters. The etymology of the word ogam or ogham remains unclear. One possible origin is from the Irish og-úaim 'point-seam', referring to the seam made by the point of a sharp weapon.