Graphic Shapes

A graphic bracelet beaded in opaque black and red seed beads. The square, circle and triangle segments are constructed in peyote stitch. The toggle is a dimensional triangle.

The ring is a peyote band with a peyote-stitched triangle as the focal point.

Right angle weave (RAW) is used to connect the three segments, but was not sturdy enough to connect the toggle. That is a point of greater stress and required the strength of a square stitch.

A Child Belongs To Everyone

Thank you, Jah, for the safe birth of Essien.

He is the delight of his Mom, Kalandra, and his GrandMom, Camile.

A newborn is our hope for a brighter future.

Blessed EarthStrong, Abba Jah

Ras Celini

The stitch is technically tubular peyote, but I think it is using beads of different sizes that turns it into a Celini spiral. The smallest seed beads are size 11 and the white beads are size 6. The black and white beads are are the same ones I used in the African Square Netting bracelet.

The bangle fits snugly over my hand, so no clasp is needed.

African Square Netting Stitch

This African square netting stitch bracelet has been finished for several weeks, but I just never got around to posting a picture of it before now. I wasn’t satisfied with how the photos looked. I tried several fabrics as background, but it seemed they were more of a distraction than an enhancement to the photo.

The design is from the book Zulu Inspired Beadwork by Diane Fitzgerald. The project in her book was a “Relaxation Mantle”, but I added two beaded beads and loops as a clasp. The beads are opaque black and matte white seed beads.


Here's a shot of the beaded bead toggles on mudcloth.

LaVena Lynn Johnson's Murder

PARENTAL WARNING - GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF MUTILATION

Three years ago today, in Iraq, someone murdered and mutilated Pfc LaVena Lynn Johnson. In spite of a burst lip, two loose teeth, a broken nose, acid poured into her genitals and a gun shot wound to the wrong side of the head for a right-handed person, the US Army ruled her death a SUICIDE!

Why are women still so expendable? Why is there so little official concern about this case and too many others like it?

I feel such a sense of outrage when confronted with situations like this. Usually, there is also a sense of impotency as I have no real recourse for action.

Not so in this case. There is something we can do and I am asking for your help. Please go to the Electronic Village post that includes links to an on-line petition to have the case re-opened and properly investigated. Please sign the petition. If you have a blog, please include a post about this and ask your readers to sign the petition, also.

They may not hear an individual voice, but if we all lift our voices in outrage, we will be heard!

I have signed the petition and I am asking all of you to do the same. Thanks, Electronic Village, for keeping us informed.

Unique

Wild Pigs

This was sent to me by a dynamic sistren whom I was privileged to meet during my previous corporate life.

A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the professor noticed one young exchange student who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke.

'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.'

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc.. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.

One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.

'A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.' - Thomas Jefferson

This refers to the unfolding situation in America, but the freeness mentality that corrupts so many Jamaican minds leaves us vulnerable to the same encroachments.

Thank You, Jah, For Another Year

Today is my EarthStrong (birthday).
I thank Jah for every trial, every tribulation and every blessing in my life.

Phases

I have been working on this piece in fits and starts for several months now. The necklace is 29 inches long and uses opaque seed beads ranging from size 13 to size 6. (For non-beaders, the larger the sizing number, the smaller the bead.)

The toggle is a two-drop peyote beaded bead. The center beaded tube is covered with an outer layer of two drop peyote. Both layers have black seed beads brick stitched on the ends. The stitches used in the body of the necklace include one and two-drop peyote, ruffled peyote, spiral peyote, celini spiral, right angle weave, netting and ndebele.
Several of the segments are embellished for dimension and texture and fun.
Accuflex beading wire runs thru the clear tubing that is inside the necklace for support.
I need to pick one of the segments to replicate for a bracelet. Any suggestions?
The loop can be worn at the back of the neck or asymetrically in the front as a focal point as our wooden sistren below is wearing it. Here it is in it's entirety!

Pointless, Incessant Barking

YS Falls June 2008

I don't have the words to do justice to the magnificance of Jah's creation. YS Falls is one of the most beautiful sites in Jamaica. I am torn between wanting everyone to experience it's beauty and wanting it to stay as untouched as possible.

The newer sign above.

The original sign below.

The trading post near the falls.

I am still amazed that I got these two pictures of this Doctor Bird.

This is a shot of the platform from which the canopy riders change directions. It is above the gazebo at the entrance to the falls. The ride starts near the top of the falls, comes down to this platform, then switch directions and continues down the line to the departure point.

Can you see the rider in the upper right side of the picture?

All of the pictures shown here were taken by Lady Roots with a 5.1 megapixel DXG 552 digital camera.