Storm is over

I think that the title “STORM IS OVER” best suits this piece because it has caused me hell. I is done or finished but I cannot say that I am happy with it or that I’m proud to be its creator. There is just something about it that does not put my mind as ease. The colours have no meaning and they are not as bright as some of my beaded jewellery is.

I keep wanting to fix it or try to make it smaller or colourful, just something.

Shining Light Design

This is my Shining Light design, designed from the cultural bead that I have been busy making. It is two bangles that are joint together with one bead, symbolising the bond that can not be broken. This bead can move freely around these two bangles, allowing them to be on their own.

Bead with evil spirit

As much as this bead designed round a muthi bottle that is meant to drive or send evil spirits away, I think that it is evil. I've lost count of how many beading needle I have broken and how many times I've pocked myself in the mouth as I tried to pull the needle throw the beads, while beading this. It not easy to bead around because its very hard to have a ferm grip on it. The string also contributes to the needle breaking like that all the. Maybe I must re bead it in another string.

Muthi bead drawing

This is not the greatest of drawings but with time my draws skills will improve to the max. This is the drawing of my muthi bead.

Muthi bottles

This married is wearing a beaded necklace made in the umzansi style at Muden. In this case the small bottles are used for mecinal and decorative use.( Morris J 1994: Speaking with beads)

I know that I've gone on and on about a muthi bottle but haven't shown how is has been used and who would use it. This one has a beaded cover that support its weight and to make it blend in with the rest of the beadwork.

Beading a bead

I finished sholdering the ends or the covers of my bead and I must say that im happy with what I see. All that is left for me to do is go home and bead around it.

Spiritual Bold

As we have to enter the Shining light competition that has the theme Enduring Bonds this year, I chose the cultural bond. In the Zulu culture one of the people that are noticed by the things that they wear, is a sangoma. A sangoma wears red and white beads, that is how you can tell him or her apart from everyone. I decided to make a bead that would be used to put a small muthi bottle in it, this bottle would help drive the evil spirits away. It is not yet finished but still a work in progress.

iBheqe noCu

For some time now I have been trying to figer out what is what because I understand the word UCU which means a strand or string. The thing that was confusing me was that people would call Ucu a zulu love letter where as it is just a sign of love or an agreement that the girl likes the guy in return. The guy would ask the girl out and if she excepts, then would make him and herself a matching pair of ucu to show that he is taken. In the other hand iBheke, also known as a Zulu love letter is different to Ucu in the sense that it has more detailed bead work where as Ucu is a strand of beads that is usually five meters long.

Did the really mean this?

As I have been reading up on traditional bead work and patterns I have come across the meaning of some of the shape that were used. The triangle is said to stand for(father, mother and child). I'm not so sure if this was the idea when the shapes were first beaded or have we, with time added our own understanding. The diamond shape is said to be a universal fertility symbol where as some say it represent the shield which symbolizes protection. I for one think that people from Kwa Zulu new nothing about fertility symbols.

True meaning of colour

By the looks of things people have a lot to say about the meaning of the colours of beadwork. I have found that most of the colours have a positive and a negative meaning them. I have typed the positive meaning in white and the negative in red.

Marriage, Regeneration
Black
Sorrow, Despair, Death

Fidelity, Request
Blue
Ill Feeling,Hostility

Wealth, A Garden,Industry,Fertility
Yellow
Thirst, Badness, withering away

Contentment, Domestic bliss
Green
Illness, Discord

High birth or Rank, An Oath, Promise
Pink
Poverty, Laziness

Physical Love, Strong Emotion
Red
Anger, Heartache,Impatience

Spiritual love, purity, virginity
White
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Beading to do

I have made these silver wire shape.I want to add colour to them by beading around them. Lately I have to look within and ask myself why am I doing what I am doing.I'm hoping to have these in some galleries so as to make some money and create a name for myself,I hear that its not easy to make a name for yourself or to make jewellery that people will love and be willing to spend their money on.

Whats my mind

Last year Btec seemed like it was a done deal,most of the things that I was doing pleased me but this year is a whole different story,where its all about doing my best and producing the best.I feel like I'm stuck and going around with no direction.My topic changes everyday.I sometimes struggle with the topic or the heading of my work, giving it a lots of different headings all the time.I have called it(jewellery)
Star Black
Beading meets presise material
Contemporary beadwork
Isimodeni (modern)
Now these title mean one and the same thing to me but they might not make sense to the next person.I just want a theme that will work for my research report.Is that too hard to ask my brain for?

One more try

We have always had this at the window and I never really noticed until this morn.So I'm trying to mobil blog,hope this works or I will give up for good.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

My Intentions

I want to create a range of beaded jewellery that is different from traditional jewellery, different in the sense that it is more three dimensional and brightly coloured. Im currently working on a stitch, that allows the beadwork to be more flexible and three dimensional. I intend on looking at traditional beadwork in comparison to modern beadwork.