#10 - wampum

Yesterday, they were talking about the fact that a grave found in Chatham may be that of Squanto, today my wampum was done tumbling, thought I should make a tribute to Squanto and the Wampanoags... They did not use wampum for money, but they did use it to make beads to trade with, so it was a form of currency, just not money as I'd always been told.

It takes almost a month to polish wampum so that it keeps it's gorgeous purple colour... Seems it doesn't take long to crack it, like I did to the first piece while I was soldering it, or somehow fade it, like I did to the second piece... yikes. Didn't have any troubles the last time I decided to make a little jewelry... Maybe it's the pressure! It makes a good keychain though...

On Facebook, I did this thing called craft it forward, someone is going to make something for me if I promise to make something for 5 other people over the course of the next year... (of course I had one person beg to be added even though they'd missed it, so I'm making for 6 people!) thought this was going to be my first project for that, but unfortunately, not... Maybe you'll see this project again!!!

(Tomorrow I'm going away for the weekend with a group of friends, not sure how easy it'll be to post, if I'll have internet coverage, etc., but know I'll be creating every day, and I'll put it all up when I get back Sun. Amusingly, although I'm leaving first thing in the am, the only thing I've packed so far is my craft supplies so that I have what I need to create every day!)