Finished/Turtle Shell Rattle

Finished Turtle Shell Rattle

Close up of Beading

Close up Underside

I have finally finished all the beading on the handle of the Turtle Shell Rattle and have now attached the Turtle Shell to the handle to complete it.

I used some Traditional items in the closed shell to make it rattle, this consisted of Red Indian Corn, that I had grown some years ago and saved.

The Shell is attached to the handle in a somewhat different way than the norm as I drilled through the shell and handle and then inserted two 3/16" wood dowels to make a firm attachment as I didn't want to cover anymore of the beautiful shell than I had to with the normal way of attaching a shell with rawhide strips.

The Handle consists of 8 1/2 " of beading, with 12 strips of white deer hide trailers attached.

I finished the beading in the last few days while re cooperating by working only about two hours at a time and then coming in to rest a few hours and then going back to it again till today when I

finally got it all finished.

The Shell is closed with Tanned Deer hide both front and back to retain the material to make the Rattle sound.

As usual you should be able to click on each photograph to enlarge it for a better view.

I hope to be back to a somewhat resemblance to Normal soon, but it will take time for the Heart to gain strength again and allow me to resume my activitys.

Thank all of you who stopped by and wished me well and those of you who Emailed me wishing healing.

Time For a Break

Today I am posting a "Break Time" thought.

I just returned from the Hospital where I was for 6 days with another heart attack and found that I DO need to rest for a while as the Drs. said. I came home yesterday and today I went out to my shop to do some more beading on that Turtle Shell Rattle Handle and found that after two rows of beading I just can't do it today because I am still a bit weak and shakey and can't concentrate very well yet, so I will take a few days more off to rest and try to get better...then back to work to finish the project, still have about 2 and 1/2" to finish the beading, but will resume as soon as I feel better.

Thanks to all who follow my blog, "I shall return"

Update 3 /Handle for Turtle Shell Rattle

Typical regular Wing or Tail Feather

Typical Wing Tip Feather

Close up of beading pattern

Updated Photo of beading

Today I am posting another Update on the progress of the beading on the handle for the Turtle Shell Rattle.

I will first post a photograph of a typical Wing Tip Feather, and a Typical Wing or Tail Feather so you can see the difference in representation and symbolism of each.

The photograph of the Wing Tip Feather shows the typical shape and on the beading I bead a Symbolic rendition of it , much as you may see in paintings or on pottery, all within the design limitations of the beading 3 drop Peyote stitch.

The other photograph is of a typical standard Wing Feather or Tail Feather and you can see my rendition of that feather type in my beading, the Blue feathers and the Yellow feathers, with the white feather spine running down the middle as would be on a real feather.

I now have beaded 6 1/2 inches of the total 8 1/2 inches of the beading area....more to come to complete the handle. I will show the final when all completed and the Turtle Shell is mounted.

As usual you may click on the photographs to enlarge for a better more detailed view.

Bloggers Community Photo Challenge

To see the entrys for this challenge just click on the following link.

Bloggers Community Photo Challenge

Here is my entry for the Challenge Macro/Close up Photograph.

Full Moon

I just had to share this photograph with you, an awesome view of the moon last night, one can even see the pock marks on the moon from many Meteor strikes that have left it so scarred.

I took this photograph with my old trusty Nikon D50 digital SLR camera with my much loved 70-300mm lens with VR...this was taken at the 300mm range.

Click on the photograph to enlarge and get a much better view.

Progress Update/ Turtle Shell Rattle

Handle 8 3/4 inches to be beaded

Close up of beaded section

The Oppss Part/how to correct it

Here is an update on the making of a Turtle Shell Rattle, today I am showing some of the beading, I did make an "Ooppss" but I did correct it and will show in the bottom picture just how that was done.

First off, I chose a repeat pattern of what I call 1-3-1, meaning I do one bead of a particular color(Whie), then 3 beads of a different color(Black) to make a repeat pattern, but I miscalculated the exact amount and ended up uneven in the pattern, therefore making the repeat come out one row off...so not wanting to take out quite a few rows or start over I decided to continue and make the uneven part into a sort of heart shaped piece instead of a diamond shape, thus allowing me to change the 1-3-1 to a 1-2-1 pattern and decreasing the size of the diamond shaped piece in following rows, as you can see...the pattern comes out even...my bad...lol.

In these photographs I have finished about 3 1/2 inches of beading and calculate that it took around 2,127 size 11/0 seed beads to do that much....one bead at a time...in other words..3 days of work so far...there is 8 1/2 inches of handle to bead and I calculate that it will take approximately 5,166 beads to totally bead the 8 1/2 inches.

As you can see...I do have my work cut out for me...lol...keep checking by, I will update further along on the progress.

Turtle Shell Rattle--New Project

My latest project is to make a Turtle Shell Rattle using this nice whole shell I got several years ago it will have a wood handle that will be totally beaded from the shell all the way to the end of the handle and will have white buckskin trailers.

Stop by soon and see the progress.