Bead Maker Bead Maker
Make me some beads
Made out of poils
Made out of seeds…
Okay. I’m not a song writer. But what I am–among other things–is a
bench man… and if there’s anything I truly appreciate… it’s
tools. If they make it… I will probably buy it. And who knows…
maybe I’ll even use it. Who cares? And that doesn’t count the combing
of flea-markets to see what kind of outdated “junk” someone might
have that I can use. You would be surprised. If there’s a table with
tools on it… I’m there.
My first teacher (I am a diamond setter by trade) said to me: A good
setter can work with a nail if he has to. He said other things too…
but this one stuck with me. You can’t buy everything you need
today… and some of the things you could once buy they simply don’t
make anymore. So when you need something special… and it’s not
available… you make it. End of story.
Still… the sophistication today is unparalleled… the high end
being the cad software available like Rhino and its derivatives and
their associated cam milling machinery. And yet… in days of yore…
they made some pretty nice stuff without the tools we have today.
Every once in a while I stumble across a picture or a painting of a
craftsman or of craftsmen plying their trade… using skills and
tools that put me in a state of utter wonderment to say nothing of
respect and admiration.
And so we come… by way of clever segue… to the Pueblo Indians
and their turquoise jewelry. They gleaned their stones from cracks in
rocks, in cavities lined with quartz, and as nuggets. And then they
strung them and made necklaces out of them. But here’s the rub. You
can’t make a necklace out of a turquoise unless you can string it…
and you can’t string it if it hasn’t got a hole in it. So you have to
drill a hole… and now you find you don’t have electricity. And you
don’t have a workbench either. Or even a chair to sit on. So you sit
on the floor… and that’s your chair. And you face up to an old tree
trunk stump… and that’s your bench. And you have a wooden
leather-driven pump drill… and it is with that that you drill
holes.
And I have a painting to show you of an Pueblo Turquoise Bead Maker
drilling holes into the stones in an ancient manner… his weathered
features lined with the patience required of the meticulous
craftsman. It’s a joy to behold.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Current Tidbits… and then click on it in order to view our Pueblo
Bead Maker.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark