One of my sons has a Philosophy and Ethics project to do on “The Creation”. The project is to create a piece of artwork that would represent what creation was to them.
He started using worry beads as a means of calming down when the dreaded teenage hormones took over him but now also uses worry beads to help him think clearer and relax at the end of the day. It was therefore no surprise that he came to me and asked if he could create his own design of worry beads to represent creation. His idea was to incorporate many different variations into one worry beads set so that it showed how diverse nature was.
He started by selecting a cord. Whilst it may have been more appropriate to use an animal product I think he was influenced by the finished look and went with silver to represent the metals that exist. The next question was to determine the style of worry beads. The 2Pear (steel) design but with silver substituted was chosen as this gave the opportunity to use different woods. I have been experimenting for some months with adding a “slice” of pear to the cord of a 2Pear (steel) so that it can be moved over the stones as well as the chain. It is working well as it is a challenge to get the ring of wood to move slowly over each of the stones. My son decided that by incorporating a “slice” he could have three different types of wood.
His theme of showing variety was going to be best demonstrated by having the lightest wood at one end, the slice to be a middle shade and the other end to have the darkest wood. A light piece of cherry (although the majority of cherry has a red tint, some cherry wood is much paler but does not have the grain markings of ash), a slice of yew and laburnum were the three woods chosen.
The same method applied to the wood was made with the stones. He opted to use all the different standard variety of stones we use, all, thirteen. He laid them out in order starting from the lightest at one end getting increasingly darker. The cherry pear was used at the light stone end and the laburnum at the dark stone end.
He drilled out the wood, strung the stones and slice, oiled the wood and glued the two pears into place. After a day of glue drying the finished product is stunning set of worry beads (the best I have ever seen). But more important when you appreciate the objective of the set is to show how amazing creation is, they succeed in this task perfectly. Judge for yourself from the picture, I challenge you not to think how amazing creation is.
Kevin
The English Worry Bead Co
kevin@englishworrybeads.uk
