Gallery 3 Cabochon Work, Image 17 Designed and Beaded by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
9/11 NECKLACE
I bead when I'm upset and I was very upset, as were most of us, by 9/11. For one thing, I'm an in-country Vietnam war nurse veteran. Psychologists say whatever post traumatic stress one of us has is brought up all over again by disasters but I think that was true of so many people. I am not pro-war, having been in one and knowing how horrible they really are. But I did want to fly the flag to express solidarity with the victims of the massacres and the heroes who tried to save as many as possible. They died because they were Americans and all the necklace says is, so am I, brothers and sisters, so am I. I used the eagle side of a domed half dollar coin, blue bugles, red and blue miracle beads and white stars. For the strap I used larger blue and red miracle beads, red dyed chips and lapis ones, and designed a set of long peyote beaded beads that later became their own necklace for my friend Gwenn (see peyote gallery 1). I wear this to powwows a lot, sometimes layered with the POW MIA necklace my friend Patti Large' made for me. People who don't live around a lot of Indian people probably don't realize that the flag is flown and veterans honored at almost every powwow. This was, after all, their country first and even when it doesn't have a government that respects them or their rights, they defend it with the youth and strength and intelligence of the best and brightest of their young people.
All images and patterns © copyright 2004 Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. All rights reserved.