Since I reorganized the photobucket account I realized that a prior thread with this bow in the unfinished state wouldn't show the photos, so I thought I'd start a new thread with the finished photos added.
Here's Plain Jane:
Doesn't she just look grape?
I left an extra growthring over the grip area because I had very little spare depth and I was worried it would not have a comfortable feel.
Now with the deerskin wrap and the usual glass trade bead:
Jane's got a little kink:
On the tillering stick with about 20" of draw
And for some reason I don't have a full draw pic...gotta rectify that I suppose.
And now for some background on why I put those trade beads on all my bows. The bead is what is called a "flat watermelon bead". It's obvious from the outside, but on the inside the bead has stripes of white and red as well. These beads were made on the island of Murano, part of the city of Venice, Italy. Only one family of glassblowers made this style of bead for the trade. These beads are almost 200 yrs old and have not been made for 140 years. Some made their way over to North America as part of the fur trade, but a vast majority went to Africa as part of the Slave Trade. This particular bead was part of a collection purchased from West Africa some time back and was very likely part of a transaction involving the purchase of human beings. I tie one of these beads to every bow I make and explain the source to the new owner. It's a lesson in true value, it is there to remind us that no matter what we sell our freedoms for it isn't enough. Freedoms are too expensive to buy back once sold, and often once sold you will soon realize you have nothing but a handful of cheap beads.
