Can't Sleep Project

I couldn't sleep last night. I don't think I got enough rest since I got back and now my coughing has relapsed this entire weekend. I was pretty restless flipping through pages of my current reading materials and flipping through scenes of the movie I was playing. I was stuck in insomnia land and the sandman was nowhere in sight.

I noticed some cord laying around that I rolled together while I was on Managaha Island two weeks ago. I was invited by the SDA School to do outdoor classes and I decided to do a nature walk with the younger kids to talk about plants and natural history. At the end of the walk, I picked up a dried screwpine (Pandanus tectorius) leaf, ripped off the spines and started thigh-twisting the strands to cordage. The Chamorros name for this particular screw pine is pahong. I was surprised how tough the cord was after I rolled it. Here's a post with a tutorial on how to make cordage.
I also had a giant clam (Tridacna maxima) bead I took off from a necklace about a year ago that was just lying around unused. I decided to take it off of the nylon cord I had originally used and make a more natural piece. The Chamorro word for giant clam is hima and they called the shell money/ornamental beads, salape'.Hima is very difficult to cut and carve since its calcite-aragonite matrix is very hard, finely-packed and so crystal-like that it cracks easily when it gets heated. Here is the finished piece.
I had a few extra strands of the leaf to roll a smaller cord for the salape' attachment. It is pretty tiring to roll the tiny cord with your fingers.
I still need a lot of help with my technique. Can you see where I cheated? It's my secret.

Sadly, I did not have enough of the pahong leaf to use on the loop, and had to resort to using black nylon cordage. Here is a simple loop and knot for the necklace clasp.

Voila'. It's done.

Well, I am glad of the finished product since it is mostly all natural materials. I need more practice to really get the binding of these things done well. Come to think of it, I haven't had a lot of time lately to make any more necklaces.
I did accomplish to get sleepy after everything was done so the project suited me well for the time it took.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber.

PS. Oops! I misnamed the leaf that I used. There are two types of native screwpines in the Marianas: Pandanus tectorius which the natives call kafu' and Pandanus dubious which is locally called pahong. I have a picture of both in this entry. Check them out in the Guam Forestry website.

Silvery Pipturus & the Motherly Butterfly

Before.

After.

I have to talk to the guys who do lawn at the office. A Silver Pipturus (Pipturus argenteus) shot up fairly quickly in the middle of the ginger plant. It was almost 4 feet tall when the guys came, saw it as a weed, and macheted the hell out of it. I am sure it’ll grow again but let the fellas know before the chop it down again.

It’s true the Silver Pipturus or Amahayan in Chamorro (Ghasooso in Carolinian) don’t seem like it could be used as a decorative tree for your landscaping projects. I’ve developed a special appreciation for it though ever since learning that it was a traditionally useful plant.

Amahayan is a common shrub like tree. It can grow up to 5m (16ft) along the beach in limestone forests and disturbed areas. Their branches are reddish brown and the leaves are a fuzzy, light green above and silvery in the bottom (hence their name).

I found a Hypolimnas anomala butterfly in this tree up at Navy Hill. I remember reading that this butterfly is unique in that she sticks around after laying its eggs and guards them until the caterpillars hatch. The motherly butterfly stays with her offspring until she dies!

Yikes! Cool! A few moments later, I found out where she had laid her eggs and the caterpillars hatched.

The bark can provide a brown dye and the sap was once used to bring the heads of boils out for drainage. The bark fibers of the Amahayan was once used by the ancients for cordage and fishing nets that were said to be of better quality than coconut fiber. I pulled some strips of bark off the discarded branches to see if I could twist them into cordage. Making natural cord well takes some practice. The bark was hard to manipulate because it was very slimy. I am going to guess that you must need to boil the bark and then dry before it can be woven into a proper cord.

You can make a simple cord using the finger-twisting method by marking the middle of the bark strip (A). Twist one end away from you (B) while twisting the other towards you (c) until a loop forms in the middle (A) that you marked. The cord forms as both ends tend to naturally twists together (D) but to make a tight cord, you will have to guide it manually.

You just twist more strips of bark to make a longer cord. It may be difficult to make at first and your fingers do get tired, but practice makes perfect. It is a useful skill to have if you need to live in the boonies for some time.

I’d like to make enough cord one day and make a hook out of a tree oyster shell to replicate an ancient Chamorro fishing hook and line. Or maybe make an entire fishing net. Man, I wish I had more time.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber