One for Noah, One for Tali

After (what) 8 years of moving from Saipan to Portland, OR, Noah is coming home for a visit.  Last time I saw him was 2 years ago when Tali graduated from high school.  I wanted to give him something special - something that reminds him of his island roots, and that he will always be family to me.

It has been a while since I made one, but I cut a Spondylus (Thorny oyster) salape' or alas (money) pendant representing him, and a Tridacna (giant clam or hima in Chamorro) representing his big family (me included) always surrounding him with love and protection, no matter where in the world they are.  The Spondylus shell and beads were highly valued by the ancient people - nowadays, it is a symbol of their identity and connection to the past.   

Of course, I had to cut one for his big sister, Tali.  She got stuck in VA and pretty bummed that she couldn't visit Saipan.  I was bummed as well.  I will look forward to seeing her again, hopefully this year.

This bead is one of the prettiest I've ever found and cut.  Beauty and resiliency for my Tali.

I miss you both and love you very much.  Till we meet again...

Ti napu,

The Beachcomber

7742- Thank You the Island Way

Whenever I visit the U.S. Pacific Island Jurisdictions, I am treated like a king. The islanders really know how to make you feel welcome and go the extra mile to make your stay really pleasant. In the States, our partners do the same for us, taking us around to see the sights, maybe go shopping or to a baseball game. They also really pay attention to the effects of the time difference and jet lag.

One of our long standing project officers will be resigning in a year or two. This means slowly letting go of the PIJ project areas. He has been a champion for the Pacific for more than a decade working out funding and resources that our people can not live without. I am glad that I had at least 3 years under his guidance and experienced immense support for the work that I do. It was my Guahan counterpart, Bernie that had the brilliant idea to take Thom and his wife, Yolanda, out for dinner and to thank him with gifts island style.

Thom had no clue what was going on. Here's brilliant Bernie pretending that we were nervous about our presentations and that we needed some time with Thom to prepare. It was nice to surprise him.

One of the things I'll always remember for is his affinity for taking lots and lots of pictures. We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant called Jalapeno Jack's.
Bernie and the crowning of the king! She was having a hard time maneuvering Thom's fro!
...and our queen. The mwarmwars were from Palau and the leis from Guahan. The mwars were made with artificial flowers since real ones wouldn't have checked out of customs but they were really beautifully made.

The Guahan folks: Bernie, Thom, ate Liz and Yolanda.
James is from Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. The last time I saw him was in 2007 in Pohnpei.
Dr. Zach and Roy with giving some gorgeous shell mwars and necklaces from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Dr. Zach is based on the main island and Roy is from Ebye.
Roy and I were in Chicago in 2008. It was the first time to see snow for the both of us!
Our couple lookin' smart!
I gave Thom the higam hima: Hacha that I made. He was really appreciative and said he'd make a make a shadow box for it. I also gave away some CNMI quarters.
I gave Yolanda a necklace I made from Spondylus. I shaped one as an alahas and kept one in the natural shape of the spiny oyster.
Hana and Alene from the Republic of Palau gave a beautiful painting of a Palauan chief's house, coconut crafts and some trochus shell and pearl necklace and earings.
Yolanda was excited about a woven pandanus bag from Guahan. I didn't get to take pictures of the American Samoan's who gave tapa cloths to the couple. I think I was caught up in the celebration that I forgot to record the moment in pictures.

At the end of our dinner, a woman came up and asked if we were celebrating a birthday and if we were from Hawaii. I had to explain to her that it was a change to an era, a changing of the guards for all of us in the PIJs. Good luck, Thom. God bless you and Si Yu’us Ma’ase.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

Chamidae- Jewel Box of the sea

So far I’ve been sharing a bit of what I know of the importance of the spiny oyster family Spondylidea to the ancient people of Micronesia especially to the Chamorros of the Mariana Islands of Guahan (Guam), Saipan, Tinian and Luta (Rota). The Spondylus bivalve (marine seashells with two valves) is sessile, cementing their shells to corals or rocks, which the ancient people collected live or dead washed up on the beach. Usually it is the top valve that were cut and polished into salape’ (coin-shaped ornaments) that were bound together by natural cord fibers. At times the whole valve was kept intact, polished, and a hole or two were drilled in them to accommodate binding.

I’ve experimented and developed somewhat of a hobby replicating these artifacts and experimenting with other pendant shapes. I’d like to expand more in this blog what information I’ve collected on the biology and taxonomy of the Spondylus, but it is very difficult to distinguish between the species because of the numerous variations in shapes, forms, colors and sizes. I’ll put this part of my blogging on hold for a while until I get more information and better identifiable samples. Instead I would like to talk about a closely related family, the Chamidae.

The bivalves of the family Chamidae looks much like a spiny oyster because of their projecting spines and radial ridges. Because of their great beauty, they are commonly called Jewel Boxes. They are heavy thick shells that are a bit rounded, with the top valve flatter than the deeply concave bottom valve. I found that you could distinguish a Chamidae from a Spondylus by looking at the hinge and the muscle scar inside of the shells. The Spondylus has two strong interlocking teeth-like hinges (A) and one adductor muscle scar (A1), while the Chama has a single tooth (B) that fits in a groove of the opposite valve and two muscle scars (B1). An internal black ligament connects the valves of the Spondylus, while the Chama’s ligament is external.

According to the Micronesica Vol. 35-36, June 2003 issue (G. Paulay, ed.), Guam has about nine species recorded including Chama aperella, C. brassica, C. fibula, C. iostoma, C. lazarus, C. macerophylla, C. pacifica, C. spinosa and one unidentified. The absence of reference materials with good photo representations are hard to come by so this adds to the difficulty in positively identifying some of the samples that I have collected. The Marine Biodiversity of Guam and the Mariana Islands website has a few pictures that you can check out to help identify local invertebrates: http://128.227.186.212/reefs/guamimg/bivalvia/index.html

Chama limbula
On top of the difficulty in identifying what type of Chamidae you may have, finding shell samples while beachcombing is equally challenging. The following sample is a rare beachcombing find since the two valves were intact together. It is a Chama limbula (Lamark, 1819). It doesn’t look like a shell to be fascinated about from the outside since it is encrusted with white coralline algae and whatever spines it may have had have been eroded. Iinside it has almost a gemlike polished quality with purple coloration in the margins and a light jade-like green. The bottom valve is deep and the top is somewhat flattened. It is about 90mm at the longest measurement. I found it at Obyan Beach, Saipan in August 2005. I’ve made pendants out of these shells as you’ll read a bit latter on this post.

Chama asperella
The next few pictures below are the different views of the upper valve of what I think is Chama asperella (Lamark, 1819). It is a small Jewel Box that is mostly white with a pink umbone, or the pointed structure where the beak or the initial point of shell growth is. It is about 29mm at the longest measurement and is fairly strong and thick. Here's a picture of one in situ: http://128.227.186.212/reefs/guamimg/bivalvia/index.html

The next two set of pictures maybe C. asperella since they are mostly white, but they have purple radial coloration. This makes me think that they maybe a different species. There are not enough resources at the time for me to make a definitive call. They measure 2mm and 19mm in length respectively.

Unidentified purple Chama
The next set of pictures is the external and internal views of a common Jewel Box that you can find washed up on many of the Saipan beaches. They are usually eroded or covered with encrusting algae. I don’t have a positive identification for these purple Chamas yet but they are fascinating nonetheless. Can anyone help me with the identification? Are they just another variety of C. asperella? They are usually small with the largest pictured here at only 20mm at the longest measurement.




Unidentified pink Chama
The next set of pictures is of again an unidentified Chama of which I pick up fragments infrequently at Wing Beach, Saipan. It has a pink hue and a pronounced undulating growth pattern. Anyone know what I is? It is comparatively of larger size in size to C. asperella at 58mm lengthwise.

Unidentified orange Chama (C. pacifica?)
This small 28mm sample of an orange tinged upper valve of an unidentified Chama is fascinating to me since a few spines are still intact. I’ve also included a few picture views of some similarly colored fragments. Anyone know what they are? I'm kind of leaning towards Chama pacifica (Broderip, 1834) but am not totally convinced yet until I see a better sample.

Unidentified spondylus-like Chama
I mistook the shells pictured next in external and internal views for young Spondylus. A closer look though revealed two adductor muscle scars and the strange striped pattern that occurs in Chama limbula (visible when the surface is ground). I wonder if these are just young C. limbula of are they a different species. The valves are quite thin and light, and the longest one is only 29mm.

Chama lazarus and Chama brassica
Finally, pictured below is what looks like the Lazarus Jewl Box (Chama lazarus, Linnaeus 1758). It is generally easy to identify since they are almost often white, with large scaly flattened spines. I don’t have any intact samples with both valves but here are pictures of separate top and bottom valves with the inner and outer views of the shells. They are popular with collectors when intact and the ones that are highly prized have extended forked spines.

I thought all of the samples pictured below were C. lazarus but the more closely I looked, the top middle and right samples were not shaped round like the other samples and their spines are short and scaly. I think that these maybe Chama brassica (Reeve, 1846) instead.

A Jewel Box for your jewel box

I haven’t found any evidence in my research for information about the ancient Chamorros utilizing Chama for ornamentation. It is well documented though that the Solomon Island natives cut and polished Chama pacifica (Romu in their language) into ornamental beads. They actually bring out the shell’s red color by exposing them to fire. Their money beads are called Tafuliae and you can read about them here and see some pictures: http://toabaita-authority.blogspot.com/2006/03/note-on-shell-money-tafuliae-that-is.html It is amazing how Tafuliae looks vey much like the Spondylus salape' beads that the ancient Chamorros made!

While beachcombing, I happened upon a polished upper valve of what I knew to be a bivalve at the time. It had an amazing swirl of colors and patterns that was unknown to me and it was ovoid in shape, which made it easy for me to visualize as a pendant. After reading a bit more and comparing the few samples that I was able to pick up, I concluded that these were Chama limbula valves.

It seems that the Chama’s growth pattern on the top valve is an outward and forward moving swirl. As the animal grows and build upon its shell different colors are produced that may include white, browns, pinks, purples, and greens. A strange striped pattern occurs as the animal builds layers on top and away from almost the opposite side of the hinge. You wouldn’t know that these colors and patterns were present because in nature, the shells are often covered with coralline growth from algae or sponges, or they may even be eroded. To expose the colors, I had to grind the surface and chose (or guessed really) how much of the colors or patterns to expose. I usually leave the natural shape of the shell.

Below is the biggest Chama limbula valve that I happened upon thus far. It is about 50mm at the longest measurement, and is solid and heavy. It turned into a gorgeous piece.

The purple swirl patterns of the next piece surprised me when I ground into it. How can such a small object hold so much beauty? This one is about 31mm in length.

The next picture below was the first Chama that I found and made into a pendant. The ocean did the polishing for me, the shape is natural and uncut, and I actually just drilled a hole to accommodate the binding.

The next piece below has a very busy color pattern of brown, pink and white, and it even has a hint of blue. I paired it with a smaller type of Chamidae made into a salape’ or coin-shaped bead. The smaller bead is one of the unidentified purple Chamidea polished.

Thanks again for letting me share

The Beachcomber

Oops!

Kelli's alahas

Harry B. loves the ocean and her creatures just as I do. He has been very kind in donating Spondylus shells for me to work with. The the only thing that he asked me for was a finished alahas for his wonderful wife, Kelli. Here is a picture of the Spondylus salape' that I put together for Kelli's alahas. These beads are of the classical color and shape much like the ancient Chamorros made them. Of course, I make them the conventional way using an electric rotary tool. I hope she likes the finished product!

Thanks again for letting me share.

The Beachcomber

Laurina and the moon

My friend Yerma R. sent me a forwarded email about National Friendship Week that listed several virtues of what a true friend is. The original email was sent sometime in October and I can’t seem to Google when the actual dates of the week are. Anyway, I usually don’t even read emails that are of the “FW:” kind but it just so happened that I have been thinking about posting about my best friend here on Saipan. I thought I should get some good solid quotations and sayings regarding friendship, but I decided against it because they don’t seem so genuine. I’ll just list a few things that I appreciate about my best friend recently here and end this blog describing a piece that I cut for her.

• You are quick to laugh at my stupidity, and quick to forgive my faults
• Once, we argued for a whole semester and didn’t talk or even look at each other. Now, our arguments don’t even last a day
• It’s important to me that we pray together, although I do most of the praying out loud
• I know that I can trust you with anything, and you will see anything through
• You think that I am so smart, and pretend that I am a genius even though you know that I am BS-ing
• When I got into a car accident in May, you cleaned up my house so that I would have space for my peg leg and crutches to fit. You cooked for me many meals after the accident, got mad when I wanted to work after a week, and became my personal RN
• You were willing to try new things with me even though they made you uncomfortable (sounds questionable I know, but I am just really talking about badminton and lifting weights …Hahaha!)
• You are my beachcombing buddy that always wants to go outside with me (oftentimes, the one telling me to get up off my butt)
• You’ve done my laundry, filed my taxes, lent me money and are my personal unflinching dermatologist (I am so glad you are a nurse)
• In public, you are fearless to let me know if I’ve got a boogie or if my breath stinks so that I don’t embarrass myself
• You are good at what you do and I trust you professionally as a colleague
• You laugh when you want to laugh. You sing when you want to sing. You do it both in your own style, but always with class
• Although you and I don’t have a lot of money, you are not cheap in our friendship
• Your heart is gold
• I am glad that you can eat a meal now without rice, but if the meal does come with rice, I still need you to limit my intake
• You believe and you are proud of me
• Your kids and your family love me because you love me
• Your friends think I am special because I am special to you
• You’re willing to see foreign films, documentaries, and anything I want to see that’s not so mainstream from the Block (but how far from mainstream can you really get at Blockbuster?)
• You don’t think I am effeminate when I sing and make actions to Best Days by Matt White
• You like reading my blog and are critical of the things I write
• You’ve seen me through three tough breakups and was always there when I needed you, and gave me space when I needed to be alone
• When my last GF proposed that we get married, you were willing to be my Best (wo)Man and wear a tuxedo
• You are strong when I am weak (because you know that I am all about the drama, baby)
• You understand my “idzi nu iptakcho pabo ya”
• The egotistical married jackasses that always seem to flirt with you have no clue that they are so tiny and so out of your league. Guys, you’re making other guys look bad for being so dumb!
• You know the most about mi Gabriella
• You can find anything that I lose in my house (She says that if "that" was detachable, I would lose it too!)
• You are so beautiful; thank goodness you allowed yourself that backless outfit!
• I thank God for putting you in my life everyday
  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera….

This is my best friend, Laurina B. I could list so many more things about her here, but words will never do her justice, nor justice to how lucky I am to have her as a friend.

Here is my bru, Laurina with some of our friends (Jeanette, Grace, and Chi) at the Thursday Night Street Market in Garapan Saipan. Laurina always gets coconut juice while I get the beef barbecue sticks.

Laurina is wearing Pulan yan Tasi (moon and sea), a piece made of hima salape’ (giant clam money bead) and a square Spondylus pendant. Hima is hard to cut because it is dense and crystalline. It chips and cracks if it gets too hot while cutting, grinding or polishing. The square Spondylus piece is an uncommon color very different from the traditional orange colored Spondylus salape’ that the ancient Chamorros fashioned. The shell fragment that I fashioned it from polished quite nicely, but it was rough and eroded when I found it. Even though it is pretty solid, it is thin and only a few millimeters in thickness. This square design, I also owe to Laurina and it reminds me of the moon above the sea at night with its reflection in the water and the waves.

In Chamorro legend, the moon came from the god Puntan, who before dying, transferred his extraordinary powers to his sister, Fu’una and requested that his body parts be put to creative use. She created the beautiful island of Guahan using Puntan’s body: his back for the earth, his chest for the sky, his eyebrows as the rainbows, the right eye as the sun, and the left eye as the stars and moon. This legend illustrates the link that the Chamorro people believe they have to the sun, the moon and the stars. Just like the gualafon (full moon) Laurina brightens my life everyday on Saipan.

Thanks for being my friend, and thanks for letting me share once again.

The Beachcomber

Spondylus tears

Spondylus fragments that are workable into pendants are very hard to come by. It is difficult to find good sized ones with rich colors. I found two fragments that were pretty much the same shape and bright colors on two different occasions. They weren't too big and if I decided to cut them in to the salape' shape, then they would end up being really really small. When I get stuck, I usually ask my best friend, Laurina B. for advice and a fresh look or take on things. She said, "Why not just put a hole here. I like the way it looks natural." So, I owe her the following lago', or tear-shaped pendants.

I feel as if I cheated on these a bit though because I found them shaped the way they were. I didn't need to polish them and effectively, just poked a hole through and bound them with 100% cotton braiding cord. They turned up nicely though.

Laurina's lago' (of course she gets to keep one) is a gorgeous deep orange red Spondylus fragment. Its color is amazing and I bound it together with a small Spondylus salape' toggle.

As I was working on the other lago' pendant, my friend Bev C. called me saying that she was having a hard day. She was missing her family and life in California and she would have left that instant if she could to rejoin them. Even though I understood where she was coming from, I got a bit sad thinking that I was losing another friend. I take it pretty hard when people leave, I mean it's already hard to find good friends on a small island and when you do, there isn't always that permanence. I am usually pretty bad at corresponding too, so I lose out on them even more after friends have left.

Anyway, it took a lot to clear my mind off of the distractions so again I just focused on who Bev was to me while I finished this piece. Bev, thanks for being there for me. I know that you hear me complain a bit and you see the drama come out at times, but I've got to thank you for being there for me. You never judge me. You've also allowed me to live vicariously on your love life as you pursued a new relationship, while I was still pretty broken hearted and had a general disenchantment for relationships. No matter where you go, I will be there for you. I name this piece after you, Bev's lago' :

Bev's lago' is a bright orange Spondylus, and is naturally tear-shaped that I complimented with a small Spondylus salape' and a small sling stone shaped toggle.

I enjoyed "making" the lago' pendants and like Laurina said, I like the natural look on both of them. As always though, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I asked my friend Yerma R. what she thought of the design and she said, "It kind of looks like a dried piece of salmon. I mean, for people who might not know what it is." "Hahahaha!", I laughed so hard I almost had a tear.

Thank you for allowing me to share once again.

The Beachcomber

Spondylus bracelets: Palauan money, Cinnamon and the Tiger

I attempted to make some Spondylus bracelets and I’ll showcase what I’ve got so far on this post. I am still in the learning process when it comes to binding the pieces that I cut, and honestly it was a struggle in the beginning trying to figure out what kind of cord, or binding, or knots (everything really about binding a piece) I should use. Luckily, I stumbled upon some instructions here and there on how to do a square knot (flat) and a half knot (spiral), which seem to be sufficient at this time. I know that sooner or later, I will really have to expand my knowledge on cords, binding, and knotting. One day, I will learn how to use more traditional materials like kafu or pahong (Pandanus), niyok (coconut), and even pago (Hibiscus tiliaceus) fibers to bind my pieces. For now, I still have a few braiding cord made out of cotton and some nylon that I purchased in Wal-Mart the last time I was stateside.

I really wanted to keep my pieces closely resembling ancient Chamorro ornaments but my best friend said I should try experimenting with a few “not-so traditional pieces.” There are some people on Saipan that are big into making jewelry out of beads and they turn out real quality work that you can sell at high end stores on the island. But I really wanted an emphasis on a “traditional” flavor. As I see it, anyone can order bulk beading materials and get a book or video that gives you instructions on how to produce really good looking pieces. I am not knocking anyone who does this (in fact it’s a pretty neat hobby) but I think I will stick to utilizing things that I cut myself and not resort to store bought beads, etc.

This is the first bracelet that I attempted with a beautiful orange Spondylus centerpiece. The centerpiece reminds me of some Palauan money beads that are in the same shape and color. I then alternated two uncommon purple colored Spondylus salape’ disc beads, two orange ones, and closed the bracelet off with another purple salape’ bead. This was my first attempt on a bracelet form utilizing a square (flat) braid and a loop & toggle for the closure. I think I will rebind this another day, because the loop & toggle style on this bracelet makes it a little hard to put on by yourself. My best friend (who owns this piece now) struggles a few moments before she can get it on her wrist.

This next bracelet I call Cinnamon. It is made up of two orange Spondylus salape’ beads and the center bead is of an uncommon cinnamon colored Spondylus. This beauty is one of a kind!

My best friend saw some beads from a tiger cowry (Cypraea tigris) that were cut into squares in a gorgeous piece that was put together with some glass and plastic beads. She convinced me to experiment with this very non-traditional shape and I think the piece turned out attractively. I complained the whole time I was cutting it though saying things like, “This is not a traditional shape!” and telling her that the tiger cowry was probably over fished where it came from, and that if I wanted to be a “beader” then I should stop cutting my own pieces, and so on and so forth. So I ended up calling this piece Tigiri, the Chamorro word for tiger (from the Spanish word tigre, of course). Look closely and you’ll see Tigiri’s stripes.
Thank you again for allowing me to share.

The Beachcomber