Special Beadwork Project

I received this e-mail from a woman who has a home in Los Alamos, but is living in the Washington area at present. She has come up with a wonderful way to do something within our power, as beaders, for the Los Alamos fire victims. Please read the following letter and, if you possibly can, use one of the patterns to make a beaded square.

I would also like to thank Suzanne Cooper, who forwarded this project to me too, and so thoughtfully included it on her own web site and in her newsletter, too! Thank you Suzanne, you are a shining star!

And now, from Maureen,

"I'm sure you've heard of the Cerro Grande wildfire which has destroyed close to 50,000 acres so far. It also destroyed about 260 some homes (and I mean down to the ground destroyed!) leaving over 400 families homeless! That doesn't even go into the issue of house that may have been partially destroyed and may be uninhabitable until repaired. I've been following this disaster very closely for almost two weeks now - WHY? you may ask - because Los Alamos is my home! We (my husband, two daughters, and I) have been living in the DC area since Feb 1999 but are supposed to return to Los Alamos in Feb 2001. My husband was actually in Los Alamos for business last week, in fact, he left Los Alamos on Wednesday about 90 minutes before they called for the total evacuation of Los Alamos! By Wednesday night the town was burning! I know a lot of the people who have lost their homes. By Thursday night we thought we had lost our home also. Our entire neighborhood was shown on a couple different maps as being destroyed! We had just built our home in 1994! Our development was a new one. By Friday we began to receive e-mail messages from different people that our neighborhood had been save through the heroics of the very brave men."

"I was thinking about a friend of mine who did lose her home and everything in it. I was thinking about some kind of "gift" to show that I'm thinking of her and also to reinforce what everyone there knows - that is how lucky they all are to still have their families and that no one was hurt. She is a bead artist (stringing) and I thought I could make something, an amulet bag perhaps. I decided on the motif of a heart inside a house. Well, you know how beaders (and all artists I think) get an idea and start embellishing upon it? I got to thinking how wonderful it would be to be able to give every Mom (or family) something - amulets would be rather time consuming to do for over 400 families - so I thought maybe just a pin and later I thought the design could just as easily be made as a refrigerator magnet (in hopes that they will indeed have refrigerators to put them on). So I pulled myself off the internet and the fire reports to do up a couple quick designs on Beadscape. The design I decided upon is very simple - I have it for flat peyote, loom/square stitch, and brick stitch. Of course then I thought the loom chart could be used for cross stitch, beaded cross stitch, needlepoint, foundation pieced quilting, and yadda yadda yadda! I'm attaching the jpeg images of these three designs and wonder if you all would be so kind as to post them on your web sites with a call for help. If folks made just one or two each, I think we could have something!"

"I would love for those artists who participate to tag there works with their names and addresses (and even an e-mail address if they have one) - there have been so many donations of food and linens and you name it that the people have received anonymously and I think they might like to be able to express thanks to an actual identifiable person The designs are my own and are not for commercial use. Who knows, if folks really get into it, maybe we could do this for other disasters (yes, I do sometimes suffer from illusions of grandeur, why do you ask?)"

"I think people are great and we only get better in times of trouble. All of NM and elsewhere have been fabulous and helpful and supportive and I thank everyone! Take care!"

Sincerely,

Maureen Connolly

e-mail Maureen at fearey@bigplanet.com

And now from your Guide:

I think this is a wonderful idea. I am sure that many of the women (and men) who lost homes lost all of their jewelry as well. My suggestion would be to also donate a piece of bead jewelry. This could be done in lieu of making a Home & Heart amulet, if you are unable to make one at the moment. I have discussed this with Maureen, and she is in favor of it, and she will see to the distribution of any donations made.

Thanks you, Beadwork readers, for your kindness and generosity of spirit for those in need.