March BJP - Pennsylvania

When the Pennsylvania state quarter tumbled out of my little jar I keep them in, I immediately thought to do my March Bead Journal Project piece based on the Black Snake Mountain hiking trail in Allegany State Park that runs right along the Pennsylvania border.

Hannah and Meghan at the trailhead

Meghan and I are now standing in Pennsylvania:

And here's the view back over to the New York side (yeah, we get all dressed up when we go hiking!).

Pretty cool that this stone marker is there, isn't it? Otherwise, how would you know, right?

The problem with this idea is that I would have to incorporate the hateful scene that lies on the Pennsylvania side of the trail - a hydraulic fracturing well site. If you aren't familiar with hydro fracking, it is an idiotic method of harvesting natural gas pockets that are trapped beneath the marcellus shale. Idiotic because it is destroying the forests of the Allegheny (yep different spelling on the Pennsylvania side) Forest, not to mention the hazardous waste water it generates (well, supposedly the jury is still out on that)......ENOUGH! I will not step onto my soap box, I promise. If you are interested in learning more about this, just "google" hydro fracking and you'll be drowning in a sea of information.

Back to the BJP. I wanted to keep 'happy' thoughts and memories in my journal pieces. Maybe someday I'll cross over into the dark side of my beading brain, but not now. So, I thought and I thought and I thought ~ but I just couldn't come up with anything else.

Bink! I woke up in the middle of the night with a thought - a Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Sign! I remember as a little girl traveling to Pennsylvania with my parents and grandparents on a 'mission' to find them. For the life of me, I could not imagine why. We aren't Dutch, so why would my mom travel all that way to get one? Well, come to find out, they are actually a German-based tradition! That explains it - we are of German heritage and at that time, my grandparents had just come back from Germany after visiting my aunt and uncle who were living there. (click here if you want the full Hex Sign details)

Sweet! I've got my inspiration!

I chose this pattern simply because it looked easy. Come to find out, the symbolism behind the pattern was very appropriate to what I had just experienced. You see, the tulips represent faith and trust in man - remember the incident of the scary looking old man that appeared on my doorstep? Pretty ironic. (if you missed that story, you can click here and go to the end of the post to see what I'm talking about)

According to what I read, the eight pointed star is a fairly common hex design. The star is usually blue and symbolizes goodwill and the sheaves of wheat symbolize abundance. Ok, I think I can bead this up.

I took a little liberty on the 'star' - I made mine more like a star of leaves.

Hmm, I know I had tulip shaped beads somewhere........

oh, darn, I didn't want blue tulips! What else can I use to make a tulip?

Perfect - a bicone and some seeds.

Even with the golden 'wheat', it was still looking a bit drab, so I perked it up a bit and chose some sunny colors to make a rope border out of size 15 seeds.