I was making a guiro from a birdhouse gourd. While I was driving around, I was thinking about the pattern of the mottles above the short grooves. It had to be a turtle.

So I got out my woodburner to make sure I could see it better as I finish the grooves.

Over the next couple of days, I used my short slim file like a demon and finished off all the friction grooves. Then I let the turtle's shell line come all the way around. I made holes as in a bowling ball set of holes to hold the guiro (not my idea, I read it somewhere else). Next setps will be coloring and further decorating. I think the front has to come off to make more of a hawksbill but I'm not fully sure yet. It makes it look more snakelike to have the front as it is. Rebecca things it should be an elephant with the grooves running down the front of the trunk.

I will show off more as it is ready to show off. I see a sun on one side with the lines bing the sumbeams, but it is also an eye - how to reconcile the visions?

And you won't believe this - but it is LOUD. hehehe - I found a nice square chopstick which makes an excellent scraper stick.

Yesterday I walked down to the river. I heard natural shakers - seed pods rattling in the December wind on a tree next to the trail. Then I found a natural shaker - a stem with some pods with seeds rattling in them like great huge crepe myrtle pods. I looked around and could tell I had seen this kind of place before - a place with spiritual energy. So I picked up the shaker and played and sang, then shook the shaker all the way back again.

Later I sketched out the designs I could see emerging. I found that this wasn't a sea turtle but a snapping turtle and fixed his legs accordingly. I'm still thinking of the mouth.

The symbol has meaning. It seems to have come home from the river with me.



Here is a snapping turtle that I was thinking of.



I hurried up and finished it because it needs to be done tonight, I tacked on the scraper but everything else is quite done now I think and it sounds pretty nice.

Make a Shakere is made possible by support from Fertility Futures, a firm focused on helping make families possible. Many would be parents are unable to realize their dreams of a family with children due to fertility issues. Fertility Futures brings medical specialists and counselors to bear on these difficult problems, helping couples with a range of solutions from fertility therapy through the use of surrogates to carry a child through pregancy for a family. In order to support this service, Fertility Futures also solicits egg donors for its ova donation program. People who face challenges in becoming parents, or healthy women who are willing to become egg donors should consider visiting Fertility Futures.

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