Art Jewelry Elements: Pondo Play

Everyone has been sharing their new adventures so I thought I would share mine with you.

I decided to give Pondo stitch a second try. I had attempted this stitch a couple of times but I struggled. I do not like struggling with a stitch and giving up. It was a good thing that I had thought about it again to use to finish a piece on my tray. So out I went to find a video on YouTube. I did find a couple and this is the one I think is the best.

http://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdaVaYEE0v58&session_token=qk3fS--a3YrS9fBGLhmOXIzI3j18MTM4OTgyMTk1NUAxMzg5NzM1NTU1

Here is a little background information about the stitch I found.

The Pondo

Pondoland is named after the Pondo people. This is the area of South Africa that includes the South Eastern seaboard of Cape Province. The Pondo people speak Xhosa, a language spoken by approximately 18% of South Africa’s population. Although the Pondo speak Xhosa, the Pondo people are in fact the descendants of refugees who fled from the north several hundred years ago.

Even though the Pondo people have incorporated some modern innovations, their lives remain relatively unchanged from that of four or five hundred years ago. They still live in their round, thatched houses. These are still built with the doorway to the east so as to catch the first rays of sunlight each morning. They create incredible craft work, including ‘Pondo baskets’ and awesome bead work. Traditional colors are very important to the Pondo. You’ll find that pale blue is the dominating color in celebratory clothing for adults, and red or orange for children. The style of beading known as "Pondo stitch" was first found amongst antique bead work that was made by the Pondo tribe. This stitch has since been found in work made by other peoples at various times

I was even more intrigued when I read about it but it still took a bit for me to get it but once I did it was the AH HA moment I needed.

Here is the piece I started with.

The on problem that was messing me up was how the accent beads work. If you do watch the video I am sharing a little tip with a picture for you.

The vertical accent beads go with the hole vertically and the threads going through where the red lines are. On the horizontal the accent bead holes face horizontal and the threads go through where the red lines are. I hope that tip helps.

Here is the finished piece I had in mind when I set out to learn this stitch again.