July 1, 2009

I was still limp with post Bead & Button Show exhaustion when a friend told Lynn about a zoo in Alabama where you could play with tiger cubs. Both of us were immediately energized - this was an experience that we absolutely couldn't miss!!

The Marcan Tiger Preserve is dedicated to the preservation and protection of the Bengal tiger. As part of their educational program, they loan tiger cubs to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo for exhibit. Because these tigers will spend their lives in captivity, it is important that they become comfortable around people and that they be trained NOT to regard humans as food. Their training as cubs begins at the zoo, and the supervised encounters with people are an important part of this.

We made our trip just in time - at about 30 pounds each, the cubs were getting too big and rowdy for zoo visitors to handle, and the encounters were ending that week.

The four cubs that played with us - from the top, going clockwise: Cyn-Cyn, Trish, Omar (the only boy), and Dharma.


Trish (front) and Omar (back) demolish a box.


Dharma and my hand.


Cyn-Cyn biting Lynn.

Largest of all cats, the tiger is one of the most threatened species on Earth. It is estimated that only about 4,000 tigers remain in the wild, most in isolated pockets spread across increasingly fragmented forests, stretching from India to southeastern China and from the Russian Far East to Sumatra, Indonesia.

Today at least three of the subspecies of tiger - Caspian in the Middle East and west central Asia - Balinese and Javan from the islands of Bali and Java are extinct, and the Chinese tiger (<30) is functionally extinct. Of the remaining six subspecies the most numerous is the Bengal tiger (~2000). The others are the Indochinese (~1000), Malayan (~500), Siberian/Amar (~500), and Sumatran (<400) tigers.

SAVE THE TIGERS by donation or adoption at the World Wildlife Organization or the Save The Tiger Fund. Other education sites include web cameras at TigerHomes and the Yahoo group All For TIGERS.

          
Butterfly On Clouds               Plum Blossom on Diamonds

I've been having fun experimenting with casting copper and bronze, and becoming familiar with their properties and working characteristics. These two beads join the series begun with the gingko and maple leaf beads. Like those beads, the background designs are based on antique Japanese textile prints.
The butterfly is a symbol of romantic love in Korea, and is cast in bronze, then applied floating over stylized clouds.
The plum blossom, symbol of renewed vitality and good fortune, is cast in copper and rests on a diamond pattern.

Two Faced Skull Charm

Still playing with my sugar skull designs…
This small charm (or pendant) has a different face on each side.

In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is the day of the year that families and friends gather to remember and pray for relatives and friends who have died. It is believed that on this day, the souls of the dead come back to visit. To welcome and honor them, altars are built and decorated with flowers, food, and gifts - in some areas of Mexico, skulls made of sugar or paper mâché are part of the decoration.
The skull designs on this charm are based on these decorated skulls.