Olive

For the last few years I have been wearing straight legged pants.  They tuck easily into boots, are comfortable and have a slimming effect.   But I love this olive green outfit with the flared leg.

Gray felt fedora: Target. Ann Taylor olive sweater & Bebe olive cords: thrifted from Sola Lucy. Gray Blondo boots: Walk Shop.

 There is curiosity about the string, bead bracelet  I have been wearing for almost a year now.  It was made for me by a Quechua Indian woman in the Amazon Village of  Machakuyaku when I visited for a week last April in Ecuador.  Below is her bracelet creation process.

 Her husband strips a length of bark from a tree. She softens it up by rubbing it on the rafter of her main room.  Once supple, she seperates the bark to reveal strings.  

She then prepares a branch, stripping it's outer layer so she can lay the string on the surface and scrape away the leafy green.  

Once the string is freed she coils and washes it.

 Then she hangs it out to dry in the sun.
 In the meantime her husband makes holes in the seeds that are used as beads in the bracelet.

 When the string is dry and bead prepared, she weaves and knots the strands of string and threads the beads and knots the twine around the beads. 

 

She tied the bracelet on my wrist and it has not come off in 11 months.  The larger red bead broke and fell off, but the brown beads stay nestled in their beds.  I am amazed at the durability of the string and the knots.