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Debra Pyeatt - Tribute to Khepri
Category: Body Adornement.
Flat peyote, circular peyote, brick stitch, right angle weave, 3-dimensional surface embellishment
"Lo! I am Khepera at dawn, Ra at high noon and Atum at eventide"
Ancient Egyptian gods were known by many different names. One such god was Khepri (or Khepera), who represented the sun god Ra in the morning from daybreak to noon. This god was given the form of the dung beetle, or scarab.
As the dung beetle rolls its ball of dung, so the ancient Egyptians believed Khepri appeared at sunrise, ascending the morning sky pushing the sun before him. Because he reappeared each morning out of nothing, he also became known as the god of the transformation of life, always being reborn of itself. In fact, his name came to mean "to become" or "to change." This myth became such an important part of ancient Egyptian life that many of the kings were named with some form of Khepri.
As to the colors used in my piece, ancient Egyptians appeared to desire a trilogy of blood-red carnelian, vivid blue-green turquoise and deep cerulean blue lapis lazuli. Gold, in various degrees of impurity, was usually the setting used. These colors also contained a symbolic meaning: blue - symbolized the sky and celestial divinity; red - symbolized fire and blood; green - symbolized regeneration; and gold - symbolized the gods' flesh and the idea of preciousness. A majority of Egyptian jewelry uncovered to date seems to contain these colors.
My pectoral Khepri spreads his wings to push a red beaded ball representing the Sun. His underside is endowed with his name in hieroglyphs. Twenty smaller scarabs face Khepri, each with a hieroglyph on its underside representing such words as life, power, great and divine. At the end of the golden line is a smaller Khepri which doubles as a clasp for the necklace. Khepri was a favored subject, and there have been numerous pieces of jewelry discovered adorned with the image of Khepri, both with and without wings.
I have always wanted to be an archeologist, and Egyptology in particular has held a deep fascination for me. When I decided to enter this contest, I began pouring over mythology books, but each time I found myself drawn back to the Egyptian myths, and in particular Khepri.
After working all during the summer of 1998 to finalize my subject and general look of the finished piece, I began charting and stitching in October of '98. Upon completion of about half of the pectoral piece, I discovered a flaw in my pattern which forced me to tear apart the first draft and rechart the winged scarab. When I completed the second pectoral, I beaded the sun out of a wooden bead. However, I used peyote stitch on the ball, and with the decreasing, felt that the sun did not really look that good and the beads had a tendency to feel lumpy. As to the scarab, I like the looks of it but found it smaller than what I had envisioned. I therefore decided that it could be used as the clasp of the necklace without the "sun".
The third attempt at the pectoral began after more rework and additions to the pattern. Upon completion, the scarab had the look that I wanted. Next came the little scarab bead tiles. This pattern was built with simplicity in mind. I wanted the hieroglyph on the back of each one to associate with Khepri and they needed to be fairly easy to chart due to the limitations of the width of the beadwork. I had thought of using some stone scarabs that I had, but decided to try and keep the piece totally out of Miyuki Delicas.
Now it was time to make the red ball representing the sun. Here I came into another snag. I needed a wooden bead to bead around, but all the beads that I had were entirely too small. Since I was running out of time (I had less than a week by this time to finish the piece, photograph it and get it in the mail) to make the deadline, I was going to have to go with what I could find.
I had a wooden ball that might work if I could get a hole drilled through it. A quick trip next door and a helpful neighbor drilled the hole for me. I started out with a peyote stitch on this larger "sun" but found that the beads again refused to lay flat once I started the decrease. Then I decided to switch to right-angle weave off the peyote where I would first start decreasing. This worked perfectly, and added contrast to the sun that I liked. In fact, the sun turned out perfectly smooth using this transition.
The necklace consists of a winged scarab pectoral representing Khepri. The front of the scarab is done in a peyote stitch, with some brick stitch out on the tips of the wings. He also has an additional layer of peyote stitch done on the top of the body and the head adding another dimension of beads. On the underside of the piece, the scarab body sides are next done in brick stitch. The back piece of the scarab is again in peyote stitch with the name "Khepri" done in hieroglyphs with the Delica beads. This gives the scarab 3 dimensions. The pectoral scarab is attached to the "Sun". The circumference of the sun is stitched in tubular peyote and then changes to tubular right-angle weave for the rest of the sun. Going through the sun is a length of Soft Flex © which is completely covered with gold Delicas. Threaded on this are 20 individual scarabs, each containing a hieroglyph on its reverse that pertains to the deity. The necklace is constructed so that the individual scarabs have movement on the golden cord. The medium sized flying scarab serves to hide the clasp of a hook and eye. He is made essentially the same way as the pectoral scarab. The front was done in peyote with dimensional peyote on the top of the body and the head. The underside of this scarab also has sides done in brick stitch and a back containing hieroglyphs for King Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen (1343-1325 B.C), who is generally thought to have restored peace to ancient Egypt by returning to the worship of the ancient gods. It is 19" from winged scarab to winged scarab, and 5" across at its widest point (the pectoral scarab).
I have been actively beading since 1994 and I do have a website. Please feel free to visit it.
If you have any questions, I can be reached at debraacts [AT] bellsouth.net