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I will learn to spell Quetzalcoatl. I will learn to spell Quetzalcoatl. I will figure out which spelling is the most popular for that Aztec god who appears as part snake and part bird. Checked out a bunch of books at the library this past Sunday, including one about Central and South American mythology. "Quetzal" (a bird with long green tail feather) and "coatl" (snake) make the Feathered Serpent, who was the Aztec god of sun, sky, wind, and even the morning star. The Aztecs seem so interesting from the distance of ignorance-- Hey, look, it's fierce warriors and they had something to do with chocolate! Well, I don't think I'd ever really read alot about their culture. Yes, they did sacrifices, but it wasn't always their enemies who got fed to the gods. Quetzalcoatl led an interesting life as a god, too. Here are some masks I made after reading a bit. Just played with turquoise because he was often represented in turquoise.
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3-22-07 Hey, I just took another picture, and I had to show it to ya! At least on my monitor, this is better. No light tent, no tripod, and so much better? Argh! and A-ha!
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Quetzalcoatl was born the son of an earth goddess who caught a white feather as it fell from the sky and placed it upon her breast. As a result, she became pregnant with Quetzalcoatl. He was a good and pure child, one who unlocked many secrets for man.
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Oh, and the part about sacrifices: One young man was chosen each year to be the sacrifice for the next year's spring festival honoring the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. For that year, he was pretty much treated as a god himself.
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Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca were both gods, but T. was jealous of Q.'s pure goodness. This rivalry colored Q.'s entire life, it seems, starting with T. showing Q. his reflection in a sorcerer's mirror. The reflection showed an old wrinkled man.
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Believing the reflection in T.'s mirror, Q. became afraid his people would turn away from him. He allowed T. to cover his "hideous" reflection with a robe of quetzal feathers and a serpent mask made of turquoise.
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Yep, just the "quetzal" half this time, methinks. Not much about this one to suggest the serpentine "coatl" half! I love him, anyway, because he's a step closer to what I wanted :)
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I could tell he was really only bird-like, so I fit "quetzal" onto the back. I do love trying to write in cursive with molten glass-- another challenge
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I haven't done alot more reading; was trying to sketch an idea last night. Katie was sketching from the book, too, so I didn't try to read.
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Katie, my almost 5 yr. old, loves to draw. What's even better, she loves to study intently the pictures I'm looking at for glass ideas. Then, she does the most wonderful job of distilling it all down into a single image.She said I could show this one!
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Back to Parent Page:  angelinabeadalina's Gallery
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Thanks for stopping by to visit with AngelinaBeadalina! I'm really just plain ol' Angie or Ang, but the catchy name does suit me in the sense that I'm a motormouth who loves to play with words almost as much as I love to play with glass! You can find me here at BeadArtists.org, in my Etsy shop, or in my daily blog. You can get links to those places at www.angelinabeadalina.com (click on it above). Please pardon the use of my "official" website as a traffic control signal at the moment-- at least, that's what it makes me think of when I look at it. . . lots of directions to other places where there are updates on a daily basis. Tech-stuff would not be one of those things that I love or that comes naturally to me ;) Well, enough rambling for now, come on in, look around. . . have fun exploring my glass experiments and ideas. Peace, Ang
Angie Garren
Southern Illinois, the Little Egypt
of the MidWest
IL 62848 US
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5223637
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