My ten year old nephew is currently in the bellydance class I’m teaching. He seems very keen on the entire thing, which is particularly pleasing to me, as I’m one of the weird ones who sees the dance as coming from the folk tradition, rather than some unknown woman-centric prehistory. I’m not alone in this, as Morocco (who writes eloquently about the use of some of the movements as a birthing aid in Morocco) has as her protege – a wonderful dancer by the name of Tarik Sultan. (He’s also a fabulous teacher, if you get the opportunity).
In any case, The Nephew is very interested in a belt. I think he likes the noise aspect of the whole thing, as well as the moving part. I know men wear the traditional coin belts: I’ve seen them. But I wanted to do something a bit more individual for kiddo. He likes the tassels, but unlike his mother, he doesn’t want ONLY tassels. He’s a magpie. He wants shiny jingly things as well to feather his nest.
So I decided to make him a combination tassel/coin belt. It’s going to take some investment, as coins are not particularly inexpensive, but in the end I think it will be worth it. I’m currently playing with a couple of ideas, including chainette fringe instead of tassels, and all three: fringe, tassels AND coins! More is always better, right? (Have I mentioned that my favorite embroidery techniques come from the baroque era? {grin}). However, I think I’ll sideline the baroque for now, and start with working on a base — I’m thinking red and blue with shisha and chain-stitch embroidery patterns…
Step one: Measure kid’s hips.
Something tells me this isn’t going to be as easy as I first thought!
