Flowers for the 5th of November. Remember Remember

ah salutations ladies and gentlemen again

Yes its another message from your friend Evergreen V. Many of you have written me about the upcoming Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th. I can not respond to all your great letters so quickly, but in my evergreen grab bag I will pull out a few letters for our shared delight.

Ah here is one from one anonymous Cascadian who writes a cute little poem:

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Election fraud, treason and plot.
I see no reason why election fraud, treason
Should ever be forgot...

Well that is a good thought, because election fraud is treason against democracy and I believe just might be punishable by hanging to death. Kinda chokes you up doesn't it.

Okay time for one more letter from the evergreen grab bag. Here is one from little Suzie:

Dear Evergreen V,

I really loved the Guy Fawkes mask and my friends think its smashing! I wear it all the time. My mother told me not to wear it any more when we go to the bank or in local grocery store. Mommy also told me that on Guy Fawkes Day that the mean police might beat me and my friends up for wearing our Guy Fawkes masks. Evergreen V is there a way to get the police to put down their nasty nightsticks and join us in the celebrations on November 5th? Mommy says that the jackbooted police only care about hurting people and do not believe in democracy.

cheers,

Suzie
Olympia, WA, Cascadia

Well little Suzie thank you for the letter. I am glad you and your friends are enjoying the Guy Fawkes masks. Remember to tell your other friends that they can download the papercraft-guyfawkes-pdf at
http://www.zshare.net/download/161188971bb2c38b

Let me share a recipe with you that will be at the end of this response. The recipe is on how to make nylon flowers. These lovely little simulated versions of Nature's blossoms are a great way to both celebrate the coming Guy Fawkes Day and to win the hearts and minds of those most bitter sour pusses as well as a mechanism to get the word out about an Evergreen Revolutionary November 5th!

So the mean law enforcement officers in your letter. Well first off little Suzie not all constables are mean. By nature most humans do not like to do mean things to other people. Yes I know you are a bit taken back that constables are human. Yes they are and most of them have family and friends too. But sadly often the brainwashing or herd mentality of the authoritarian state with all its dehumanization of citizenry as to either be compliant or oppressed has made many well intended people in the honourable blue line simply tools of the state. Yes tools of the state even when the leadership in that governmental organization is corrupt and violates all basic ideas of human rights. Its a sad tragic scare on our beloved humanity that many good people join the Force only to become the tools of the corrupted elite. And these find outstanding individuals before the force of the established greedy few on the top of a vile system. And what is most strange in this tragedy is the fact that those brave men and women who put their lives on the line everyday actually are willing to protect the system that destroys their own safety and family life. These women and men in uniform and on the streets uphold commands from high while their families and friends lose education, healthcare, basic social needs, jobs, housing and basically a chance for a future. What is even more alarming is that these officers are willing to defend the status quo while their own benefits and security is undermined. But they are a proud lot and the moral crimes of the elite are never in their jurisdiction while people practicing their basic civil rights in what use to be a democracy are seen by the law as the real villainy. After all Bush or Cheney can send our troops off to die for a war based on lies and that is perfectly okay for our fine outstanding officers, but if you dare j-walk during a protest well then "may you hang." Justice is blind or should we say the police were ordered to pepper spray her when it comes to under classes. But I digress. Part of how the ruling elite creates loyal officers during times of social actions and against democratic movements is to create psychological barriers between them and the rest of the populous. First off by telling the police to be prepared for riots, looting, broken windows and mass j-walking. The fiends! They also warn the officers that there maybe bad singing and even a burst of dancing. And they are warned of the danger of a sign that may make a statement that challenges the social order. The second thing is to make the separation between the police who has sworn an oath to "duty" and the masses. This is achieved by demonizing the anyone on the street at that time as a criminal. And most important of all is the creation of the police as a single solid anonymous force. The choice of using menacing uniforms with solid dark clothing is two fold. One to instil fear in the masses and two to make the officers lose their sense of individuality. By losing their individuality they lose their individual moral judgement and their basic concept of social justice as well as any idea of civil rights for the masses. In essence the ruling elite reshapes the men and woman in law enforcement into an unquestioning single beast of authority. The effect is a "them versus us" mentality that when unleashed will not question those horrific actions done onto the general public. The police or riot cops then are not defenders of public safety, but are artificially put in a situation of fighting for the safety of the group against the public.

So I write this with the hope that you understand that most constables are not mean spirited by Nature, but during the moment or the manipulation by their ruling masters are psychologically reshaped to see the public as a combat zone. You may ask "But how uncle Evergreen V can we get the police to realize they are the public too and that their best interest is to join our peaceful democratic uprising?" That is an excellent question little Suzie.

Just last week as we were having a "make your own Guy Fawkes mask" party at a house across town where I was pondering this very issue as well as the subject of "gettin the word out" about Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th. It was at this gathering that two members of the V-army gave me a bouquet of white flowers. This lovely bouquet was made of thick wire for the stems and used white nylon for the pedals that were wrapped around a loop of thick wire. These two outstanding comrades of the V-army had made them from some used white nylon stockings. Something about going as naughty nurses last year at the Halloween party. Well that is beside the point! This astonishing boutique reminded me of a chapter in European modern history that is almost always neglected or even sadly deleted from the history books. During World War II, some Germans actually questioned the continuing war and even the opening of an Eastern Front by the ruling Nazi party. These intelligent and not so obedient German students and war veterans began passing out leaflets and white roses to make the "good Germans" wake up to the atrocities and futility of an unending war. These brave ladies and gentlemen called their association the "White Rose Society." Though they were executed for waging peace against the war machine their actions and ideas coupled with other ideas did have success in other non violent movements in other countries. One such movement led to a revolution in the beloved Iberian Peninsula of Guy Fawkes himself or as he was so fondly called Guido. The revolution took place in Portugal in the spring of 1974 and was called the Carnation Revolution. Its signature mark was the red carnation held by the citizenry and given to the soldiers not to fire upon the peaceful democratic uprising. So little Suzie in the midst of autumn and nearing the winter season I was thinking we have no roses or carnations in bloom to give. Alas a red rose would be most befitting on the day celebrated by the graphic novel and film V For Vendetta. But as mentioned those two "waskily" members of the V-army gave me nylon flowers and nylon flowers do not fade nor are they expensively shipped in from overseas. Imagine people this week making Guy Fawkes masks and dozens and dozens of nylon flowers with evergreen ribbons on them just to celebrate Election Fraud Wednesday or Guy Fawkes Day. Both of which happen on November Fifth. Imagine crowds of Guy Fawkes mask wearing people totally in love with democratic principles and civil rights handing out free nylon flowers to get the word out. Would that be a lovely sight? Imagine the police in their black riot gear shedding helmets and shields as they join the masses in our celebration of democracy. The thought just gives me the chills. And why not a rose be it white, red or other. A rose for the Rose City. A rose for the White Rose Society. A rose like these lovely Violet Carsons. And the color green, evergreen. I lovely evergreen bow or even ribbon to accompany it. Evergreen for the Evergreen state. Evergreen for the conifer trees on our splendid lands. Evergreen for the tree in that beautiful Cascadian flag. Evergreen for an Evergreen Revolution.

To make those dashing lovely nylon flower here are several recipes or instructions:


Things You’ll Need:

• Floral wire

• Stretchy nylon material

• Fabric glue

• Floral tape

• 35mm film canister

• Optional - button or bead

• Scissors

Step 1
1
Cut the floral wire into four 6-inch pieces.
Step 2
2
Hold the film canister in the center of one piece of wire and bring the loose ends of the wire up to meet.
Step 3
3
Twist the loose ends of the wire around the canister so it makes a round shape. Continue twisting the loose ends of the wire together to make the stem of the flower.
Step 4
4
Remove the canister and you have the shape for one petal.
Step 5
5
Repeat steps 2 through 4 three more times.
Step 6
6
Cut your nylon material into four pieces about the size of the wire loops.
Step 7
7
Stretch a piece of nylon material over a wire loop and glue to secure the material to the wire. Repeat for the remaining three loops and pieces of material.
Step 8
8
Place the petals on top of each other.
Step 9
9
Wrap the floral tape around the base of the petals and continue wrapping down around the wire until you reach the end. This forms the stem of the flower.
Step 10
10
Open each petal out and shape however you wish to form the flower.
Step 11
11
Glue a button or bead in the center of the flower.








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Completing The Rose
March 29th, 2007
You have managed to make the middle part of the rose by following the steps in arranging the petals. Now we will proceed to complete the rose.

Using the curvy shaped petals, put it on every side of the middle bud of the rose. One tips is to put in between two petals so that the new petal wouldn’t be overlapping the existing petals.

After you have put about 3 curvy petals around the middle part, tie them with wire no.28 and wrap using the brown floral tape. This is to make sure that your rose will look nice without the white wire no.28 visible once the whole rose has been completed.

Continue to put other curvy petals around the rose until you satisfied with the size and the look of your rose. Repeat the process of tying and wrapping with floral tape.

Usually a medium size rose will have about 11-13 petals inclusive the middle bud. You have to rearrange the petals once you have tied and wrapped them with floral tape to make sure you have a satisfactory looking nylon rose.
You have made your first rose by learning and following all the steps online.
For more ideas, visit http://www.bungatelur.com for product ideas. Look under the category of guest favors and ceremonial flowers for sample pictures of available products.

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Arranging The Petals
March 29th, 2007
From the last section of shaping the flower petals, we have made two types of petals - one with the curvy shape and another one like a folded bud.

Take the folded bud and put in the middle. Take the curvy shaped petal and hold at the right side of the folded bud.

Take another curvy shaped petal and put on the left side. Hold those petals tightly because we are going to tie them up using the flower wire no. 28.

This is how it will look like once you have tied the petals with flower wire.

Wrap the part where you tied earlier with floral tape in brown color.
You have made the middle part of a rose. Good job!

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Shaping The Flower Petals
March 29th, 2007
This will show you how we shape the wire loop into flower petals.

Using the round shape wire loop which has been wrapped with nylon material, we will proceed to the next step of shaping the petals. Using your fingernails, pinch a bit at the wire. Try to imagine how the petal curves look like.

After you have pinched every right and left side of the wire loop, it will look like this.

Take another wrapped wire, this time we will fold it inside.

Fold the left side into the right side or the vice versa, as long as the petal looks like a middle bud of a rose.

This is how the folded petal looks like.
We will continue with arranging the petals to form a rose.

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Basic Wire Loop II
March 29th, 2007
Once you have made all the necessary numbers of wire loops, it’s time to wrap them around the nylon material. The nylon material looks like a woman’s panty hose. It has a variety of colors.

This is how the nylon material looks like. We will start from one end, inside the nylon material.

Put the wire loop you have made earlier inside the nylon material. We want the nylon material to wrap all the front and the back of the wire loop.

The nylon material should envelope both front and back of the wire loop. It should fit snuggly but don’t stretch too hard or you will tear the material.

This is how it should be once you have stretch the nylon material nicely around the wire loop.

Once you have satisfied, use a flower wire size 28 and tie around the end of the nylon material and your wire loop.

Once you have tied the flower wire no. 28 around the material, snip the excess nylon nicely. Wrap the excess wire around the wire loop holder.
You have successfully wrap your wire loop with the nylon material! Congrats!

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Basic Wire Loop
March 29th, 2007
Since I have been conducting flower making class using nylon material for beginners level starting from last December, I have been requested to do DIY online guides for those who are unable to attend my class in Selangor.
So this is the first entry for DIY flower making class. Personally I feel that this is more suitable for intermediate level as you need to use a lot of wire loop to make the rose.

First take the wire and put it around a round bottle or plastic case. In nylon flower basic, all the wire loop should be in round shape. Check the one on the left side of the plastic case. That’s what I want to make - a rounded wire loop.

Pull the wire around the round plastic bottle and tie it in a knot.

After you have tied one end in a knot, leave another end about 1 to 1.5 inch before you cut it with wire cutter.

This is the basic round shape for wire loop that we need to make. For rose, we need about 8-13 of them, up to the size of the rose you would like the end result to be.


http://www.bungatelur.info/page/2/


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