It might have been me asking about Maru Dais . Willke guided me to a braiding disk with slots cut into the sides to retain the string . I braided a nice sling with a deerskin covered pouch and my dog ate it . I might be able to fix it with medical tape .

Congratulations on your sling . What was the name of the 8 strand weave? I did another sling with a cardboard disk using a braid I made up . It has a curious spiral on its surface and in an experiment I was able to braid with a core . I tries looking it up in a book and I think it was called an 8 strand angled sennit . The numbers asociated with describing the braid seemed backwards . Are there different ways to describe braids?

How long did it take you ? I spent most of my time shooing the cats away and giving my Great Dane dirty looks  . As long as my Mastiff doesn't play tug of war with mine I'll finish another out of hemp next week .

Beautiful.

Beautiful sling!

How long did it take you to make one? 
With skills like that, you can start a business selling slings!  Do you have any you'd like to trade?

Let us know when you start selling them. 

What kind of personal projects, may I ask?

ok ok ok     I'll put them up here.  I can't make any promises for time though.  It'll be a couple months at least for me to put together half a dozen slings or so.  I'd put them on my site for simplicities sake and then post the notice here in the forum.

One item I'm working towards getting is a motorcycle.  Imagine Asia and you picture a 100 bikes and honda motorcycles on the road.  Although my organization covers project costs and provides a living stipend (and a fairly decent one for most non-profit orgs), it's still  expensive to get around by taxi - motorcycle taxi - which is my main mode of transportation.  Safety is also an issue since you never know the competancy of your drivers    I've had lots of near misses and a few hits , and half the time we're on the wrong side of the road, weaving in and out of traffic, etc.  I prefer to be the master of my own destiny.  Also, owning a decent dirt bike allows better access to some of the more remote areas of Cambodia, especially in wet season.

The other item is a digital slr and zoom lens.  I do a lot of amature photography and as you can imagine, all my projects are very donor driven.  Being able to communicate the needs and the successes to donors is critical for funding and one of the major ways we do that is through photography and stories.  I've gotten by with a film slr but film is hard to develop here and scanning and sending it to the USA office is very difficult.  I do own a point and shoot, but it's really hard to capture the emotion and breadth of what happens here...  So anyway.

Neither one is critical for community development.  But they are tools that would be extremely helpful in the work here.  I probably won't manage both of them which is ok, but I figured I could probably save up for one (probably the camera - I can brave riding the moto taxi's every day if I have to and rent a motorcycle for the times that I need to get out into some of the more remote areas).

Thanks for your interest guys.  I definitely intend to keep up my website (http://www.continentaldrift.net) and I will make the effort to port over the sling making photo's so that they are available again.  My high ideals to improve that have gone by the wayside... but someday I hope to put together a complete Andies Sling-making Guide.  The Wiki is AWESOME!!  Brilliant idea.  I had thought about having some kind of comprehensive slinging site, but had neither the time or knowledge to do so.  The Wiki is a sweet solution. 

Peace,
Barak

Thanks for the great pictures, especially that one of your maru dai setup! I had also asked about alternatives to a store-bought one and ended up making a pretty nice one out of plastic, but it was too flimsy and fell apart. I think I'll try one like yours. Also, when I used my maru dai, I wasn't able to get tight braids; would that be because I don't have enough counterweights? Or not enough weight in the spools (empty film canisters)? Finally, where can I find more diagrams for maru dai braids? I have found two: here and here (Willeke's page). Does anyone know of any websites with more diagrams?
Thanks lots!

that has to be without a doubt, one of the singlehanded prettiest slings I have ever seen. I must have one. Of course, if I were the proud owner of such a work of art, I wouldn't sling anything less than glandes of pure gold with it. A common rock would just not suffice.