Engraving Concrete Saw

How could I make my own clay or concrete christian cross?

I saw this really cool hanging cross that is concrete and it has rocks placed in it and writing engraved.... I want to make something like this, how hard would that be? I was thinking of using glass instead of rocks. Is there a way I could make a mold and then poor concrete into it or something? I can easily pick up supplies at Michael's or something... help

This is only a partial answer. Because clay and concrete are both highly breakable, you will need to form an armature first, around which to construct your cross. Something like an old coat hanger would do, if you can get the straight bits straight enough.

On the horizontal arms, I'd suggest adding a loop at each end. The vertical arms should have a kind of loop at both ends too. (The bottom one is to prevent the clay, if it breaks, from slipping off.)

Then to hang the finished result, you could easily put fishing line or a chain (probably not string) from the three top loops to suspend it with some degree of stability.

There is also very lightweight acrylic "clay" which can be baked in the oven once finished. These come in a variety of colours and can make really pretty sculptures -- and probably would be light enough to avoid a complete armature. (I'd still make the horizontal one, with loops at the end.)

Have fun!

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A failed revolution and a need for a new vision

I’m concerned by what has happened to our dear nation and our people as a whole!  Yesteryear we had faith and hope that when the colonizers would leave us alone; we would live as masters in our own land. In the contrary, today, the Congolese people are scattered all over the world in search of a new safe “home”!  Terrible was the fact that when they (colonizers) left us we were plunged into an unprecedented chaos as never seen before; fragile leadership couldn’t stand up to the task; mutiny, civil war and especially lack of leadership erupted all over the nation. Some thought that maybe it was time to call in a dictator consul to restore order has it used to be a norm in the ancient Roman Empire, only to find out that time and era has significantly changed.

The dictator consul

While in ancient Rome the dictator rei gerendae causa was appointed in times of military emergency for six months or for the duration of the emergency, whichever was shorter to reign and restore order whenever things went wrong and hand over the reign’s baton after that to an elected consul, the post independent Africa wasn’t to be the same. The dictators of our era brought even more chaos: everlasting stay in power, ruthless, atrocity, destruction, corruption, mismanagement etc. were their norms, common example been Idi Amina and Mobutu.

Mobutu’s 32 years of dictatorship, unruly behaviour and total destruction left the Congolese nation, scattered into pieces. The question was who was going to pick up the pieces and ensemble them once again? Then the Perestroika’s waves came, the Balkanization, the fall of the Berlin’s wall and finally the end of the cold war.

The sole masters

In which direction the world was supposed to swing this time around? Instructions had to be taken especially for the more vulnerable like I and my people from the far North West as they become the sole masters of the world! They had fought and won over communists Russians, now it was time for a new wave’s current: Capitalism and democracy of course. Perestroika’s waves didn’t only limited itself at the Balkan’s peninsula shores, but also did swipe at my Congo’s shores. Even he (Mobutu) who didn’t believe in this new wave was forced to dance to this new melody.  April 24th  1990 witnessed one of the most unprecedented speech in the history of our beloved nation, “pluralism experience, let’s give it again a second chance!” he said in this memorable speech and then shed a “crocodile tears” as this speech meant the end to one of the  most atrocious political system the “unique party”. UDPS (Union for Democracy and Social Progress) with their leader Etienne Tshisekedi emerged as new kids on the block after years of persecution from Mobutu.

37 years back into history

After six years of manipulated transition by Mobutu, nothing big was achieved; the grass (the people) suffered the most as it had to observe the fight between the two elephants (Mobutu and Tshisekedi). Then the year 1996 brought our nation 37 years back into history when Fidel Castro and Ernesto Ché Guevara decided that revolution was the sole means to liberate Cuba from the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista!

A manipulated revolution

Laurent Désiré Kabila and his alliance seemed to be the only hope of liberation for the Congolese people. While October 25th 1917 has been engraved in history as the day, month and year Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin together with their Bolshevik’s revolutionary party triumphed in Russia and came to achieve  all their ideas through communism; Kabila’s May 17th 1997 revolution couldn’t achieve anything which I and the nation are aware of. This revolution couldn’t achieve neither of it goals (I wonder if they had some) ‘cause it was a manipulated one. The Tutsi’s governments in Rwanda and Uganda frustrated of the permanent danger their enemies’ génocidaires ex FAR (Forces Armées Rwandaise) and Hutu Interahamwe militia   represented to them in their Eastern Congo’s maquis, decided to use a small portion of Congolese men without a vision nor passion for their country to get rid of their enemies and unsettle Mobutu’s regime which was compassionate to them.

The Rwando - Ugandans alliance achieved it goals with zeal and excellence as Mobutu finally was toppled and their enemies’ scattered! Once inside the country as they accompanied their new allies, the Tutsi’s alliance occupied all keys positions: from diplomacy to military, military to intelligence as we were told that “they were some of us!” That wasn’t enough; in the same way Belgians colonizers discovered in the late  1800s, that Congo wasn’t only an immense territory good to be qualified as continent on its own (remember Congo is 80 times bigger than Belgium), but also it was good to be  qualified as a “paradise” on earth with everything they wanted to suit their desires.

Rwando – Ugandans discovery and the “trahison”

Decades later, Rwandans and Ugandans also discover the same thing and wanted a share of this immense “cake” upon which they had seated their “puppets”. Once the “puppets” realized that they were been used by the Tutsi’s governments in Kigali and Kampala to score political, military and economical goals, they tried to cut all ties with their “instructors” while revealing their true faces as foreigners and accused them of looting the Congolese riches. But this attitude by the “puppets” wasn’t to go unchallenged by the “masters” who saw it as a “Trahison” and it backfired upon them! Counter revolution movements backed by Kabila’s former allies followed, RCD (Congolese Rallies for Democracy) and MLC (Congolese Movement for Liberation) lead by Jean Pierre Bemba were some of them. L.D. Kabila paid the highest price for trying to oppose his “masters”, death was the only punishment he deserved, thought his now’s enemies and once more they got it right! How could it be possible that one of his enemies be the first to publicly announce his death? Of course Kampala was the first to announce that “indeed he’s dead” while his own government downplayed the news, Brussels confirmed his death through former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs Mr. Louis Michel. Everything Congolese people had hoped for through this “revolution” went down the drain on January 16th 2001 has opportunists who were at the right place at the right time took the lead of our beloved nation.

The betrayal of land’s right

If we don’t learn from history, then we are doomed to repeat history! This revolution has failed us as a nation. Because there’s nothing concrete they have achieved, and it’s time to seek a new visionnaire leadership to lead us as a new people.  The right to the land which has always been at the centre of most revolutions has also been betrayed! instead of training the Congolese people in farming skills, and gives them their land to farm; the Congolese government has opted instead to offer 10 million hectares of our land to South Africans farmers recently with 99 years exploitation’s lease!  This is a tragedy to us because once more the “masters” are back to settle in our nation and exploit our people. That’s why there shall be a need for renaissance and consciousness, a need for a new vision among Congolese people before this ship sank even deeper into the abuse of power.

Naïve’s attitude

Congolese people, we have become so naïve. A people who have come to accept any situation has its presented to us without challenging it. Why there aren’t no more people who want to stand firm and defend the right of the nation? Marxists in the Russian Empire justified the sacrifice of millions of human beings in the pursuit of revolution, in their vision “perfect society was anticipated once the military conflict was ended”. Today more than 7 million human beings lives have been sacrificed in the East of Congo in pursuit of what? Is the perfect society been achieved? If those more than 7 million lives have been lost in pursuit of democracy and a perfect society, then there’s a need for a new vision, a vision to achieve democracy and a better society for all no matter what’s the cost to honour these fallen compatriots.

Congolese people, we have to become conscious, stop wasting time in search of “new safe heavens” around the world, we have to go back home were everything we are looking for is under our own soil and fight for what is ours until we achieve this new vision together.

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About the Author

Guillaume K.CISUAKA is a Congolese consciousness activist. He's writing in his own capicity and can be contacted through cisuaka@yahoo.fr