Jewels of Saraswati Gifts Drew Barrymore!

Some of you may have heard the big news......I will be sending one of my newest designs to Drew Barrymore in association with The Artisan Group!

This is a wonderful opportunity for exposure for a small shop like mine and I was very excited to be chosen to create something unique for her. Although I am not big on celebrities, there is something sweet and fun about Drew to me. She appears a little more down to earth and I have heard several stories of her traveling to India and taking up Yoga. Drew's style seems to be boho chic, fun, and especially now with a new little soul on the way, I thought she would enjoy a necklace with calming and spiritual elements.

After some thought I created a necklace that may be used as a mala if desired. It is 54 beads of rudraksha with citrine spaced in between. I used beautiful honey to light colored citrine rondelles, faceted green aventurine briolettes and an extra large faceted nugget of amethyst.

It is packed in a beautiful Namaste mala pouch that is hand-sewn and hand-stamped by one of my favorite shops, The Blissful Turtle. I only recently sent it to its first location where it will be packed in a bag of items by other talented members of The Artisan Group and then delivered directly to Drew.

So make sure to keep your eyes peeled! Perhaps one day you will see a photo of Drew on the street wearing this! .....Or maybe her assistant. :) Either way I have had so much fun making this necklace and have been very much inspired by amethyst. Expect to see more similar items in the shop in the coming months.

After such a great response from this mala necklace, I created another with identical materials for the shop shown in the photo below. You can click here to learn more about this special necklace.

In The Spirit of Collaboration

The beauty of living on this Earth is knowing that we are all connected, that with many minds and many hearts the are a plethora of paths to reach our goals. In my opinion, it is even more fun when you have friends to inspire you along the way! 

An idea was running through my mind for a while......Wouldn't it be wonderful to ask others to be involved with some of my mala or jewelry designs? Wouldn't it be beautiful to see where they found inspiration whether it was through color, through feel, or through material? And so I put the question out into the Twitterverse!

Yogini Christina Sell

I was lucky enough to have a quick response from the amazing yogini, Christina Sell. Christina is an extremely active and revered yogini based in Texas. She is the director and co-founder of the School of Yoga, presents workshops all over the nation, has two renowned books to her name, and is the 2012 Art of Asana columnist for Yoga International Magazine. I am honored she had the time to send me the emails she did about this little mala! 

This is the design we came up with. She mentioned the School of Yoga being sun-oriented and inspired by the Gayattri Mantra so sunny yellow calcite seemed perfect to use in this case. We added rudraksha guru and a copper Om charm and I strung it on stretch cord so that it will be versatile to fit most wrists. 

Christina recommended the Gayatri Mantra for this sun-inspired mala:

AUM BHOOR BHUWAH SWAHA,
TAT SAVITUR VARENYAM
BHARGO DEVASAYA DHEEMAHI
DHIYO YO NAHA PRACHODAYAT.

Summary of the Gayatri Mantra

Gayatri Mantra (the mother of the vedas), the foremost mantra in hinduism and hindu beliefs, inspires wisdom. Its meaning is that "May the Almighty God illuminate our intellect to lead us along the righteous path". The mantra is also a prayer to the "giver of light and life" - the sun (savitur).

Oh God! Thou art the Giver of Life,
Remover of pain and sorrow,
The Bestower of happiness,
Oh! Creator of the Universe,
May we receive thy supreme sin-destroying light,
May Thou guide our intellect in the right direction.

School of Yoga Mala Bracelet

I hope you enjoy it! 

What stones inspire you? If you were to create a mala, how would you design it?  And who knows? Maybe we will come up with a design together. :)

There are more collaborations to come.....

Malas 101 - Part 2 - How to Use Your Mala

If you have not meditated with a mala before and you would like to try, here are a few brief instructions on how to use your mala.

Hold your mala in your most comfortable or dominant hand. The mala should be held resting on your third finger and the beads "counted" with your thumb. The index finger should not touch the mala as it represents the "ego". And who wants that interfering with our practice! :) (If you would like to see some wonderfully detailed pictures illustrating this click here to visit one of my favorite yoga blogs.)

As you begin your mantra, draw the beads inward with your thumb for each recitation. Keep bringing the beads inward, thus bringing your concentration inward. When you have gone completely around the mala you will come to the center bead or "guru" bead. If you wish to continue and do another full mala, do not cross over the guru, but respectfully flip the mala around and begin again. (If you have a smaller mala such as a 54 or 27 bead mala, also make sure not to cross over the guru.)

Malas are very personal items and may be used as you wish. The instructions above are the way I was introduced to meditating with a mala. I am very grateful to my teacher who has inspired me to work with these wonderful tools!

Some like to wear their malas as sacred jewelry to remind them of their intentions, others keep their mala tucked safely away in a pouch and only use it during their meditation practice. However you use your mala, I hope you enjoy it's benefits!

Many Malas For Many Hands

Recently I was asked to do a very special wholesale order that I would just love to share!

I was asked to create several malas from stones that correspond to the seven chakras (or energy points). Each chakra has associations to colors, gemstones as well as specific qualities and are said to connect to our being on many different levels. Admittedly, I had not done much work with chakras before and found the research aspect of this project so much fun!

This was such a rewarding and enjoyable endeavor for me, I just had to share a few pictures of them with you. I created a 108 bead aragonite mala, 27 bead fluorite mala, 108 bead sodalite mala, and a 27 bead red jasper mala...to name only a few!

My favorite part is shipping them out and wondering who will be meditating with them in the future!

 

A beautiful trade...

I had the pleasure of my very first trade last week!


Laura of Compassion Malas  and I decided to trade malas from our shops. Her work has been featured on this blog already, but I can't say enough about it! I chose the the picture jasper pocket mala......

And she chose the Black Agate Mala......

The mala I received was beautiful and warm. I admit I have yet to meditate with it yet due to my schedule this week, but I plan to tonight! I will let you know how it goes. 


Peace to all! And a special hello to my new followers!