Om Shanti Handcrafts

Living a green lifestly has been important to me for a while, and it's moved more to the forefront of my attention over the last six months or so. I shan't go into general ways of doing this - there are a lot of sites out there that do it already and do a better job of it than I could. But I can address a small part of it here - how I'm running a business as green as I can.

First come the easy things - turning off my computer, my camera, my lights when I'm not using them. Rechargable batteries (in a solar charger) for the camera. Working with natural light whenever possible, and riding my bike to the local natural foods store for supplies. That's low-hanging fruit; easy stuff.

After that, things I had to think a little harder about. I've begun getting more of my supplies at thrift stores and such. Pitchers for soapmaking from the Salvation Army, a couple of necklaces with pretty beads from Ares Thirft Store (which I'll pick apart and reuse), a postal scale from a little consignment shop down on Third. That bike I ride to the natural foods place was twenty-five dollars at the Humane Society thrift store (and supports a good cause, to boot). A buck fifty for a screws-and-bolts organizer that'll hold beads just as well.

I store my bath salts in reused popcorn containers, let my lip balms sit in the sun in glass jars that once held pickles or jelly. The wicker three-drawer chest holding my herbs and the matching one filled with beads came from the Salvation Army. I have an entire spool of copper wire that someone was going to throw away - that gets turned into wound-wire beads and other ornaments.

But there are some things you just have to buy new. Used olive oil? Nuh-uh. But buying it in bulk not only saves me money, it uses a lot less packaging (and a lot less oil to run the packaging machine, as well). Same with beads when I do buy them new; same with the wire I string my necklaces on. I save scraps of wire from necklaces to make a bracelet, from a bracelet to make a pair of earrings. I've gotten good at using a length of wire that's almost too short and making it work anyway.

Instead of buying premade clasps (oil to run the machines to make them, oil for the packaging, oil to pack them up) I make my own from a spool of silver wire - yes, bought new (though I wouldn't pass up such a spool if I found it used) but it's probably spared the world a half-pound of discarded packaging already. And while I do recycle the thin cardboard holding bead packages when I'm gifted them, I'd rather they weren't made in the first place.

My own packaging was a conundrum. I experimented with reusing glass jars purchased at thrift stores for a bit, but people didn't find them appealing and when I thought about it, I realized why - bath salts are intimate, they go in a bath you're going to put your body in; you don't want the container to have once held peanut butter. So, I was going to have to buy new.

Plastic jars were less expensive, but I went with glass. Glass jars are far more reusable - plastic holds the scent of whatever came in it, it discolours and cracks in the sun, often isn't safe to put in the dishwasher. If it comes to it, glass is easily recycled into more glass just like it. Plastic, when it is recyclable, takes more energy, leaves more waste, and can only be recycled into other products - plastic lawn furniture, for example, which then can't be recycled when it inevitably breaks. Glass was by far the better choice, price difference notwithstanding.

A similar consideration drove my purchase of stainless steel containers for my salves and lip balms, instead of much cheaper plastic. And once I have a storefront of my own, I can offer to refill your Om Shanti bath salts jar or lip balm tin for a discount, encouraging people to reuse them often. :)

Shipping? I get boxes free at work; packing peanuts and bubble wrap come from a local trophy store that's more than happy to let me take what they don't need rather than throwing it away. Pretty printed address labels are nice but I can use a Sharpie just fine, too. And the post office is a long ride on my bike, but hey, I needed to get into shape anyway%u2026

There's only so much I can do. The computer, the camera, the lights; the stove to heat things for soap or lip balm; the car driving me to craft shows; the packaging inherent in things I do have to buy; even the light and heat to power the thrift stores I shop at. But I do what I can, and I invite everyone reading this to do the same.

Once the screen was really silver
Once the world was shades of gray
Come inside and touch the romance
Fred and Ginger dance the night away
Let the shutter frame your vision
Let the sprockets pull you down
Eighteen frames, the speed of silence
Twenty-four, the speed of sound
Monochrome
Bogie in a trench coat, standing alone
Monochrome
-- Monochrome, John M. Ford



Once I bought a Star Trek book. It was called How Much for Just the Planet, and it was by one John M. Ford. I bought it because it was a Star Trek book.

It's a musical. In book form. Set in the Star Trek universe. And not only does Ford pull it off, he makes it brilliant.

I shan't go on about it further (other than to say GO FIND IT NOW) but I mention it to note that my newest piece is named after a song in said book -- Monochrome, about the grand old days of black and white movies, when elegance reigned, the good guys wore white hats, and the bad guys always left you a way out before the theatre exploded. Nothing like pearls for elegance and I had plenty -- and a lot of fun putting them together for this set.

Matching necklace and bracelet, fifty dollars the set. Recall the old days of elegance. And even if you don't buy the jewelry, go buy the book!

Let me catch a bus with Gable
Grand Hotel for all my nights
Busby Berkeley tunes are playing
Through the window, Chaplin's City Lights
Wander down the aisles together
Take a lover, find a friend
Dance to Bernard Herrmann's music
Till the title card that reads The End
Monochrome
Carbon arcs in darkness lighting me home
In monochrome
Monochrome
With a cast of thousands, no one's alone
With Monochrome

Today I put my first couple of pieces up for sale on Etsy.com. I'm not anywhere near what I'd consider ready but I was starting to realize that I wasn't ever likely to be as ready as I wanted to be, so here I go. The first is the paternoster I talked about below. The picture doesn't do it justice, alas, and I really should have a few more; this is why I wanted to do more before I posted! But that way lies madness and it is a pretty good picture. And I can add more later.

The second is a necklace called 'Hammer and a Nail'. It's named after an Indigo Girls song --

I look behind my ears for the green
And even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
I gotta get out of bed
Get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands



All of my jewelry from here on out is going to be named, though I didn't name anything I sent out for Christmas. But anything I put that much time and consideration and, yes, love into should have a name, I figure. Since music inspires me anyway and I've always got a soundtrack of some sort going, I'm using song titles. Might expand it more later (as the muse demands!).

It's mainly glass, this piece, and not even matching beads, but I like the shine and the rhythm of it -- swinging a hammer isn't always dead even, either, but there's a pattern to it, a feel you get once you've built enough decks. Which I certainly have; thanks Dad! It's relatively close-fitting so it won't get in your way when you're working on something -- I'm always worried that something too long will get caught in the drill press and I'll wind up one of those stories told on the evening news in grim tones.

Well, that's my two pieces for today. More will follow as I wrest pictures out of Tim and then convince myself that really, it's okay, I'm ready to take that step and post things.

Paternosters are ancestors of the modern Catholic rosary (as well as other modern prayer beads; I know Anglicans have something much like them as well.) Since I'm into medieval stuff, religion, and beads, paternosters were a natural.

The one above is based on a German paternoster from 1500 -- it uses a similar layout, but I chose different stones for the beads. Mine is made from lapis beads with smaller gold ones separating them; the gauds (those are the larger beads that separate each group of smaller ones) are glass millefiori beads a friend of mine gave me a long time ago.



This one was made as a gift for a friend -- it's blue and gold glass beads with a ring on the end. Nice and simple, a typical man's paternoster.



It's based on this pair, also from Germany, from the 16th century. The number of stones varied from nine (as in the one on the left) to fifteen or so; I used twelve.



Here are a few more paternosters I've made -- many of these will be available on my Etsy shop soon. I also plan to make modern-style Catholic and Anglican rosaries, and I'm willing to do custom prayer beads in whatever patters has meaning for you.







Much more information on paternosters is available from the Yahoo paternosters group or this rather nice blog focused on paternosters.

Just getting started on Squidoo. Looks like a cool place! I'll freely admit I'm mostly here to promote my Etsy.com store but hey, if I happen to let loose some useful comments about the stuff I make I suppose that's all to the good.

I make jewelry -- strung beads. It's fun. Bracelets and earrings and necklaces. While I'm at the stringing I also make beaded bookmarks and paternosters (early forms of the rosary).

I make herbal bath salts. Got started after I tried bath salts that had been gifted to me by someone else -- let me tell you, it's a lovely way to bathe. Never could relax enough to stay in the tub otherwise. So, I learned how. Made lots. Ran out of space to store them, ran out of stuff to make them with. I give a lot away to friends and family, but who objects to making a little money too?

Working on soap. The thought of lye scares me a bit but hey, I survived several college chemistry classes so I should be fine. I'm a sucker for shiny soaps so I figured I might as well play with the idea.

Learned how to make skin cream from Max. Yay Max!

More later.