Shangrila Craft

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tibetan Horse Festival

Summer is one of the most amazing times to visit Tibet. People who live in Tibet love summer because of the Horse Festival. There are a few that are well worth the trip up there.

The Litang horse Festival is one of the most well known in Tibet. The horse festival is held in August and takes place Ganzi, Litang. Litang is called High Town because of its altitude of 4133 meters. The festival takes place in the grassland called Maoya, which means 'flat place as a bronze mirror. The festival is held when the grassland is the greenest and the flowers are in full bloom. Families set up their round white tents and stay for the 10 day festival.

The racing horse are highlight of the festival. They are often dressed in bright colors, embroidered belts, decorated saddles and lots of bronze bells. The races include trekking, riding skills, long distance but the most anticipated is the horse jumping. The horse jumping is when the rider almost jumps off the horse and hangs under the belly of the horse upside down or standing on the back of the horse while the horse is running. T

This is a photo from the Litang horse Festival, the horse jumping competition. The man on the horse has not fallen from his horse. He is competing in the horse jumping competition. The riders hang off the side of the horse, until their hands touch the ground. Some of the riders can hang under the belly of the horse and other can stand on the back of the horse while the horse is still running.

Another Tibetan horse festival that is the Gyantse Horse Racing Festival. The festival is held in either June or July and this festival began in 1408. During this festival horses and riders try many of their different skills. These include racing, archery and shooting.

Bone Hair Combs

Every city you go to and in every Chinese gift shop you visit you will always see a large box of combs made out of bone. I never really understood the idea of using bone to brush your hair, but again, I started asking a lot of questions.

A long, long time ago, think ancient China, the best combs were made from bone, mostly fish bone. Some of the nice combs were made from antelope horn, elephant tusk or goat horn. These bones and tusks were carved and polished until they were perfect combs. And, because they are made of bone or tusk they were anti static and also heat resistant.

Once the bone was selected the bone was carved into a comb shape and each tooth was then carved, filed and polished, all by hand. This is an 18 step process that makes a perfect comb that will not snag, rip or split the hair.

Most of the combs now in China are made from Ox or Yak. They have an amazing color and some of the sales girls in the shops will also tell you that using these combs will make your hair gown faster, thicker and shiner.

Beads, String, Jewelry Supplies and Tons More!

Well, I just spent the last two days reactivating all of our products. My husband and I were living in Guangzhou for the past few years. But, because of his work we were relocated to Shanghai. Just last week we shipped the last of our boxes of 'stuff' here. And that included all of my jewelry and supplies. And let me tell you there were 30 boxes, some weighing up to 20kg and we carried down from our apartment on the 6th floor, with no elevator! So, I'm very happy it is all finally here and arrived safely.

I'm most excited about the beads. We have pearl shell, coral, turquoise, tiger eye, amethyst, jade, agate in every color imaginable. Take a look for your self - http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/shangrilacraft/1/1/51952//

If you looking for a stone, color or size you don't see up there just email me and I will get it for you.

We also have cinnabar beads. My favorite is the red Laughing Buddha. He is just so cute! http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/shangrilacraft/1/1/54187//

Have a look and email me if you have any questions!

Summer is OVER!!! :(

Summer is OVER!!!

I can't believe that summer is over! I just heard via facebook (where I hear most of my news) that today was the first day back to school! I can't Believe that! wow, is all I can say. And, of course -it flew by.

Spending the summer in Shanghai this year was actually quite fun. It's still a new city to my husband and I, so we did our fare share of exploring and site seeing. Besides some amazing jewelry supply markets (of course I loved them!) My favorite find was a beach. Yep, thats right, smack dab in the center of the city, by the pearl tower and right on the river is a man made beach. Its crazy cheep, easy to get to and during the week amazingly quite. I'm guessing that everyone else was at work and if not they were sitting on some little island way south of here.

Thses are some photos of the beach in the center of Shanhai, pretty little sun beads, a pool and everything! The dragon looking boat is a giant boat that does the evening river cruises and dinner too.

We have two dogs and a cat that we bought a few years ago in Guangzhou. So, when we moved to Shanghai in the spring we moved them here of course. But, I guess that isnt the most common thing to do in China. It was a little difficult and now everyone at my husbands work thinks we are completly crazy. I guess they aren't animal lovers! But, the dogs have both had an amazing summer too. Decan didn't even need to get her usually summer hair cut. In Guangzhou the summers are so hot and insanely humid, that we had to cut our dogs hair quite short, she looked like a little pig. This summer she was very happy that the scissors and shaver stayed far away from her. She is the black one in the photo and quite fluffy.

Now that summer fun time is over, its time to get down to work again! My entire day today was spend sorting jewelry suppies and getting ready for a new season to start. While I was sorting I couldn't believe how much of the howlite turquoise I actually had. So, all the prices have been reduced and best part of all- Free Shipping on all of the howlite turquoise beads! If your curious just how cheap the beads are and what fun colors we have, you can take a look here-

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/shangrilacraft/1/1/59241//

I have also added a new shop section call Thailand Jewlry. And that is what it is! On our last trip to Thailand I strock up at some of the jewelry markets and over the summer I finally had some time to make some amazing necklaces and earrings together. All inspired by Thailand of course! Have a look at some of my Thailand pieces here -

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/shangrilacraft/1/1/237321//

Another new section that I have added to my shop is Home Collection. http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/shangrilacraft/1/1/237831// I'm still working on this one, so it is a bit on the small side right now. But, I do have some Thailand inspired bookmarks for those of us who love a good book. I also have some really cool Chinese bells that I strung together with mala string and small jade beads. They would be great for meditations or because of the picture on the bell, the make a great conversation piece. They have the dragon and the pheonix, from the famous Chinese legend. I wrote the story in the write up section. It's a long story, but really interesting and I have yet to meet a Chinese person who doesn't believe the whole story. So have a read for yourself-

http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/shangrilacraft/4958625/traditional_chinese_silver_dragon_and_phoenix_bells_/handmade/music_instruments/percussion

Those are my updates for my shop right now and I do promise to try and keep eveyone updated a lot more!

Ring Boxes? We have LOTS!!!

Ring Boxes! We have LOTS!!!

I have found the most amazing place to buy the Most Amazing little boxes from. They are cute, tiny and well made. They all have different fun patterns from cow spots, polka dots, shiny gold or silver or even wooden traditional Chinese styles.

They all have a velvet chain card inside so they are all ready to be pack with earrings, rings, necklaces or whatever you wish. Most of the boxes have the cutest little bows on top and the wooden traditional Chinese style boxes have gold colored clasps on the front- super pretty!

I think they are prefect for stocking stuffers, wedding parties, showers, birthdays or christmas gifts- Eveyone loves gifts that come tiny small boxes! ;)

If you would like to see them all, check under String, Boxes and Supplies and here in the link - http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/shangrilacraft/1/1/56866//

Here are a few of my favorites.

Turqouise is my favorite color, so I love this one!

so cute!

Perfect for the holidays!

This one is just so fun!

A traditional Chinese Style ring box.

I love the detail on this box. It is a scene of a Chinese village.

Red Rivers in Chongqing China?

This is a photo I saw on yahoo.com news yesterday. The article was about how the Yangtze River had turned red over the last few days, for an unknown reason.

My husband and I lived in Chongqing for a few months last fall. I actually you can see our apartment in this photo, across the river just to the right of the talltest building. We had the most amazing view from that apartment. We were on the 30th floor and at night all you could see were the beautiful city light, lights around the river and the many, many night curise boats.

We were living there during the fall, but people told us a lot of stories about this river during the spring. They told us becuase of the high amounts of rain the river actually floods and floods a lot. So much that the roads and highways at times are unuseable because there is so much water and the roads basically become a river too!

Chongqing was an amazing city to live in. It is surrounded by mountains, it gets some unreal thunder storms and we had a perfect view for that. The they city gets so hot and humid during the summer, about 40 plus 75%+ humidity on a normal day. The city known as one of the 'furnace' cities in China because of its extream heat.

I asked the translator at my husbands work where the jewelry markets were. She told me there was one and it was amazing. I was so excited. It was about a 20 minute walk from our place. It was the only market around, everything else was boutique shops and store and that is very strange for a city in China.

But, when I got to the market, I was so disapointed. It wasn't a 'jewely' maket at all. It was an everything market- christmas trees, Chinese new year decorations, slippers, winter hats, cheap polyester sweaters, cups and dishes, bedding and a few so called jewelry stores. Nearly all the the jewerly stores were the same, fake silver necklaces with giant pendants covered in sparkely rinestones. Not what I was looking for at all. I did manage to find one shop that was selling mala necklaces and bracelets and there were willing to sell me some beads. The only problem was they wanted about 10 times the price for each strand. I tried to barted them down to a normal price, but they didn't budge!

Seeing this photo yesterday brought back so many memories of last fall. Chongqing is an amazing city, just not too helpful for me getting jewelry supplies!

Truquoise and Howlite Beads on SALE!!!

I'm sure you have all seen the turquoise/howlite skulls. They are cute, bright and fun. Well, we have a lot more than just skulls! We have raindrops, crosses, butterflies, hearts, peace signs, gumballs, tigerteeth, rondelles, stars, rectangles, flowers and MORE!

But, the best thing is that we have lowered the prices on ALL our turquoise/howlite beads and to top that off- FREE SHIPPING to Anywhere!

Order soon. We will ship the next day. Its going fast. So, stock up Soon!