new pieces.. last day!!

Today is my last day in India and I am going to miss her so much.. The man outside yelling papaya..papaya..papaya.. the smells of jasmine.. the crazy dirvers.. the heat.. the dust.. all of it. I don't know when I will be back, hopefully really soon, but here are a few photos of our new pieces.. I hope you like them.

more on Kerala...

here are some more photos from my journey to Kerala. Balan is a goldsmith by day and fisherman by night, he goes to catch fish for the night meal most nights.. In this case, it is prawn season, so every evening, around 5:30 or 6:00, he packs up his goldsmithing case and gets out his fishing net and walks through the jungle to a small channel going into the Arabian Sea. He throughs his net out and slowly draws it back in and the net has maybe 10 or so small prawns. He continues this for awhile, hangs out with his buddies and then walks home.. They dry the prawns in the sun the next day and save them throughout the year for special meals.

Keralan jungle

Whoa.. It's been a while. I just got back to Mysore from a lovely week spent in Kerala working with Balan the goldsmith. He made me 7 beautiful handmade (from scratch) chains. I have already sold 3 of them, but if you are interested. Let me know, I can give you the details and save one for you.

Kerala is a magical land, tropical, hot, laid back. The family I work with is so sweet and kind, they do everything from their home. Balan works outside on his veranda, his wife and two adult daughters work around the home, Granny sits and keeps herself busy playing with all the children who come by. It's quiet, it's a slow paced life, but also very simple. I love it. I love being there and realizing my crazy life in the US is not the only way to be. They eat from their land, cashews, mango, jackfruit, tamarind. They work hard and love each other. It's amazing.

Balan has been teaching me Indian goldsmithing for two years now. I have spent about one month with him over that time learning from him and custom ordering pieces, paying him a fair wage for his hard work. Every day, he works 11 hours making very little money.

Here are some photos from the visit. I will post more in the next few days.

Chains, unfinished, just out of the fire
rings (made in Mysore with Kumar) star ruby
Balan polishing chains with a seed from his tree
me polishing chains with a seed from his tree
me holding a fresh cashew which we smoldering in a fire of palm fronds and then ate..

some rings and other things

I've been working a lot and it's going really well. Here are a few photos of some of the rings we made recently for a friend of mine here in Mysore..(well she's in Goa now). It's a 6 carat facetted ruby ring set in 20k gold and two blue pushparaga rings... very beautiful...

Also a few photos of Kumar, Rangaswami and I...plus the kids outside his shop.. Life is good. India is amazing!!!

Kumar blessing a piece of jewelry

This is a short video of Kumar blessing a rudraksha necklace he made for the guy (you briefly see in the video). Rudraksha necklaces are worn by many holy people throughout India and are considered very sacred. They are special seeds from a special tree and are very precious throughout the land.

From Wikepedia:Rudraksha mala has been used by Hindus (as well as Sikhs and Buddhists) as rosary for thousands of years for meditation purposes to sanctify the mind, body and soul. The word Rudraksha is derived from Rudra (Shiva—the Hindu God of all living creatures) and aksha (eyes). So, Rudraksha is related to Shiva’s eyes. One Hindu mythology says that once Lord Shiva became so compassionate after seeing the sufferings of mankind that He could not stop to shed tear from his eye. This single tear from Shiva’s eye grew into the Rudraksha tree. Rudraksha tree belongs to the Elaeocarpus genus of the Elaeocarpaceae family that grows from the Gangetic plain upto the Himalayas. Rudraksha fruit is green in color but turns black when dried. The central hard Rudraksha uniseed may have 1 to 21 faces. The five-faced Rudraksha seeds are the most common.

almost finished

It's been 3 weeks and we are almost finished with our first round of jewels. Oh man, I am so excited about them. Yesterday, I spent the day with Kumar. He had me engraving some of my pieces and it was so much fun. We have a good time together working and laughing. So enjoy these photos of what is to come.