Cold Mornings

Uncle Suporn told us that the more curled the Makam (Tamarin) fruit is, the colder it would be during the year. I guess he was right. It's been very cold in the village recently. Yesterday morning it was about 1o degrees Celsius outside (the coldest this month). The villagers are hardy, and seem to have no problem with the wind while I was shivering in my three layers of clothing.

I was able to take some pictures before we left to Bangkok, and thought it would be nice to share with you what an average morning in the village is like.

While Sa'cher has gone out to purchase new gasoline for the torches, one of his apprentices sets up the soldering table for him. Today they're making leaves.

It's warmer to sit in the sun while you build a fire. Today's breakfast is rice pourage and picked vegetables. Many of the villagers choose to be vegetarians as part of the Buddhist belief to not harm other living things.

A villager sands down the edges of a silver shell. This household also owns a small village grocery store, where cotton strings for beads, shampoo, and cans of Pepsi can be purchased.

Now that we're back in the city I really do miss the cold mornings. Luckily, I won't be away for very long, we're taking another trip next week. Take care, everyone!

Angie
shiana.com

Happy New Year, Friends!

Hello everyone!

It’s been busy here at Shiana. We’d just like to thank you all for a wonderful year, and we hope for an even better 2007!

Our immediate plans for the New Year include stocking much more pink gold vermeil and black silver. Speaking of which, our vermeil gold test piece has been worn daily for 1 year and 2 months now, and it has not shown any signs of wear. We also had some of our items lab tested to show that it is 3 microns of gold and 5-7 layers of e-coating (protection). Pictures soon 

Secondly, we are designing more matching components. (Yes we do listen!) Many more toggles, beads and links with similar patterns will soon be available so you can whip up a necklace that is a perfect fusion between your style and the silversmiths. And, we will be naming them under similar titles to make it easily searchable. The new items will now have a 2007 stamp, to ensure the date they were produced.

Warmest wishes everyone, all the best from our village to you!
-Angie T.-
Shiana.com

A Little About Spirit Locks

A Little About Spirit Locks

While we try to record all the information we find, some things do get lost. I found some old notes on spirit locks (at least four years old), which may be of better use if shared, this is unedited, and I think I’ve written a better version else where, but I will get to recording that later.

The spirit locks are strung with the loops on the top, not with an external loop or bar. They are in a traditional padlock shape to help keep the soul within the body. So, they are used to basically to “lock” the soul (which resides in a person’s head) in the body.

They are traditionally worn to the back of a person, similar to a clasp.

It is good luck to give new born babies spirit locks to protect them from evil spirits that might try to steal the child’s spirit away.

In ancient Thai culture, if a spirit becomes unhappy it will leave the body to go back to live in the forests. A person can loose their spirit when they are frightened or in times of great stress. Loosing your spirit does not actually mean dying, a person without his or her spirit will loose their Charisma, and they will be unable to focus.

Announcements about Checkout System

Happy Holidays, everyone!

We have a few announcements about the changes to our checkout system. Please notice the new features at the lower right hand side of our http://www.shiana.com checkout.



The Calculate Shipping & Handling link will open a popup window that will help you find the correct price for FedEx or Standard mail to your location anywhere in the world.

The new Paypal checkout feature forgoes the normal checkout steps and allows you to make instant payment without sharing sensative information.

Please also Note: Items purchased between December 23 - 31 will be shipped on January 3, if you wish for your items to make it to you before Christmas, please select the FedEx shipping option.

Warmest wishes!
-Angie T.-

Want to learn a little Karen?

It’s easy to find words of praise in Karen. Our village has a mix of two Karen tribes (sgaw and pho) and several languages are spoken. Here are some traditional words of praise:

E-dee means Beautiful
Chur means sweet
Book-ka-yan or (Buk-khee if it is a name) means hard working
Su means good

Take note that while you learn a little Karen, the next generation of silversmiths are learning a little English as well: