"Happiness needs not be perfect..."

Last week I picked up a silver charm from one of the Karen artisans. I was one I must have seen years ago but passed on ordering then. It was a simple flat coin charm with the word happiness on it, but upon closer inspection you could see a slight misspelling.

[Happiness / Happinss]

The letters were not uniform, so there was a good chance that this charm was decorated with nothing more than chisels and a good old hammer. I thought it was wonderful, and it reminded me instantly of everything great about the village. After all, isn't happiness what you make of it?

Featuring Nija

Shiana's featured artist is Nija, a silversmith behind some of our most popular pendants, like the rising sun, new day song, and ying-yang coils.

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When you live and work with so many other artisans, it is difficult to not fall into the same path of making similiar items. Nija and his wife however, seem to have found inspiration in their partnership.

"Like many other [Karen] artisans, I like to draw most of my inspiration from nature. I made flower antlers, and leaf printed bead caps. But it was when my wife began making necklaces for our children that things took off.

I learned alot from her... the importance of balancing the pendants and finding different ways to conect them. We then started creating pieces that would challenge people by using open spaces and jumprings. I knew we had a good design when my wife could use the items in at least four completely different ways."

Nija's charms are easily incorporated into chains or other fiber stringing materials. His best selling item is the New Day Song Charms.

New Clasps

We just came back with a few new toggles and a clasp to help you finish up your pieces. These are already up on the http://www.shiana.com/ website and should be on eBay soon. You can find them by searching for their product numbers on our store searches. For a discount, type in the cupon code: 'march01' during checkout to recieve 10% off these featured clasps. The code works with store purchases only--offer ends 4/5/2006.

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If you're not into making, but into wearing; Try Deevaa Jewellery f0r handmade beaded necklaces and bracelets.

Homes and Gardens

While many Karen (especially in the new generation of silversmiths) are building concrete or brick houses, there are still a number of villagers who choose to live in traditional style homes. These homes are usually on stilts and made of wood, which provides cooling in the very hot summer months.

Traditionally people would raise animals like chickens, and pigs under their stilt homes. In our village, many of the Karen are vegetarians and the area under the home is often used as a silver workshop for silversmiths.

Many homes also have “raised gardens”, which are like bamboo tables tops full of rich soil. The Karen grow forest herbs or sometimes vegetable (from seeds which they buy in the city) within these raised gardens.

The reason why they raise the gardens is to keep dogs and cats off of the vegetables, and to make it easier to maintain and water the plants.

Tiny Beads

Few people really understand the work that goes into making the tiny hill tribe beads that are often for sale in strands. As an example, here is a solid cube bead with a small ‘pout-duang’ (commonly known as the flower print) on it. These beads are tiny, usually measuring no more than 1-3mm each.

In order to make these beads, little balls of melted silver need to be cooled, and then holes are drilled to create beads. The beads are then filed down into shape, one by one. This is usually done with a metal hand file.

Then, the beads are strung up for stamping. Usually two or more silversmiths are needed for this, as the job requires both a master and an apprentice. Only a master silversmith has the expertise to make really beautiful beads, but their apprentice would be younger, with much better eyes for the job.

Lastly, the beads are cleaned, sometimes oxidized, and left to dry.