Notice about custom orders...

Boy are we ever grateful for all of the creative ideas our customers have and ask us to create! It is a real blessing to be able to make your dreams come to life, and we put so much love in to them!

Right now, we are on overload with custom orders and our shop stock is depleted...so,....we have made a decision to suspend custom orders for the month of March at least, possibly April too. We want to be able to offer cool stuff in the store and have my trusty box of forks waiting to be listed filled back up again!

We have a lot of forks that are in the waiting box that we want to create, and lots of hairtanas that are half made and so sad , all in thier parts waiting...

SO this means you will see a better selection of new creations and more options in the shop!

 The Ice hairtanas are so much work you can't even believe what goes in to making the parts for them, and the clear material requires 5 times the sanding as the wood, and it has to be done by hand or the plastic will melt! so we are going to keep making them for stock but when the material runs out that will be the end of those! so if you had your heart set on one watch and see what come through! I will be keeping a list of things people are looking for , so please do keep sending your wishes to us and we will keep them in the dream book!

WE are doing what we love, and love what we are doing BECAUSE OF YOU!!! THank you so much!!

Wood Properties Series Continues..Today is Bocote

Today we are going to continue our series about woods. I chose to do Bocote today! WE have just recently listed a hairstick made of bocote wood in our shop and it had a glass evil eye in the end of it with a red iris...it is such a cool piece of wood it made me want to share more about it with you!

Bocote wood

Ziricote^[5] and Bocote^[6] are sometimes used as a wood for making acoustic guitar backs and sides as well as drums because of thier resonant properties. It grows in Central and South America as well as Mexico. It is a fairly dense and oily wood and highly prized to woodowrkers for its spectacular colors and graining patterns that often times will form concentric circles. THe color ranges from bright gold and black to deep ochre, browns and sometimes even deep purples. It is sometimes called Mexican Rosewood, and can look much like Cocobolo in apprearance.

Bocote wood is very resistant to decay and insect manifestations. In all the reading i did i could not find anything about it being an endagered wood, it always appears in the context of being sustainably  harvested for the wood industry. Much of the previous in formation was acquired through wikipedia and several books we have on wood.

As far as other properties of this wood, there are a few websites that give information on healing, medicinal and magical qualities of woods. One site says that bocote has "strong fire energy, related to passionate love.It is also inspirationsla to the artistic and creative mind, focusing on beauty and the earth."
It certainly inspires us!
WE hope that you have learned some good stuff about this beautiful wood today and feel free to inquire with us about certain wood properties if there is something specific you are wanting to have on your hair art!

Continuing education on Woods..today is about spalting..

Hey everyone!
Hope you had a Fabulous Valentines day with loved ones yesterday!!

Sorry its been so long since we have done a post on woods, we are going to talk about spalting today!
The deifinition of spalting by Wikipedia says

"Spalting is any form of wood coloration caused by fungi. Although primarily found in dead trees, spalting can also occur under stressed tree conditions or even in living trees. Although spalting can cause weight loss and strength loss in the wood, the unique coloration and patterns of spalted wood are sought after by woodworkers.<sup>["

Knowing this may sound creepy or gross to some of you, but the beauty of nature, even in rot or fungus cannot be discounted, as we have seen in the rare piece of spalted holly that was used for some of our hairforks. HOlly is specifically a wood that must be harvested and dried in an exact manner to get its traditional white pure coloring. The spalting occurring is considered a defect and as far as we can tell when it happens they use this wood to burn...we have been inquiring for it all over and noone has any becuase it would not be bought or sold since it is considered ruined...
SPalting can occur in any wood and is especially beautiful in some cases. it can cause lines, streaks, and colors ranging from light brown to greenand blue or black. it can be spotted, lines, swirled or blotched.


"While pigmentation fungi do not degrade the wood cell wall, this type of decay can lead to a reduction in toughness (amount of energy absorbed before breaking), and increased permeability [8]. Pigmentation can occur on both hardwood and softwood, unlike other types of spalting which are more host specific."
Wikipedia</sup> 


In other words, some spalting is caused by fungi that only change the color of the wood, and some actually degrade the wood, making it soft, flaky or even dust. In these instances those types of spalted wood really are not good for any type of wood working, so the fungi that cause the beautiful splating and do not degrade the wood are creatures with a specific purpose!

While we continue to hunt for the spalted holly, and we look at other types of spalted woods for our hairforks, we cannot order or make these types of natural beauties occur..so please be patient as we hunt for beautiful spalted woods and enjoy our other woods in the mean time!!

Thanks so much for your continues support of our hair art, we create out of love of hair and creating, and are so blessed that others enjoy and can use our hair art well!!!