The world needs more LOVE

Sizes and Names and Woods, Oh MY!

2012-01-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday Everyone!! its snoring here, meaning its raining and snowing all at once, i hope its better where you are LOL!!

We have had many questions on our sizes and names of styles of hair forks , so i am going to try and give a visual reference here. The pictures are of a couple different styles, with 4 sizes in each picture.

This picture is our Mermaids Tail Hair Fork. It is a 2 prong fork, and from left to right we show our original size, which is more for dreadlocks, or Extreme long thick hair. It is 7 inch FP length in this picture. We can use the tops of most of them to make any length of tines, except on the micros which are not in the pictures.

This is our Wave style hair fork, and it comes in 2, 3,4,5, prongs. we can also make this with wider or narrower tops and different length tines, within the strength of the wood.

This picture shows my hand holding the original size wave to give a size reference. The topper on this one is close to 4 inches across.

I did not have a Threnody in our original size here to make a picture . That style is the one with the asymmetrical wavy top. The Jugendstil is the carved petals , and comes in 2 prong or 3 prong. We also make a cyclops, which most of our micros are shaped after.
we also make a scooped moon top on some of the Mermaids tail tines, and we have just introduced the Dune fork. This fork is not bigger than the Threnody topper, but in the pictures it must look bigger as many of you have commented on it! we are making it in a lilli and mini lilli size as well!

We hope this has helped, and we will get more pictures for you and be glad to answer any questions you have about our sizes, shapes or custom orders! you can find us on Artfire, Etsy, and Facebook.

New 2012 Designs are coming..#1 Dune!

2012-01-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Welcome to 2012, and in honor of a new year we have designed a few new items that will be coming out this month...the first one is a new hair fork we are naming Dune!

This is a carved top that has an elemental twist in it, featuring a small area on the back as well that gives movement to the piece. Each wood is going to look different, and here we have started with 3 woods.

The wood on the left is new to our studio, African Satin Wood. It is a pale creamy yellow with lots of chatoyance and wave. The middle wood is also new, Mun Ebony. It has dark green to black with golden tan colors in the grain. Stunningly beautiful in person. The grain patterns vary and some are quite spectacular!

The last wood pictured is Maple wood. a classic that never goes out of style!

This is the satin wood in action, these will be available in smaller sizes, this is a lilli size fork.

The maple wood in action...

The mun ebony wood in action.

We look forward to unveiling our next new creation very soon, and hope that you will enjoy and soon be wearing a Dune piece of hair art in your updo !

Family Circle Magazine Featured our Snowflakes!

2011-12-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

WE are so honored to share with you, our handmade wooden snowflake ornaments are featured in the Family Circle Magazine, December issue, page 28 !! on Page 190 is the buying guide with all the information to find the items in the magazine.

We hope that you get a chance to take a peek at the issue, its also got lots of decorating ideas as well as recipes for the holidays! we made extra snowflakes this year !! here is the article too!

http://www.familycircle.com/holiday/christmas/decorations/backyard-holiday-decorating/

NEW Action Updo Video!

2011-11-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

I know it has been far too long, and Time flies!! Fall is over, winter is beginning and we have a new video to share with you!! my hair has reached a new length and i needed a new action picture updo, so i came up with this! Hope you have fun with it, and i promise to be posting more very soon!!

Custom Orders are Open..YEAAA!!!!

2011-09-09T08:54:00.000-06:00

It is so good to be ready to open our custom orders up for you again! We are very excited for the creative ideas to come flowing in and to start a new holiday season with some new designs!

NEW GUIDELINES:

We’re making a few changes to the custom guidelines in order to be fair to everyone (Stacy included). In the past our custom orders list had grown to a point where wait times for customers were very long, and we had no time for artistic freedom, much less maintaining a decent inventory for sale. We plan to spend part of our available time on customs, and part on maintaining inventory each day.
We will complete each custom order before we start on a new one, and will let you know how long we expect your order to take.

There will be a maximum of 2 items per order. If you would like to order more items,We will place your next order at the next open place in the list, and complete your first order , move through the list and then when we get to your next request we will contact you for the deposit. By making these changes, we’re hopeful that we can move through the list more quickly and allow us to not feel quite as pressed about not having time for our own creations to continue as well as your beauties!

WE are going to require a deposit before we begin any custom orders over $100. There is also going to be a custom order fee, that we will add into your price quote at the beginning of the order. It will be $10+ depending on how we have to gather materials, come up with new patterns or whatever work needs to be done. We do love to make extremely unusual and cool items for you!!

WE have contacted most of the people who were waiting to hear from us, and are waiting to hear back from a few people, but right now we can start on who ever gets their order in first!
Holiday Orders: If you are out of the USA and want to get a custom order for the holidays, we will need to hear from you at the latest by Nov1. SHipping is much longer around the holidays and we need time not only to make your custom pretty but also to get it to you in time, so keep this in mind!!

We appreciate you all so very much and look forward to the exciting hair toys you have been dreaming of! Love and blessings to you all
Stacy & Kimi
Grah-Toe Studio

Anniversary SALE at Grah-Toe Studio Etsy Shop Only

2011-08-28T18:32:00.000-06:00

SURPRISE! we are offering everyone a coupon code for out ETSY shop ONLY for August 29,10,31, in honor of our anniversary! the code is ANNIVERSARY14 and you will get 14% off your entire order for the next 3 days ONLY! You must use the code, no refunds will be done! HAVE FUN!! and know how much we love you all!

New video on Curly Koa wood flash and glow!

2011-07-31T13:01:00.013-06:00

We decided that the Curly Koa wood merited a video! Its flash and glow can absolutely NOT be captured in pictures, at all. and so here it is!
we hope it gives you a captivating sense of the woods depth and character. All Curly Koa woods look different, some have colors in them including black and white, and some stay closer to the golden hues of the regular koa, which also glows, by the way!

Been too long, Now the Cthulu is loose

2011-07-26T15:14:00.000-06:00

WEll my friends, followers and fans, we sincerely apologize for the long delay between posts here..this summer has been a crazy one for us in so many ways...and i am sure many of you are having just as much going on!

We are trying to get our requested forks made. We are just 2 people, working out of our own little studio and doing the very best we can to maintain quality, and learn how to work quantity into that, but it doesn't seem that the two go together. We would rather send you quality and have you wait a bit longer. Thank you all for your patience and understanding through losing a pet, taking a few days off and having several dental procedures that have really been a bump in our road.

On a different note we have had a lot of questions about our fork sizes! and if i was as good with photo shop as Nightblooming :D i would make a graph! but, i am not, and she is just as busy, so here is the explanation of the sizes in our studio.
WE started out with our original size forks, which for most people were too large. We based them on my head and hair, and i have a big head, ..no really, physically,its big! so we started to shrink our patterns as we went. it works out to this...Original,mezzo,lilliputian,mini lilli, micro. Each one is approximately 25% smaller than the one before it. There is a margin of error that comes with handmade items of course, and so the tines are not ALWAYS any certain length. the tops are not ALWAYS the same thickness. We also have an A-Line profile, which is the same thickness from the top to the tips in one smooth arch. Our original profile is more organic, the topper has some roundness to it and it waves on the front and back.

We are trying to stock the shop with lots of interesting creations that we have been wanting to make all summer, and summer is almost fall now!

We have made this gorgeous eye tine hair stick that i would love to keep for myself, but it needs a home that will get out of the house more than me so it can shock the world, and we are taking offers on it! see our facebook page, or send us a comment here to make your offer if you want this beauty!

WE have also come up with 2 new antler fork designs, this newest one , the wishbone, is darling! they are very flexible, strong and look so cool! they are smaller and thinner and weigh less than the full antler tine forks with the wood toppers too!

WE will be back with more on our progress after this weekend and a little catching up, we get a new shipment of antlers this week :D and will have lots of new stuff coming...we are going to delay opening custom orders until the end of August, so we can just get the requested forks made as well as the shop stocked..but the customs will come back!
we love you all and keep you in our hearts and prayers, and thank you so much for loving our art, we hope you know how much you are all appreciated!!

A new Fork Design for the Fork Tuck Bun!

2011-06-15T13:50:00.000-06:00

Finally! I have been trying to do the fork tuck bun, but having thick hair, have not been able to weave my hair in between any of the tines on my hair forks....but...i had a broken fork here that we removed the center tine from..and VOILA! it works!!! so, if any thick hairs are interested, we are going to start making the wave shape fork without its center tine for you so we can all do the fork tuck bun!

I had to start with the fork upside down, holding it in my right hand, and using my left hand to weave my hair in a figure 8 around the tines...and at the end there was a little creative twisting and tucking ...

It did take quite a bit of practice to get the tightness right, you have to leave enough room in the length to flip the fork and not pull yourself into a facelift! it makes a lovely full chignon/frech twist hybrid look and i think its beautiful!

I have shown it from several angles here, and i might do a video too, in tandem with our already present fork tuck bun, to demonstrate it for thick hair.

I would really love your feedback on the fork, and if anyone with thick hair would be interested in having the tines this wide and straight to do the fork tuck bun!

WE have also started stocking up our Artfire studio, and we don't get a lot of traffic there yet, there are some gems sitting there, waiting to be snatched up! hope to see you there, and get your feedback on the new fork!

On woods, Red Heart today...

2011-05-30T14:14:00.000-06:00

Today we are going to talk about Red Heart wood in our wood series. It is a new wood for our studio, and we just found out about it from Cook Woods, who gives this description of the wood:

"Fine, closed grain makes this Central American hardwood machine easily & finish well. The unique brilliant red color with black undertones is unusual and unmatched in other exotic hardwoods. The Mayans refer to this hardwood is Chakte Koke. This wood can turn honey/brown when exposed to sunlight. We have had good results with keeping the red color of this wood when it is finished with a UV sealer, and /or kept stored out of direct sunlight.

Cosmocalyx spectabilis."

Some of the red heart wood also comes from Mexico, its species name is Erythroxylon mexicanum, which is a shrub that is fairly small and gnarly, also called the mamoa or momoa

WE ,Grah-Toe Studio, have found this wood to be bright red/orange and marroon to hot pink in color, light weight compared to blood wood or tulip wood, and about the same in cost to bloodwood. It works very nicely, and polishes beautifully! THe graining does stand out much more than the blood wood or cardinal wood graining does.

We have not been able to find any information on the harvesting practices or if the species is in any danger or not.

If anyone has any information concerning any other properties of this bush or wood, medical or magical, please feel free to comment and let us know where you found the information!

Summer time Creativity..

2011-05-22T08:55:00.000-06:00

We are so glad its getting a bit warmer now, and we are hoping that you are enjoying your summer, or fall, wherever you are!

we are going to be making lots of new things through the summer, and we have decided to stop taking custom orders until August. WE apologize to those of you waiting on your custom orders, we are working on a particularly complicated pair of hairtanas, that are going to be AMAZING...it has just put us behind. So we will be catching those custom orders already placed up as soon as we possibly can, and the shop will be having some really cool new things!

WE have several new designs for inlays and decorations that we want to make, as well as a new product that has been too long coming!

We will also have some more hairtanas available to buy form the shop once we are caught up on custom orders!

SO, we thank you all for your patience, and understanding as we work as fast we can and still keep our quality up to the standards you are used to from our studio! we cannot rush these things :D

We send our love and thanks out to you all, and want you to know that we appreciate you each and every one more than we can say!

A day in the life...

2011-05-11T08:33:00.000-06:00

Have you ever heard that song "Taking care of business" from the 70's ...the words say :

You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Take the 8:15 into the city
There's a whistle up above
And people pushin', people shovin'
And the girls who try to look pretty
And if your train's on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day
And I'll be...
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
I've been taking care of business, it's all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime......

Are you tapping your toes yet ? LOL

Well, we are here to tell you, the life of an independant self employed artist is anything but "working at nothing all day" ! and here is how an average day goes for us....
No time clocks to punch...work starts when we get up...

Stacy is up early every day, by 4-5 a.m....I usually sleep until about 6:30...so when I get up he is already covered in wood chips and dust, but the coffee is made :D

Upon waking up, the first few things through my mind are: "how did my finish turn out on the forks from yesterday" , Coffee...," i wonder if we have any messages and sales to answer and pack"....coffeee...."what forks will be listed, depends on what sold over night..."...so you get the picture of my waking thoughts....here's what happens the rest of the day.....

*check messages on shops and emails. send thank you notes for any overnight sales. Answer questions and request. this can take anywhere from 1-3 hours
*get dressed and make breakfast
*photograph action shots of what will be listed today...photograph the items for the shop, which is 5-10 pictures per item to get good shots. This takes approximately 30-40 minutes.
*Each item has 5 photos that have to be edited and listings that have to be customized to the specific items..this takes 20-40 minutes per listing.
*promote new items that are just listed on social networks throughout the day including treasuries for the treasury team we are on, and i try to make a new treasury each day...3-4 hours.
*package any items that need to go out today..each box takes about 10-15 mintes to pack, wrap, address with personal notes in each one.
*now its lunch time, try to add a load of laundry in there and play with the dogs for little bit...1 hour
*keep packing until done. If we have 3 boxes a day to pack, sometimes up to 6 this can take up to 2 hours of the day
*in between all of this, answer messages promptly, take custom orders and work out details of them in multiple communications( we love this part , it is so fun to make your dream hair art come to life and get to know you and your hair better!) 3-4 hrs a day...i am up to possibly 10 hours of work at this point
That was My part of the schedule, Stacy is on a completely different track!

Stacys Day...

*cut out forks that are on the schedule for the day, some for shop some for custom orders.
*Take packages to post office once they are all bagged and ready to go
*At least 8-10 steps are covered on each fork that is being made during the day, before it gets to come in for its finish work.
*now its time for dinner and hopefully get the load of laundry to its destination, which doesn't always happen :D

By the time we get to this point, it's after 6pm , and we are both at our benches working on special designs, decorating forks, doing some custom work and doing a few projects that we have been wanting to make for the fun of it.

"Our average day is 2.5-3.3 sales.....Our average hairfork is $50

Now, that might SOUND like a lot! Holy crap that's like $150/day! Well.. you're heard the phrase, "Well-off and opulent artist," right? No?
How about "starving artist." There's a reason for that.

""Of all the things that go into our hair forks, we actually make very little profit.
Just for fun, let's work backwards from a "reasonable" $30 hair fork as opposed to a "ridiculous" priced at $80. Let's say the wood isn't very high quality or exotic, so it's $7 for a piece that is at least sound.

Etsy charges 20 cents to list an item and then 3.5% of the sale fee. So that'll be $1.25. PayPal will nab another $1.05 (just on the fork, but it'll hit shipping too for more). So we're down to $20.70.

A very, very low overhead fee (which would cover supplies used like sand paper, wear and tear on drill bits and sawblades, as those have to be purchased with the money from sales, electricity, safety equipment like goggles, hearing protection, etc. and whatever else) is 10%, so $3. Now we're at $17.70

Now, the fork itself took 2.5 hours to make because we'll say this is also a very, very basic shape, but the finish is still really nice. Taking pictures, editing the pictures, uploading the pictures, writing the description, filling out the listing and actually listing it, then packing it up, printing postage and taking it to the post office.... I will be VERY generous and say half an hour. This does scale a bit when there's more forks being made/listed/packed at once, but you can only reduce it so far. So 3 hours total for this very basic fork. Right now to divide this out, the fork maker would be making $5.90/hour. The Federal Minimum Wage is $7.25.

Minimum wage is often for unskilled/unspecialized labor that requires very little training, and woodworking is not unskilled labor by any part of the imagination. So, honestly, I think expecting an artist who lives off their craft to value their time less than that of minimum wage ridiculous.""

We Would like to send a special thank you to our friend Nightblooming for the graphic and the numbers to compare...As another hair art maker we are in similar situations often and thank you, Nightblooming, for your championing of the self employed artist!

We hope this helps you understand and know that we are doing what we love, and loving what we do while bringing you an heirloom quality hairfork , a wooden hair sculpture!

Much blessings and love to all!

Some Bun Fun!

2011-05-09T07:57:00.001-06:00

That title made me think of Charlottes Web and I had to smile! I hope you get some smiles in today too!!

WE have had several requests for videos on how to use our hairforks and antler sticks, and although we do have them on Facebook and You-tube, it was suggested to put them here, so they can be found easily!

So here will be the collection of videos on how people have creatively and instructively been using our hairforks and antler sticks! there are some for thinner hair updos, some with shoulder length hair updos, and some with very long and thick hair also!!

we hope you enjoy having these all together, what a great suggestion..I wish i would have thought of it myself :D LOL

We Are so glad to have the chance to show you that our forks work in ALL types of hair, and the different updos are unlimited!!

We thank you all so much, for your wonderful communications with us, for your love of our creations, and for returning to our studio..You are a part of us now!

Taking care of business..everyday...come on and sing along!

2011-05-06T16:03:00.000-06:00

You get up every morning
From your alarm clock's warning
Take the 8:15 into the city
There's a whistle up above
And people pushin', people shovin'
And the girls who try to look pretty
And if your train's on time
You can get to work by nine
And start your slaving job to get your pay
If you ever get annoyed
Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day
And I'll be...
Taking care of business every day
Taking care of business every way
I've been taking care of business, it's all mine
Taking care of business and working overtime

New woods are peeking out!

2011-04-26T11:57:00.000-06:00

WE hope you all are having a lovely start to spring here in the Northern Hemisphere, and enjoying the onset of fall in the southern!

WE have begun to cut on our new woods and are adding the new forks to the shop daily! here are a few pictures of a few of the woods...bubinga above and below...

Our new Nefertari shape is a total showcase for fabulous grained woods! we love the curved fit and are getting great feedback on it! thank you all so much for sharing your experience with this new design, and for the lovely appreciation photos!! we cherish every one of them...sometimes i think if i walked up behind you in a public place i would know it was you from the back of your heads :D

THis is a picture of our newest black and white ebony board, its graining is more stark than the last specimen we had and it is so striking!

And the Macadamia Nut, what a story! We went on a search for it, and hit wall after wall, everyone telling us it is not sold commercially. Then, I happened to ask one of our wood suppliers, out of desperation, and he had just acquired a few rare pieces and was shocked that we asked for them by name! He said he had never been able to get any before and may never again, so we bought all the pieces he had, which were few...but we are going to use it as judiciously as we can, making inlays with the amazing knots and areas that we cannot use in forks. The wood varies alot in color, the first board we cut, pictured below, is actually quite dark in color. THe other pieces tend more toward a peachy pink color, this one is more mauve to rust, but we may not be able to get more than one more fork from this piece.

Here is another picture of the Macadamia nut wood from another angle and you can see the spectacular graining pattern, the chatoyance in these areas is striking, much like the silk oak wood was, but smaller patterns.

WE love wood, and sharing that love of wood with you! if you have any questions for us we are convo and email friendly and love to hear from you! we are still taking custom orders and want to thank all of you for your inspiring requests!

Our need to provide for ourselves pushes us to strive for the best we can do and offer you all the highest quality work we can do....starting a micro business is no easy feat, and we are blessed to be in our 3rd year and plan on continuing to grow! THere is a song that talks about working for yourself at doing nothing all day..every time i hear that i think " this guy never worked for himself! It is a long hard day of working for us, every day. We don't get to punch the clock, get paid vacations, we rarely even take a day off, becuase we like to eat and not be homeless! we thank all of you that appreciate our work, and we continue to be as fair to you in cost and quality as we can be, and we love to show you how much we appreciate you by making your packages special and giving you a discount whenever we can.
We are getting together another wood lesson post, and a "Day in the life of a Self Sustaining Artist" is in the making...
Love to you all, may your hair grow to your toes!
Kimi

Our story.....will you dare share yours?!

2011-04-14T15:38:00.000-06:00

As most artists out here in the handmade world are trying to get thier name spread around, so are we. One of the things we did recently was apply to be featured on a few blogs and one of them accepted us and did this fabulous interview!

We are pleased at the joy she shares in her blog through the month, with posts about self-compassion and other inspiring, uplifiting helpful things for each of us to incorporate into our lived daily.

Sometimes, it can be discouraging to work for yourself...but we must persevere! i would encourage you to apply on her blog for an interview and see what comes of it...everyone of us has a story , and your customers want to get to know you!

we hope that you enjoyed getting to know us a little more and are still liking us :D

we appreciate your comments here and on JoyCreations blog!
Love and Blessings for a great weekend to you all!

This is a picture of the geological formation of dust we had acquired near our shop tools! we took the picture before we cleaned the shop and added our dust collector system! What a needed upgrade to the shop THAT has been! But,.... it was pretty, huh?

WE found some amazing wood ....and its on the way!!!

2011-04-09T11:40:00.000-06:00

In our quest for unusual and gorgeous woods we have come across one that we have been hunting for, and we have scored!
we have some macadamia nut wood on the way to us! WOOT! i am so excited to see if it all looks as beautiful as the small piece we had the priveledge to work with recently!
so, just a little teaser...its on the way !

Unborn Hairforks...

2011-04-07T12:44:00.002-06:00

Our wood hunting expedition went well, although not perfectly...there were a few things we needed that were not available where we buy our hardwoods, so now we are hunting for them online! i really prefer seeing the wood we buy, but sometimes you just can't do that!

Over the last 2 years of our creating, we have been pushed and challeneged by your creative requests, and we are so excited for all the new avenues we are able to offer that other hairfork makers do not...we LOVE doing inlays, designing and executing them. THey really make a piece of wood a spectacular piece of art! And for the requests for new woods that we were not using at the beginning also. WE have learned alot about new and different woods, and it has been so rewarding!

ALong with all of these new and exciting innovations, comes more time and expense into each piece as well. We are not sure that some of you realize how much time goes into making a fork with an inlay. STacy handcarves all of the designs we do...we do not have a laser computer that cuts out our wood, we don't have a computer router, we do it by hand! There are hours and hours involved in alot of our pieces. We have also joined forces with other artists and have been incorporating thier work into ours. Mike Hurst of Hursts Handblownglass makes alot of our glass evil eyes, that are SO fun to include in hairsticks! And recently we have been adding Venbeads enameled Skullies to our hairforks. Ven bead is also offering a unique product that is a collaboration of our studios, Dragon hearts! WE make the wooden hearts, and she created the unique and wonderful glass cabachons that go into the heart pendant. Please take a moment to check out her fabulous work! we love supporting and working with fellow artists whos work we believe in.

Utilizing all these time consuming techniques, as well as other artists creations makes our forks cost more than they did 2 years ago. THere is no getting around that. But we offer a product unlike anyone elses, with custom design services, with unique designs and of course heavy duty hairforks! WE also have added wood expenses over the beginning, as our most frequently requested woods are the most expensive woods available. In the beginning we only used cedar, maple, walnut for the most part. Now we have exotic, hard to find woods and we hunt dilligently for unique graining, as we know they make a piece of hair art even more precious, when the grain pattern is unusual! These things all add to the time and cost involved to create your dream hair toy!

WE want you all to know, that we appreciate you shopping at our studio, we appreciate your design requests and know that your time and money are precious, and we thank you for investing in pieces of art for your hair at our studio! we stand behind our work, and we will go to great lengths to be sure your hair toy dreams are realized and able to be passed on to your children or family members!
SO again, we send out our thanks to you for making our dream of creating full time a reality! we love to see your appreciation photos and to hear that you love your hairforks! please, never stop sending us notes, convos and emails for we cherish knowing each of you and your hair needs!
Much love toyou
Stacy & Kimi
PS we have a new product coming out, that we think is going to thrill you....a way to display and store your forks in safely and in style while they are not being worn, that is beautiful, effective and unique!

Our Wood Series Continues with Blood Wood

2011-04-05T09:36:00.000-06:00

Bloodwood is called by several names, including
■Cardinal Wood ■Conduru ■Muirapiranga■Satine Rouge■Satine Rubane ■Satinjout ■South American Bloodwood
This wood is grown in South America and is NOT endangered. It is a lovely deep red color, and occassionally has some lighter yellow coloring inthe graining, as is typical of the sap wood. THis wood is very dense, and polishes beautifully. It is nice to work with, and has a pleasant smell as you are working it. It is strong, but has a tendency to splinter easily. This wood is very resistant to decay and insects.

It is a wood that tends to have very even graining, high chatoyance, and a deep blood red color to it making it highly desireable in intarsia, instrument making and decorative woodworking.

We keep this wood in stock for hairforks as it is moderatley priced and easily available.

WE hope you enjoyed this short but informative post on wood today! i was only able to find a limited refernce to bloodwood as far as its properties that are magical or historically spiritual, if you have any information to add feel freet o post a comment here!
Also , if you would like to know more about the woods specific gravity and things like that, please let me know. Those numbers mean nothing to me, i know the wood is dense because of the way it feels in my hands!

New Hair Toy Reviews Website

2011-04-03T11:49:00.000-06:00

For all of you hair toy addicts out there, there is a new web site launched called hairtoy reviews..and we were the first ones interviewed! we are so honored!!
WE hope you will come and check it out, leave a comment and sign up to get on the mailling list for future posts about other hair accessory makers!
Thak you so much, Birdie! WE wish you much success and fun with this hair adventure and look forward to learning about our fellow artisans as well!
WE appreciate you all so much!
Love to you
Kimi & Stacy

Are you in a F.O.G. ?

2011-03-31T14:21:00.001-06:00

WEll, i hope you are not in a real fog, but that you will join in with us in the F.O. G. that we are starting!

This is something new for us and we are excited to bring this program to you!

F.O.G. stands for Friends of Grah-Toe Studio.....it is a referral program where you can earn reward credit in our studio by sending friends to shop with us! here is how it will work:

1.You refer a freind to us to buy a hair fork.

2.Friend shops with us, spends $50 or more on in stock items (custom orders are not included ), and leaves YOUR name in the notes with the order.
3.They will get a 10% off refund of that first order and you will get a $5 credit to shop with!!

How fun is that!

We already have a few of you who have done this recently written in "the book", but we look forward to filling our book up with referral names!

AS tomorrow is April 1, and we will be accepting custom orders again, we also have a few changes we want to share with you to the way custom orders will be taken:

1. Each person can have only 2 items on custom order at a time. this helps us get them to you in a timely fashion as well as allowing others to place custom orders as well.

2.Ice Hairtanas. We will be making 3 a month for the shop, and one pair a month for custom orders. The price will be $185 each. You will have the chance to request colors for your handles on the shop ice hairtanas and on custom ones as well. We do have limitede material for these, and they take over a week(40 hours) to make ONE. WHen the material is gone, that will be the last of the ice hairtanas!

3.If your custom order is under $70, and you are not a first time shopper, we will make it and you can pay when it is listed. If it is very unusual, expensive or personalized you will need to deposit at least 50% for us to begin the project. The second half with shipping will be due when we complete the order.

We appreciate you all so very much, and we cannot ever express our grattitude to you for loving our work . WE wake every morning anxious to start our day, dreaming of new designs and looking forward to talking to you and getting to know your hair!

We hope the F.O.G. program shows you how much we appreciate you in a tangible way and that you are happy enough with your work from us to refer your friends with long hair to our studio!

Love to you all

Kimi & Stacy

Already New Arrivals are Available!!!

2011-03-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

WE have already been able to get back to some regular stock building and today we listed several new items!

Our poll showed an overwhleming group of you want to see more forks with no decorations on them, so we are going to aim at doing that for you, and probably a few with inlays that we have been wanting to do.

This is one of the larger sets of Ice Hairtanas that was really taking sometime, but it is SO worth it! These are just stunning every time i see a new one completed i am speechless! I might have to see if i can afford one of these for me...:D

We will be listing more new forks over the weekend, some of them will have decorations as they were already decorated, but we promise to offer more with nothing but the beauty of nature on them!
We appreciate you all so very much, thank you for taking the time to take our poll, so we know what you love and what you are looking for. And thank you, of course for your continued love of our art, we are so blessed to be doing what we love and seeing it in all the action pictures you send, makes our hearts soar!
Love to you all
Kimi & Stacy

Notice about custom orders...

2011-02-28T15:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-02-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

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..

2011-02-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

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.^["

^{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

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!!!

I did a video for you, my first one ever!

2011-01-31T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is a video on how to do the bun/ updo that i use in most of our action shots in the shop . I know it is very close to a Nautilus bun, but i can never make it look like that, and several customers have asked me to do this so i ventured out past my comfort zone and did it!
I hope it helps inspire you to try a new updo, or even invent your own!!
Feel free to share this link with anyone you like, or visit our youtube page for lots of other great channels that have our favorite updo videos on them!

New year, New look

2011-01-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

As we have started a new year, and started with some new sculpted designs for our hairfork line, we wanted to move that new look into our shop as well. DO what you love, love what you do. Thats what we want you to see!

we have gotten our new banner up in the shop and would love to have you come see our new clean fresh look! we LOVE it and hope you do too! we wanted a fresh new direction and less words..which our wonderful designer accomplished in a heartbeat after we described our vision. Please stop by and let us know what you think too! we would love your comments here, on etsy or our facebook fan page too!

Rejuvenated and infused with creativity!

2011-01-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

WE were finally able to take some time off this week, after no vacation for over a year, to rest our hands and brains after working through the holidays! WE went to see my Aunt and used her home in Nevada as a base camp to play and see a few local tourist spots...The Hoover Dam...

Oatman Arizona, an old mining town with a cool touristy twist! The Burrows are now allowed to wander the town wherever they please, and they are fed by the tourists! it was great fun for me, as i love animals. The shops are all quiant with lots of antiques, wild west themes, biker themes and Route 66 fame.

Some of the wild life at the Hoover Dam was Terrifying :D

THe landscape down south is amazingly beautiful, i am always amazed at the rocks, the colors and the shapes of the rocky peaks....i love the desert. Its sunsets are stunning, and it inspires me to my soul!

The Virgin River Gorge is between Arizona and Nevada, and quite a 13 mile drive! the pictures cannot capture the vastness , i tried to get some other cars in there for perspective...it makes it hard to drive too, you want to look everywhere!! this is actually the very west end of the grand canyon gorge...

SO we got to visit with family, relax a bit, and see soem wonderful sights! we also had some brainstorming time as we drove and listened to a book on CD...

We hope you will take our poll, its one of the questions we came up with for new designs this year!!

Hope you enjoyed our little tour, and more pictures are availble if you visit our Facebook page !!

Good response so far!

2011-01-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

WEll, the people who have gotten the new packages so far have given us a good response! we still want to keep track as everyone gets thier new boxes and make sure that we are still adoring and spoiling you while being environmentally friendlier :D Please be sure to take our poll!!

Savings alert!

2011-01-10T13:48:00.001-07:00

WEll, we have been doing our new packaging on several packages, mostly trying to send it to repeat customers to get thier take on it, and there may be another benefit to this...less shipping weight= less shipping costs!! THe Postal rates are going up this year, so we are trying to keep our costs and yours as low as possible!!
WE are going to start modifying our shipping fees as we figure out what everything comes to with the new packing ..so keep your eyes open, and we are anxious to hear from those of you who are getting the new packaging , how do you feel about it?!?
We appreciate you all so much!!
Love to you
Kimi & Stacy

Trying to be better and still pamper you...

2011-01-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

We are changing the way we do our packaging this year in an effort to be more responsible with paper and carboard useage. WE still want to pamper you as you open your box :D but we are going to stop the tissue paper and try to use a box that is better sized to what you are buying. You are still going to get a sleeping bag for your fork, but it is going to be handmade local (Our local) so we are supporting another handmade business, and if you wanted it could be reused as a gift or snack bag as well! If you have any comments about this, good or bad, please let us know! We want to be more responsible and still leave you feeling blessed and pampered when you get your box!!
We appreciate you all so very much!!

We have a name for the new fork!

2011-01-02T07:07:00.001-07:00

It has been so much fun hearing all the names for the newly designed fork, based on our Lily Pad hairstick. This was not an easy task to narrow it down to one name! all of the names were inspiring and beautiful, some with fabulous german folklore tales attatched to them. As we are highly influenced in our design style by the art nouveau period and love that style, we have chosen "Jugendstil" as the name for the new fork!

THank you all!!

I do need to reach Zuendhuetchen now, so if you could please email us or send us a convo on etsy so we can get your information, that would be great!!
We will be sending a special coupon to our German customers that they can use when purchasing this hairfork style in any wood or size!
Happy New year to all!!

Today we talk about walnut wood..

2010-12-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

I have done my research on walnut wood completely on line, and here is what i have discovered!

"The common walnut and the black walnut and its allies, are important for their attractive timber, which is hard, dense, tight-grained and polishes to a very smooth finish. The colour ranges from creamy white in the sapwood to a dark chocolate colour in the heartwood. When kiln-dried, walnut wood tends toward a dull brown colour, but when air-dried can become a rich purplish-brown. Because of its colour, hardness and grain it is a prized furniture and carving wood.

Walnut wood has been the timber of choice for gun makers for centuries, including the Gewehr 98 and Lee Enfield rifles of the First World War. It remains one the most popular choices for rifle and shotgun stocks, and is generally considered to be the premium – as well as the most traditional – wood for gun stocks, due to its resilience to compression along the grain. Walnut is also used in lutherie, i.e. making stringed musical instruments.

In North America, forestry research has been undertaken mostly on J. nigra aiming to improve the quality of planting stock and markets. In some areas of the US black walnut is the most valuable commercial timber species.[13] The Walnut Council is the key body linking growers with scientists. In Europe, various EU-led scientific programs have studied walnut growing for timber.[14]

Walnuts,the fruit from the walnut tree, are considered to be a herb in Traditional Chinese medicine. They are said to tonify kidneys, strengthen the back and knees, warm and hold qi in lungs and help kidneys to grasp the qi, moisten the intestines and move stool. It is believed to stop asthma and is prescribed to be taken between bouts of asthma, but not for acute asthma. It is also used by the elderly to relieve constipation.

The two most commercially important species are J. regia for timber and nuts, and J. nigra for timber. Both species have similar cultivation requirements and are widely grown in temperate zones.

The 21 species in the genus range across the north temperate Old World from southeast Europe east to Japan, and more widely in the New World from southeast Canada west to California and south to Argentina."

THank you Wikipedia for that wonderful information!

I also discovered that Claro walnut is a completely different type of tree and wood, and it is an endangered tree, whereas the previous types of walnut are grown commercially for lumber and thier fruits.

Below is a picture of a fork made of Claro Walnut wood. Its graining is beautifully crazy!

Walnut wood is strong and beautiful, and we love to work with it. It is also very widely available and grown sustainably for the lumber industry. While we have used some claro walnut on request, it was hard to find and due to its highly figured nature did not lend itself perfectly to making strong hairforks. It tends to stay flexible and alittle softer that we like for our forks. We do have a piece of it left and a few made forks with it that are available. It is very beautiful, much more expensive than regualr walnut, and hard to acquire.

WE hope that this information was interesting and helpful to those of you interested in the woods we use.

As a side note, working it is lovely, it has a bit of a peppery smell to me. It does finish beautifully and the boards we get that have some sap wood in them have a lighter color mixed with the dark brown to purple, and we truly enjoy working with it and making hairforks in this wood.

WE appreciate all of you so much, and look forward to showing our new creations and innovations in hair art for the coming year!

Happy New year to all!!

A contest for our German Long Haired Friends

2010-12-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

We hope that you are enjoying your holidays so far!

We are having a beautiful holiday so far, and are busily planning our new designs to be debuted in the new year...but this new fork is special....

This hairfork has been designed specifically in dedication to our German Long hair network Friends!

And, a special fork needs a special name, so we thought a contest would be fun! For this week, we are going to have the German LHN girls submit thier suggestions for the name of this fork , and we will choose a name on the first of the year and the winner is going to get this very first fork as a prize and gift! a $120 value!!

So what we would like to see is this:
1. leave a comment here with your suggested name, we would prefer a one to two word name please.
2. it can be in german or english.
3.please also make sure to let us know how to contact you if your suggested name is chosen, and you can do that here, through etsy convo or email if you prefer
our email is grahtoestudio@hotmail.com

We know alot of you are out of town or on vacation so we are letting the contest run this whole week, hoping that you all tell your friends and others on the LHN about it and we get a fabulous name for this lovely fork !
There are also more photos on our facebook page here
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grah-Toe-Studio/202833224024
and we will of course, gladly answer any questions anyone has about this fork. WE do plan to make it in any size, and already have a pair of micros in spalted holly made and ready to go after they get their name!
and, we have a special coupon waiting for this fork, anyone form the German LHN will get to use any time they buy this fork design!
Good luck to everyone and Ich hoffe Sie sind zufrieden
Love to you all!
Stacy and Kimi

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

WE figure everyone will be be busy tomorrow with family, friends and travel and so we

wanted to wish everyone a beautiful holiday and blessed travel time with loved ones!

Here are a couple pictures of the fun we had making a snow fork with all of the snow we got this week!

Merry Christmas EVERYONE!!!

Love from Stacy and Kimi

Grah-Toe Studio

Some new wood and new designs!

2010-12-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

WE have finally acquired some apple wood, and a nice colorful few pieces too! they were from some ones back yard when the tree had to come down, and they are just beautiful! We are so happy to let you know some more apple wood forks are on the way!

we also have some new designs coming out in the new year! the Lyria, as pictured here, is a new design for the end of this year and we are offering it in all sizes..the one pictured is a mini lilli, and we will be making it in all woods as well!! This is a very fluidly carved top on the hair fork and it holds and sits on the head very comfortabley and beautifully! we are proud to offer this new fork at the end of 2010~

the new fork designs coming out for the new year are equally stunning, i think :D and we hope you will like them too!

Merry CHristmas, happy holidays to all! we will have that walnut wood post coming right up!!

Stacy has a gift for YOU on this special day!!

2010-12-15T05:59:00.001-07:00

Hey Grah-Toe Friends!! Today is Stacy's birthday, and he wants to GIFT to you a 24% discount on your order!! That was what he asked me for, so I am doing it for him, and for you too! There is still time to get gifts to people, or to yourself and this is a great oppotunity and a huge discount for today only!!! take advantage by using the coupon code 24hour at check out and it will take the discount off your order before you check out! ! Happy Birthday my love, and Merry Christmas to everyone!!
We appreciate and love you all !!
Stacy and Kimi
ps the walnut post is in the works :D

Lignum VItae wood is our study subject today

2010-12-10T06:59:00.002-07:00

Lignum Vitae wood is a beautiful, aromatic,green and gold colored wood. It grows in the Florida Keys and is a very dense hard wood. It has been used in the making of bowling balls, false teeth , ships propeller shafts and it was used in the Erie canals locks as hinges.

We of course, use the wood to make beautiful hairforks. I am often asked about the woods we use and this following information was acquired from Wikipedia:

"Lignum vitae is a trade wood, also called guayacan or in Europe known as pockenholz, from trees of the genus Guaiacum. This wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness and density. It is also the Jamacian national flower

The wood is obtained chiefly from Guaiacum officinale and Guaiacum sanctum, both small, slow growing trees. All species of the genus Gayandcum are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially endangered species. Demand for the wood has been reduced by modern materials science, which has led to polymer, alloys and composite materials which can take lignum vitae's place (IT IS NOT ENDANGERED YET)

"Lignum vitae" is Latin for "wood of life", and derives from its medicinal uses; lignum vitae resin has been used to treat a variety of medical conditions from coughs to arthritis, and chips of the wood can also be used to brew a tea. Other names for lignum vitae include palo santo (Spanish for "holy wood") and greenheart; lignum vitae is also one of the numerous hard, dense woods referred to as ironwood.

Lignum vitae is hard and durable, and is also the densest wood traded; it will easily sink in water.

Various other hardwoods may also be called lignum vitae and should not be confused. The best-known is from Bulnesia arborea and Bulnesia sarmientoi (in the same subfamily as Guaiacum) and is known as Verawood or Argentine lignum vitae; it is somewhat similar in appearance and working qualities as genuine lignum vitae."

Many woods have been called the "tree of life" over history and usually it is due to thier medicinal properties.

I hope that you have found this information about this beautiful wood informative and helpful in your search about the woods we use for hairforks. We re having this post in tandem with Hair, There , and Everywhere today! come see her blog too please!
http://hairthereandeverywhere-jessica.blogspot.com/2010/12/lignum-vitae.html

Next, we are doing Walnut wood!

a little more of the story...

2010-12-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

A little more of the tale of Grah-Toe Studios today...i left off where we were working along and doing our art for fun..we made snowflakes out of wood every fall and used them as gifts. People would always tell us we should sell them, and we tried in different shops , and it never worked out. The timing wasn't right :D...so after 15 years in south florida, we realized it was time to move, get away from the crowds and the heat, no seasons to speak of....and we didn't know where to go! we didn't want to go back to MY home or HIS home, we wanted a place our very own.

SO..we took a trip and drove all over the country to see where we
wanted to go! it was a great fast whirlwhind trip around the country and through national parks, and along the way, our studio got its name! I don't know how many of you have seen the Grand Canyon, but I honestly think it should be something everyone sees in person..its unbelievable..we were in total AWE...and we are greatful that the Lord gave us the opportunity to do that and see so much of the country. We also knew we were heading towards doing our art full time eventually, and the colors and shapes in the west are SO inspiring..the desert, the rocks, the mesas, the trees, everything seemed so BIG out there!! THe rocks in Zion national park have these AWESOME grottos that are big enough to fit a small town into! we loved them.

This is where we got our studio name..we were in love with the rocks and grottos..we were Grateful..Grah To our toes. Toe . Studio Grah-Toe Studio.
SO now, you know how we got our name! it was a fabulous trip, and we ended up in Utah where we live and create today!
We are SO thankful that we found Etsy and had been working toward this for so long..now our work is evolving and growing and we are loving every minute of it! and it YOU that makes it all worth it!!
We hope you all feel the love we have for our creations when you get them!!

And, presenting, Padouk wood!

2010-12-04T05:19:00.000-07:00

We are talking about the beautiful reddish-orange wood, Padouk or Padauk. The botanical name of this tree is Pterocarpus, and it grows in Africa, Thailand and the Andaman Islands. It is a pantropical genus of the familyFabaceae and other names it is known by are Mukwa or Narra.

Padouk wood is valued for its toughness, stability in use and of course its decorativeness. THe color is strikingly beautiful deep reddish orange to bright orange, but sunlight and time can fade it to a warn delicious brown color. SOme finishes may slow or stop the color from changing, but most woods will darken over time regardless of the finish.

Some Padouk woods are used as herbal medicines intreating skin parasites and fungal infections. I could not find an information on this wood as far as its magical properties.

Although the wood itsself is not endangered, it does grow in rainforests and some of them are considered in danger. We are still trying to get direct answers from our wood supplier about where their lumbers come from and if they are from sustainable farms, but they are not being very helpful about it and the snwers are vague. The wood industry highly values this wood and it will more than likely continue to be available as the tree itsself is not endangered.

The wood works beautifully, is light weight and has a delightful smell when being worked. It smells very sugary sweet to me, and to Stacy it smells a bit buttery. YUMMM!

It is a very beautiful wood, and is ideal for hairforks due to its light weight and decorative nature.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the beautiful padouk wood today!

Next we are going to do Lignum Vitae wood!!

Thanks so much for your interest, we love to have any comments or suggestions or extra info that you have found on each wood we do!

Our next wood is going to be....

2010-12-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, We have had so many requests about what wood to do next! We are going to do Padouk wood, and we are still doing a little research on it, but we wanted to get your taste buds ready for it!

This is a fabulously beautiful reddish to orange wood, wonderful to work and smells like cotton candy to me when its being worked!

full details coming!!

Today we talk about Holly Wood..the wood..

2010-11-27T08:39:00.001-07:00

I have been reading and researching the wood that comes from the Holly tree for this wood information installment, and it has been really interesting! I learned alot that i did not know.

The wood Industry has long prized Holly wood for its very white color ,tight graining and fabulous sandability. It takes stain well and is used as a substitute for ebony when stained black. It is classically used as the white side of chess pieces when carved, and ebony as the other side. It is also used as a substitute for ivory on piano keys when needed. Faberge made cases for his famously beautiful enameled eggs out of holly!

Holly has over 600 species of plant and only the largest growing is used in the lumber industry. It is Ilex Opaca. Mostly the holly tree or bush is prized for its leaves and berries and thier beauty and properties. Especially in the winter, the holly leaves and berries are used as decorations. The berries are a very important food for birds.

Holly trees are grown all over the world where the climate and soil are right for them. THey are often grown in stands of soft maples and harvested with them. They grow all along the east coast of the us and are grown for thier foliage mostly, and the lumber is used from the trees that are large enough to get boards from. The wood must be harvested after the sap stops flowing , or the color of it will not be white, but become blue,grey or green from spalting.

WE have been searching for some more spalted holly for our hairforks but it is going to be tough to find since this is regarded as a ruined piece of holly lumber.

Other properties and information for the holly wood I found here . It has been regarded as a powerful protective wood, good against evil spirits, poisons,angry elementals and lightning ( i thought that was very interesting!) It is also associated with dream magick and fertility.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of our wood series and if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

BLACK FRIDAY SALE 15% off

2010-11-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

Sale time is here in our Etsy shop! WE are offering 15% off everything through monday! today the code you can use at check out is BLACKFRIDAYNOV2010 and it will take the percentage off your order before you check out!
WE sure appreciate everyone who has come by, we have lots of really beautiful forks left in the shop and to be listed over the weekend!!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Sale time starts tomorrow!

2010-11-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post today, we are having a sale in our shop starting tomorrow and running through Monday! each day will have a code to use, you must check in to our shop, facebook page or here to get the code for the day! tomorrow and Fridays is BLACKFRIDAYNOV2010, type that in the coupon code box at checkout in our Etsy shop and 15% off your entire order! This sale is not in our artfire shop.
We are Thankful for all of our past and future cutomers, and this weekend we will be saying thank you in the wallet! Looking forward to seeing you at our Etsy shop!
love to you all
Kimi & Stacy

Woods and Info about them

2010-11-23T08:32:00.001-07:00

We have had a lot of questions about our woods of late and we would like to start doing a little series on the different woods, where they come from, if they are in any danger, and thier properties, magical, natural and visual! Hope you will join the tree love train we begin here!

First let me say, i know alot of you are concerned for the future of some species of trees. Stacy and I talk about this alot, as we love trees, and sometimes it feels funny knowing we contribute to them being cut down. But the fact of the matter is, whether we use the wood or not, it will be cut down. Wood has been used forever, as fuel, tools, and all kinds of things. It is strong, regows, its beautiful and every wood has different properties. EBony, for example, has been highly traded and valued even in egyptian times, for its beauty, hardness and ability to keep water rot away.

TOday i want to start with purple heart wood. It comes from Central and south america. Its botanical name is Peltogyne and is also known as amaranth or violet wood. There are 23 species of this flowering tree, and some of them have been overharvested.
I could not find any information about the replanting or farming of the species that are endangered, but i am sure that they are no longer being cut since they are labeled endangered. The company we buy our wood from has been vague about if they recieve thier woods from sustainably harvested places. If we stopped making purple heart wood hairforks, they would still cut the trees down so we look at it as a way for the wood to live a beautiful and forever life.

FOr those of you interested in the magical or healing and natural powers of the wood, i found this information.

The purple heart wood is said to be good for emotional and physical healing, and opening the seat of compassion and generosity.
WHo couldn't use a little more of that?!?

I hope you will leave us any questions you have or suggestions for woods that you would like us to research.
Next we are going to do holly wood!

Stacy and his 40% discount at the manicurist...

2010-11-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here is the story behind the hands of Stacy and how they came to be Grah-Toe Studio.
In 1996 Stacy was working at a cabinet shop, and being part of the tough guys in the group went along with the lax safety equipment that was there. Things like that can make the work easier, but when they need to be there, there is nothing that makes up for that time you saved without them.....He was alone making raised panel doors on a shaper, and no hold downs went along with a dull shaper bit as well. Pushing down and forwrad hard against the dull blade, Stacy's left hand slipped into the bit and became as shavings on the floor with the wood...he grabbed his hand to his chest immediately knowing it was not good, and went next door to get help. The people next door thought he had been shot, as the blood on his shirt and where he was holding his chest was profuse. They came and took him to the hospital and he called me at work. I went to the hospital to meet him and take care of all the stuff that gets unfinished when accidents happen. I arranged to go make sure his vehicle was safe, and that he could get his medications and get home and not be alone after wards. I don't know if you realize this, but there are actually surgeons who just do hands, and there aren't many of them. We waited a lifetime in the ER, as all 3 of the hand surgeons were unavailbale and the next one who could would be over. THe fingers were gone on the left hand, in an arc the shape of the blade but ragged. They needed several surgeries to make the skin, bone, nail beds that were partial all liveable.

Many of our Church friends came over and gave us support, hugs, and offered to do anything we needed, they were fabulous. After all the surgeries and the healings, Stacy actually went back to work very quickly, and needed to be doing something. He worked there 2 more years and then he went to school for retraining into another field, dental lab tech. Now, Stacy was always really good with his hands artistically, and this made him more determined to be able to do even more than he did "with all those fingers in the way".

We had some friends who challenged him to carve one of his wooden chains in a toothpick...that he did, and has done several times now. WE featured a picture of the one we have here on our blog in the past year. Then he started to make tools to help him hold things better to work on them smaller and smaller, and the lab training was going well. AS an aside, after his first few weeks at dental lab school he suffered a heart attack and had bypass sugery..and began school all over that fall...ALl this time, we both wanted to do our art full time, but there was just no way to quit our jobs and do that so we continued on , i was a dental assistant and he was in school and we both loved what we did, and joked that we worked to pay for our habit, which was buying wood and stone and clay to make things!

And so as to keep you interested a few of the standard jokes about his hands involve his discount with the manicurists, his changing jobs and going into worldwide communications..shortwave...that his sign language has suffered terribly as he now mumbles when he signs, and that God is good all the time, even when you get 40% off at the manicurists...

We have lots to tell in between here and there and how we became full time Grah-Toe Studios and we look forward to sharing the full story with you.....we would love to hear from you and know what you would like to know next?!? or if you have any questions for Stacy, he would love to answer them for you!

We appreciate everyone of you, and this is being told only to share a bit of ourselves with our wonderful customers, not to elicit any type of sympathy as we know that God has a plan in everything, and Stacy has excelled even without a few of his fingers! We hope you will leave us comments and questions. We look forward to sharing more of our story as it comes!

Every shop on Etsy has a story...

2010-11-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I know WE certainly do! and the other artisans i have met and become friends with all seem to too...next time you shop on Etsy (which you know you will :D) why don't you ask the artisan you are buying from about how they got started, or what inspired the item you bought! It could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship, or a beautiful story to go with your item as a gift!

I am going to tell you about Stacys story in the next week or so, but for now i just wanted to encourage you to enjoy the handmade shopping experience, get to know the artists you buy from and give them a chance to see a bit into your life too!

Did your hair develop a Dr.Jekyll Mr. Hyde personality when the weather changed?

2010-11-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

WOW, my hair is SO different in this cold weather! It is like learning a new head of hair! i have to adjust the amount of Panacea i am using, and i may need to change my shampoos or routine to make up for it.
How is your hair doing in the new season? is it different or the same as it always is? do you have a different routine for your summer vs. winter hair? we would love to hear how you deal with the differences and what they are!

Get Your Grahtoe On : Awesome Wooden Hair Forks

2010-11-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

We are honored to have our hairforks reviewd here ont his video by Autumnmagic! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and your beautiful bountiful hair with all of us! We appreciate you so much!!

A new you-tube review of our work! And, Fork for kitty SOLD!!

2010-11-10T10:27:00.002-07:00

We are so excited to tell you that the fork for the broken kitty has sold! YIPPEE thank you so much! and we would like to share another artisans work that is going to help that same kitty, this special piece of work she made just for him is amazing!We also want to share with you a video that was made about our hairforks. We so appreciate that she took the time to share her opinions and experience on a video. SHe has a bountiful amount of hair and has allowed us to make some very special forks for her!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejNu1Meu7dc

We would welcome your comments and your visiting the shop above, which is
http://www.etsy.com/shop/venbead to look at the listing for kitty but while you are there perhaps you will find that special something you have been wanting for yourself or a gift! she has an amazing talent with metal and glass and i own several wonderful pieces from this shop and they quality is top of the line.

Please help Kitty Oliver-George!

2010-11-09T15:20:00.001-07:00

I belong to a team on etsy and one of my teammates is in need of some help. SHe is donating her time and services and shop proceeds to a recovering broken pelvis kitty. Here is his story:
http://peculiarmomma.blogspot.com/2010/11/s-is-for-sucker-or-post-wherein-you.html

We are donating the proceeds from a hairfork to go to her and several other group members are going to do the same, and shopping at her etsy shop will also help.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/60822139/benefit-for-a-broken-kitty-in-need-micro
This is the fork we are donating, and her shop is
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PeculiarMomma

If you are looking for a way to help out this season, and get some gifts or something special for yourself at the same time, this is your chance!
Thank you so much for your consideration and for reading and sharing the story around, that too will be a huge help!
Love to you all
Kimi

It's not snowing outside yet, but snowflake adoptions are available at the studio!

2010-11-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

We haven't had any snwo at our place yet, although the mountain peaks are white again....i am not looking forward to shoveling out the drive way! but we have been in high snowflake gears in the studio!

Its the time of year to start thinking about decorations and ornaments again and we have been not only making them but finding them on Etsy! there are so many talented artisans making lovely ornaments for your holidays to be glitzy and bright!

For animal lovers, i found the cutest hedgehog ornament made of clay!

If you love snowmen you have got to see this pair!

Porcelain and personalized ornaments abound on Etsy
ANd , of course, there's one of my faves, a hide-a-heart ornament!

So whatever your heart is looking for, try out etsy and support a real person, instead of the mall or chain stores this year!

Tell us about your hair!

2010-11-05T08:41:00.001-06:00

We thought it would be fun to have YOU tell us about your hair today!

WE are wondering..why do you want to have long hair? are you trying to grow longer or maintaining it at a length you love? ANd what length is that?

If you have any pictures of your hair that you can share we would love to have you post them on our facebook page, especially if you have one of our hairforks!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grah-Toe-Studio/202833224024?v=wall

Our making hair forks came from a love of long hair and a need to keep it in an updo safely and securely..with thick hair those plasitc clips spring in about 2 minutes! and wooden hair forks are actually better for your hair, they don't pull, they give an even hold, and they protect your scalp from the constant rubbing the plastic jaw teeth cause!

Please, tell us your long hair story!!

Just a quick fashion note, Updos are IN this season, and with hats,head wraps, ear warmers, scarves and turtle neck sweaters, its a great time to have your hair in a pretty updo!! Add a few sparkly finishing pins, perhaps from this etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/shop/nightblooming
drop down a single curl or 2 by your ear or eyebrow and you are ready for family gatherings or the opera!
This is also a perfect time for a fabulous pair of earrings!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/52912551/peridot-sterling-silver-earrings-lime

WE look forward to hearing about your hair journey and goals, and what you do to keep it healthy and safe!

Love to you

Stacy and Kimi

My first Curated Front Page Treasury~~

2010-10-25T14:01:00.000-06:00

I love to do treasuries! i joined a treasury group, and we make lots of treasuries, our goal, of course to be on the Front Page of Etsy! but also to have fun and promote other artists!
well, this treasury was not one i did under my team guidlines, it was a random pounce on shops with no sales and i wanted to pick the most unrelated items i could! well, it was on the FP on saturday and i didn't even know it!! and , i am so glad , several of the items have sold! WHOOHOOO!!
it is a real thrill to have an item on the FP as well as to have a treasury I made on the FP, WOW!
Congrats to all the great artists in this group, including:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SquidBox
http://www.etsy.com/shop/castawayshall
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SimpleShapes
http://www.etsy.com/shop/itsastitch
http://www.etsy.com/shop/littlebrownpen
http://www.etsy.com/shop/HeartfeltEmbroidery
http://www.etsy.com/shop/muddywheelstudio
http://www.etsy.com/shop/andrewsreclaimed
http://www.etsy.com/shop/uncommoncreatures
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackBaroque
http://www.etsy.com/shop/StravaMax
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bluebirdheaven
http://www.etsy.com/shop/DannyRoberts
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BugUnderGlass
http://www.etsy.com/shop/velvetmechanism
http://www.etsy.com/shop/angelydia
Hope you will check out these fellow etsians and thier really cool art!
Love to you all
Kimi

Glass Evil Eyes and hair forks and stick, Oh MY!

2010-10-22T17:02:00.001-06:00

WE love glass eyes! And this is the time of year for creepy things too! but we think they are fun all year long..hey, who doesn't need an extra eye in the back of thier head, i mean really??
THis is one we did on request , a dark brown eye in silk oak wood on antler....we also had a request for a yellow cats eye in zircote wood on antler and here it is...

WE love making these!!!
When we asked what you would like to see more of some people wanted to see more inlaid forks, but the reason we don't keep alot of those in the shop is that they are expensive to make, and usually someone will say they want one like that one, but with changes..so we try to have one or 2 made and ready to buy but they really work better as a custom order, then you get what you want, in the color and wood you love!

Now, i would love to start putting live treasuries up on here, and i am learning how! i hope to start featruing the treasuries i make and that we are included in as well as honor the makers of the treasuries that include our work, because we really, REALLY appreciate you all so much!!

SO, thats it for today, hope you enjoyed the pictures and remember to read our previous post about the holiday custom deadlines!
Love to you all
Kimi

I don't think we are in Kansas anymore, Toto....

2010-10-13T09:01:00.002-06:00

I can't believe it has been so long since i did a post, and i apologize! time is in warp drive here it seems and going faster as the holidays approach!
we are very busy at the studio with custom orders and with making stock to keep that part available for the coming holidays as well. we want to remind everyone about sipping to out of the US for holidays, we will need any custom orders for the holidays BY THIS WEEKEND and customs orders in the US for the holidays by the end of this month. also , for just regular shipping to out of the US leave 3-4 weeks for holidays to be sure your package arrives, unless you wish to pay for upgraded priority shipping...convo us for a quote on that, we are happy to do that for you as well.

Something we have been really glad about is that our box of wood pieces are selling! we thank you who have already bought them, as we are loathe to throw out those pieces, but our shop had become overrun with them and we were in a quandry! we are glad that perhaps boy scouts, instrument makers, hobbyists who may never need a piece of ebony large enough to pay for an entire board are getting to use these lovely pieces!! thank you so much, we will continue to offer them as long as they continue to sell!

NEW WOODS ARE HERE!!!

2010-09-27T15:21:00.001-06:00

WE have had several requests for apple wood, and after much searching have acquired a beautiful piece that is suitable to make hairforks!!! it really is lovely, there seem to be lots of colors in it, and it looks chatoyant all the way through...it is hard to tell until we get one to a finished point but we think it is going to be really beautiful in a hairfork! we also got a new piece of Zircote, and it has mostly heart wood, very little of the lighter sap wood, and a new piece of figured cocbolo wood..YUMMmmmmm...i am anxious to get forks going on these new woods!!...since the Apple wood piece is fairly small, i would like to hear from those of you who wanted an apple wood fork, so i know what styles to cut out! In the mean time, we have to make a few so we can see and show off the wood graining!

This fork with the antennae on it is something we have been wanting to do for months , and now that we are closing in on holidays, they are finally made! this was so fun to wear, so animated and lightweight! this would be alot of fun for costume accessory, or teachers, or even for Christmas wear! we have already had a custom request for this in different wood with eyes on the ends so if your heart is aching for something just ask!!!

On a new note, i have acquired a set of hair braids from Puppycatmeow and I am SO pleased with them!! Tressa was wonderful to work and communicate with, and although you should ask for color swatch samples for a really good match, we did mine with only a few photos and here is the result! this is one braid, wrapped around my hair in a high ponytail for a "Jeanie" type look..i secured the braid to my ponytail with an elastic, wrapped and tucked the ends and used one of our wooden hair forks to hold it all in place! it makes me feel like a queen and i am sorely tempted to get a few more different ones now!!! she is very busy this time of year, but the quality is amazing , the prices are so reasonable and they really can help give an updo the little boost it needs, or the outlandish look you want for halloween!

Although i have waist length hair, it is layered and i am unable to do a pretty braid, so these were exactly what i wanted..next i am going pippy longstocking style with one on each side LOL
THe wood fork helped not just hold the braid in place but give the weight of the updo support. It worked fabulously! i wore this most of the day yesterday and really forgot i had anything other than my hair on!!
Thank you so much, Tressa, for the fabulous color match and the quality of work you do! i am looking at some rosettes next......HMmmmmm

Happy Sunday!

2010-09-19T13:29:00.001-06:00

We hope you are having a lovely and relaxing day of rest today! We have just listed alot of new forks this week and have amny more on the way, many with fall or autumn themes, we got a new batch of glass evil eyes for the Halloween season and we have ordered some new wood at the request of many customers..Apple wood! we also found a beautiful piece fo zircote that we believe will make some exotic and amazing new forks...

We have to set a cut off date for our custom orders for the holidays so we wanted you to be able to plan for that now. Our international customers will need to have thier custom orders placed by Oct 15th, and for domestic or inthe US orders, by Oct 30th...we need 2-3 weeks to complete them, depending on what they are and then of course shipping times are much slower after that time..so we want to allow for that as well. We are able to offer expedited shipping for an extra fee and if you are interested int hat please send us an email or convo, we will respond very quickly to you!

There are so many fun findings out there, i hope you find something you love in what we have chosen to decorate our hairforks with and we gladly take custom requests for whatever you would like on them!

we tend to go with earthy and bizarre on our own, so if you are looking for something different , please feel free to ask! i wil do my best to find it ,or you can send us what you want on your fork and we will work with youto accomplish that as well.

The safety and health of your long locks is very important to us, and we have designed our forks to be different that what has been available, to be strong and not break with hair pressures, and to be organic and unique, crafted to be heirloom quality and last you through all hair lengths. If you have any questions about our hair art, or about hair in general, please feel free to ask that as well, and we will do our best to get you fitted to the right fork for your hair, help you with any hair issues you may have or send you to the right people to get answers!
Please be sure to check out the shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/nightblooming for hair treatments that are resotrative and healing as well as fabulous smelling!
ANd, i have ablog post coming this week about another fabulous item for hair fun that i found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/puppycatmeow and there will eb pictures to demontrate the fun as well.
FOr now, have a lovely day and take care of those tresses! i hope you enjoyed the pictures here!

Today we would like to know what YOU want to see...

2010-09-14T13:45:00.000-06:00

Usually i am sharing something with you about Love or about our studio, our process of making hair forks....but today, i want to put a call out to all of our fans and followers and any of thier friends who want to answer!

We want to know, what do you want to see in your hairfork makers? what is missing in the hair toy industry? what makes our forks your favorite, or your least favorite? what would YOU do different, or want us to do better for our hair forks?

We LOVE long hair, and we make these hair forks to help you have a sturdy, long lasting heirloom quality hair fork or stick that is functional and yet as beautiful as a piece of art in your hair! When you have very long hair, keeping it up hleps keep it healthy and safe. It also gives you tons of styling options!! LOng hair is NEVER boring!!! just check you tube for long hair updos, you will be bombarded!!

so, today we want to know what we are lacking that you are looking for!!Or what we do that you love and do not want to see change!

Thank you so much for your patronage, your encouragement and your continued support..also for commenting here, and be honest!! we are ready to start a new pattern, a new design, and want your input!
Much love and thanks in advance to you all!
Kimi & Stacy

Our Labor day holiday, the day after labor day

2010-09-09T15:08:00.000-06:00

Believe it or not, we really don't like crowds. When you are younger, it seems like if life could be a rock concert, all would be well..then , somehow it reverses and you start to enjoy quiet, and peace and aloneness...well, we moved out here for the alone-ness factor, and the opportunities for it are great! But, summer time holidays weekends, all the alone places are PACKED with screaming families in campers....so, having the beautiful job of working at home, we took our day off for the week on Tuesday, and everyone was passing us going down the mountian with thier campers, we were driving up...

There were no signs of fall yet, i thought perhaps the aspens would have a tinge of yellow to them, but they did not.

Our original hopes were to see the salmon migrating upstream in thier bright red glory, but alas, there were NO fish to be seen in the stream at all..but we did find this beautiful vine with the seeds from the sacred tree of Pandora!

This is looking up the stream where the salmon migrate, or spawn..they are not natural to this body of water and were brought in years ago.

We drove down in to a campground and there was a pack of mountiain goats! We had never seen them in person since we moved west, and there they were! ( Are they packs, herds, groups, flocks, ...i don't know but) there was a bunch of them, several collared and tagged. But this handsome fellow was sure to keep his eyes on us. We sat by the stream and had lunch with our pups. One of the goats, i think the momma , kept a bit away from us but growled loud enough to make me have visions of being on those shows where stupid people try to pet the bears at national parks...i wanted to get in the car but Stacy thought we were far enough away, and sure enough i worried for nothing. The dogs never even barked at the goats at all!

Loving the beautiful landscape here makes us take pictures of rocks, lots of rocks. This one looked fairly normal until you see me in the picture...it looked like it was balanced on the tiniest bit of stone, as if a breeze could knock it over so of course i had to go stand in its shadow...:D

A bit farther out on our way back we saw MORE goats! after not seeing any ,it was a boon day for goats, and we only saw one deer. Usually we see lots of deer and elk on this drive..but only goats this trip. You can see the beautiful red rock cliffs behind the trees in this picture..

Then, we were almost home... we are always so inspired to get back to creating after a trip up the mountain. ALthough no fall colors were evident, we did feel the coolness in the air and it was lovely.
I hope you enjoyed a tiny peek at our Labor Day adventure and enjoyed the scenery as much as we did!
Love to you all
Kimi & Stacy

Hide-A-Heart and our Anniversary!

2010-09-05T17:12:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone! I wanted to share with you about our wedding anniversary that we celebrated this week.

It starts with Country Magazine...several years ago we read a lovely story about a couple who would hide SHMILY around the house for eachother as a game, for the other one to find..SHMILY refering to "See How Much I Love You" and that would be a small reminder to each of them that the other one was truly in love with them all the time, even when it wasn't said out loud, or didn't seem to show...you know those times...
well..we started to play this game! At first it was a pencil writing on the wall in various places...then my crafty husband made me a piece of wood and inlaid SHMILY in the wood oval and we would hide it back and forth..but i found this place...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/HideaHeart

They actually MAKE glass hearts for this very game! I was so excited when they agreed to make me a SHMILY heart for our anniversary!

The heart comes BEAUUUUTifully packaged with the story to the hide a heart, and adorable little flowers and hearts confetti, a baggie with a card and a little heart on a string too! Now, yours won't say SHMILY, but they have a range of options for saying and are open to custom orders! it is such a fun way to keep love alive, as we all know life, work, kids, jobs, stress can get in the way of sharing your love for your spouse, and what is more important?!?! we need to keep the love alive, get the divorce rate down and the happy spouse rate UP! and i believe this is one way you can add a little spark back into your marriage! i would keep it above small hands reach, and make it a fun secret game that noone else in the house knows about, so it can be a romantic little get away for you when you find your hide a heart..your spouse may be at work and it will bring you a smile, a butterfly in your tummy, or inspiration for a welcome home from work evening together:0)

Even if you have a great marriage, this can just add to the love...i hope you will go see thier options, read thier story and become thier fan on facebook as well!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grah-Toe-Studio/202833224024?v=wall#!/HideaHeart?ref=sgm

Love to you all
Kimi

We are getting faster !

2010-08-24T15:10:00.000-06:00

we have been making hair forks for almost 2 years now! in November it will be our 2 year anniversary on Etsy! and we have learned alot, changed alot, and gotten much faster at a lot of what we make..so...for YOU..we have changed our pricing on some items that may please you and your wallet and your hair! The items we can now do alot faster have better , more affordable prices! There are still some things that just take time, no matter what, like sword handles, and 5 tine forks,...but our biggest sellers, the 3 tine lillis are going to be more affordable in the exotic woods! also the 2 prong mermaids tails forks! WHOOHOO!!
SO, a big thank you to all of our customers who have given us so much practice :D and we hope you will continue to support that practice while enjoying the new prices!! we love you all dearly, for real, and love that you can have a useful, sturdy, hair fork or stick to keep your hair safe and growing long!!

WE are also listing some forks on Artfire through the holidays, so be sure to check both of our shops, they will have different hair toys in them!

My Favorite item in our shop!

2010-08-21T09:19:00.003-06:00

I absolutely LOVE this hair fork! We ordered the cameo from Rainforest designs, and once we receieved it we designed a special fork to allow the light to shine through the cameo , and enhanced the shape of the fork with the echo of the leaf that the little gecko is sitting on in the cameo! This cameo is exquisitely made, and signed by the artisan that made it! that is another reason we wanted to leave the back open, so the signature was not covered. THis hairfork will come with the papers of authenticity from the Wounaan Indian Tribe of Panama. THe wood we used is Lignum Vitae. It is a green wood, that we thought was perfect for the leaf!
We hope you enjoy it as well and look forward to the special hair that it gets to have a home in!http://www.handmadespark.com/myspark/GrahToeStudio
Thanks everyone!

SALE SALE SALE

2010-08-21T08:54:00.000-06:00

We are having an End of Summer sale at our studio! EVERYTHING is 20% off today and tomorrow(Saturday and Sundaay)....and if you will follow us on twitter and/or facebook and mention it with your order, we'll make your discount 25%! WE need to make room for our new fall /winter inventory and new designs!!!
Come on over and grab what your heart has been looking for!

AHHhh , Laquer and scotch tape, the smells of the holidays...

2010-08-17T13:55:00.000-06:00

Well, let me explain that title. FOr years we have been making snowflakes for the Holidays. For so many years, that i now equate the smell of the laquer we use on the snowflakes with the coming of the holiday season! and scotch tape, well, that has always made me think of the holidays , becuase of gift wrapping! we are working on our new batch of snowflake/ stars and i wanted to share a little about them with you.

Stacy makes thes out of six pieces of wood each. They are cut to a specific angle on each side, and then cuts are made on all four sides of the diamond shaped piece. Some are made on the table saw, some on the router. Then after all the cuts are made, we glue the 6 pieces together to form a sort of log. Its very tense and tough thing to do, but we have come up with a system over the years! we end up with "logs" of snowflakes! once those are cured, we slice them off into the snowflakes you see. They then have to be sanded on each side and BOY is that fun...yes, skinned fingertips galore! after they are all sanded, we put the finish on them.

That also involves alot of time and tedious efforts, to which we have come up with a plan, but it still just has to be done...a labor of love , these are!, for the effort, we are rewarded with these!

SO, thats the tale of the snowflakes from our end of it! ...but heres the real tale:

Wooden Snowflakes

In the spring, about the time that Scrying Lake dissolves into shimmering mirrors, the trees on planet Gratoe come into bloom. Most beautiful of all the flowering trees, however, is the SnowStar whose feathery-white blooms have six petals that shimmer like daybreak on new snow. As the air warms soft breezes carry the heady scent of these flowers far and wide, signaling that warmer times have come again.

Beauty in nature is transient, and as spring gives way to summer and the trees ready themselves to bear fruit the SnowStars fall. The flowers coat the ground and for a time it seems that it has snowed in summer. Soon enough the SnowStars grow ridged and lose their centers, but retain their delicate six-pointed shape, taking on an uncanny similarity to a snowflake.

These the children gather and hang as winter solstice decorations, both a celebration of winter and a portent of spring when the SnowStars will bloom again.
(This is a tale that was written for us by Nightblooming on Etsy.)
Hope you enjoyed another little peek into the Grah-Toe Studio workings!

The Hummingbirds are here..it worked!

2010-08-12T11:45:00.000-06:00

THEY ARE HERE!!!I finally cought one on film in flight! and they are buzzing allaround our back yard! i am pretty sure that they are back on thier way south for the fall. But while they are here i am going to totally enjoy them! they are most active here in morning and evening and this was one of 3 that were flying around our porch yesterday!

Aren't they just beautiful! YEA!!!

The hummingbirds never came to our house...

2010-08-10T16:43:00.000-06:00

We usually get lots of hummingbirds through the summer and it is one of my great joys.. ilove the special chittering noise they make, and how the "sentinel" ones defend "their" territory...i love thier colors and sounds...but this year, they didn't come...we put the feeders out, changed the food when it got hot....i think an incident i had at the very beginning of summer cursed the blessing of the hummers away.....

I had just gotten a new tye-dye shirt with a large purple mushroom-ish shape in the center of it, i was standing on the porch looking and one zipped right up to me! i was so shocked and taken aback i swatted at it thinking it was a wasp becuase of the noise....i instantly realized it was not a wasp and cried out my apology, and my wish for them to grace our porch again...nothing. i even put that shirt on sometimes and stand out there with my coffee...but alas....now, about a week ago, a few showed up! the Rufus' and the ruby throats and the black and white ones, i am not sure which kind they are or maybe they are the females..but i am not a pro photographer, and believe it or not, there is a hummer in the above picture! he is hovering in front of a trumpet, but hes green....look really close....

the best shot i could get so far is below...

*sigh* so i put out an apology to the great wide world that i am sorry for swatting and would you PLEEEZE come back to my porch little hummer, i love watching you SO much...pleeeeze?!?!?

A picture of our message...

2010-08-05T14:17:00.000-06:00

Add caption

A friend of ours was on vacation and wrote this in the sand! I wanted to show the world, and hope youwill go see the rest of thier pictures and read about the trip this was written during...Thank you for spreading our message , even in the sand!

Fairy wog-dog and Queen drip-slobber...

2010-08-04T17:49:00.001-06:00

The word "love" has many meanings. In describing the enjoyment of ice cream some would say, "I love butter pecan." And in describing their deepest and most intimate feelings some would say, "I love my fiancée." Love is a little word with lots of implications

Love is too large, too deep ever to be truly understood or measured or limited within the framework of words. M. Scott Peck

Love talked about can easily be turned aside, but love demonstrated is irresistible. W. Stanley Mooneyhan
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. Ursula K. Le Guin

Acting in kind and loving ways causes us to experience kind and loving feelings. Stephen Covey

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love". I Corinthians 13:13

Let love and kindness take WING in your heart today!

P/S i just read Watership Down-Richard Adams , again and am now reading the tales from Watership Down, the title is inpsired from this book ....its fabulously entertaining!

A fellow artist who ROCKS! Must share ...

2010-07-31T17:45:00.001-06:00

As most of our readers know, we are longhairs. We love long hair and we love to make things to hold long hair up. For years, i had no idea there were ways to keep my hair long and have something that would hold it. The stores have clips for "long thick hair" HA! my hair would spit them out immediately, broken in pieces. So i would cut it,sadly....well, after one such cut i found a place for long hairs and they talked about hair forks of wood..YES! finally a way to hold it all up, and keep my hair! so we made me a few forks and realized, there aren't many people doing that..so we shopped around to avoid any semblance of copying, and started with our patterns! well, along the way in this wonderful, dream fulfilling journey, we have met many artists who are also long hairs and have had the same experience and gone with thier take on the way to hold lots of heavy, long hair while using thier creative juices. Once such person is the owner and creator at Ravenscroft on etsy. SHe makes the most amazing Moons that are hair sticks, unless you want to have them as horns! This was one of the best boxes i ever got! it smelled divine when i opened it, and was beautifully colored tissue paper all around..

then, to my heart pounding joy, the beautiful purple box contained a cloud with stars and my moon!

OH, i was thrilled to my toes! and it looks fabulously fun in my hair, and everyones hair i have seen them in!

She does this as a hobby for the love of wood working and relaxation, not for business or full time like we do. her profile on Etsy says:

"Hello! Thank you for visiting my Etsy Shoppe!

I started working with wood after I got a Dremel for my birthday in April '08. I have very long hair (knee length now) and wanted to learn to make cool looking hair toys for myself.

I sort of became obsessed and started working with exotic hardwoods, as well as domestic, and feel like I have finally found my calling. So, to support my habit, I opened up shop to share my creations with other longhairs and longhair lovers. ♥ :D
I hope you will enjoy the items I make as much as I enjoy making them.

Thank you very much for visiting!
~Cedahne"

Her work is top notch, her communication is excellent and fun, and she is delightful to work with. SHe does not take custom orders so when you go over there, if you see something that makes your heart pound you best grab it fast!! and i recommend this shop highly!!!
Thanks so much, Ravenscroft, for being such a joy to me and blessing me with such a wonderful creation to help keep my locks beautifully in control!
You Rock!

Church Bulletin bloopers to make you laugh!

2010-07-31T17:25:00.000-06:00

Just thought i would share a few funnies with you all for a change! Hope you enjoy the typo-bloopers!

*Bertha Belch, a missionary from Africa, will be speaking tonight at Calvary Methodist. Come hear Bertha Belch all the way from Africa.*

*The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.*

*The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."*

*Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Don't forget your husbands.*

*The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.*

*Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.*

*Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help*

*Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass ! this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.*

*For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs *
*Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions. She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons *

Hope this gave you a smile to share and lift to your heart. Know that you are SO loved!

New WOOD or Unborn Hairforks

2010-07-31T08:58:00.001-06:00

We got some new Pink Ivory Wood! and , JUst to show everyone howmuch woods can vary, here are 3 pictures of the 2 pieces we got...one of the pieces is very pale, almost light slamon in color and one is dark pink, almost with a purple color to it! it will look much different shaped, sanded and polished but the color difference is so evident here, i wanted to share!This wood is so nice to work on, it is dense and polished beautifully, has such pretty color and texture...
Hope you enjoyed this little peek into the Grah-Toe Studio workings...
Love to you all
Kimi

Love on Tuesday...

2010-07-27T07:07:00.000-06:00

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By

this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

( John 13:34-35 *NIV )

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to

one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
( 1 Peter 4:9-10 )

Above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." ( 1 Peter 4:8 )
Love is a glorious thing, it has saved our souls, it gives us hope and inspiration, and allows us to be kind to eachother
Much love to you all today..i think its a pizza day....

Rainforest Design Cameos

2010-07-20T08:57:00.001-06:00

For a while we recieved a magazine called Lapidary Journal, also now called Jewelry Artist. In the February 2009 issue there was an interesting article about cameos. I have always loved cameos, the look of them when i was young, and as i grew as an artist and realized how they were made and the history of them, my love for them grew as well. So this article captured our attention, as these cameos are special, VERY special!
Cameos from Panama. " These cameos carved by Panamanian artisans show the flora and fauna of the New World tropics...They are not the typical subjects of traditional cameo carving"
The American Heritage Dictionary says that a cameo is " A technique of engraving in relief on a gem or other stone, especially with layers of different hues, cut so the raised design is one color and the background another."

"These particular cameos are not only from that place, they are of that place. For anyone who appreciates the intricacy, delicacy, and variety of tropical nature, these cameos are not only beautiful and fascinating but downright cool. Carved by three native artists of the tiny Wounaan Indian Tribe-famous worldwide for the grace and elegance of thier tightly woven baskets- these carvers use native Panamanian shells of the Queen Helmet Conch. And with that material they depict remarkably detailed portraits of indigenous flora and fauna, from frogs to turltes,birds to fish, and flowers galore."Quoted from the article by Derek Levin 2/2009 Jewelry Artist Magazine.

Well, we could not resist. Loving lizards and frogs and turtles and animals and plants like we do, we had to find out more about these cameos. We contacted the Rainforest Design and arranged to chose a cameo to use in one of our hairforks. We chose an adorable little gecko on a leaf and he was on his way to us!!

Once he,our little gecko, arrived we were stunned at the beauty of this cameo. Although we expected it to be beautiful, it far exceeded what we could envision. It is thin, like a fingernail, curved, exquisitely carved and translucent! So, Now we set off to design a hairfork that would allow the light to shine through this cameo as it sits in the decorative part of the hairfork.

Of course the wood we chose was Lignum Vitae, as its green color would lend itsself so well to complimenting this natural cameo. WE decided to shape the top of the hair fork like the leaf the little guy was already carved sitting on. The part that Stacy had to be soley responsible for was the curve needed to set the cameo properly, as it has a very deep curve to it, and we wanted it in the middle of the hair fork top.

He has spent over 4 hours now carving the hole and groove where the precious cameo is to rest, and we are going to place copper wire around the setting in the back.

This hair fork is going to be a masterpiece combination of wood and carved cameo shell.... If you are a lover of nature, cameos and hairforks...be on the watch for this beautiful creation...it is in the last stages now and we are so excited to unveil it! It will come with a certificate of authenticity, and the cameo is signed by the artist and is numbered as well, which is another reason we wanted to leave the backside open for viewing.

A great big thanks to Roslyn at Rainforest Design for all of her help..we look forward to the sale of this beauty so we can come back for another!...but what to chose next..frog, turtle, flower..?.

The art show that will never be...

2010-07-18T08:17:00.000-06:00

It all began On Friday...welll, this part of the story did anyway. WE have been needing a new tire on the car for sometime, only one, the other 3 were replaced within the last year and you know how tires go, one dies here or there and so we needed one, and since we were off to the art show on Saturday with the car loaded we figured, it was time. No problem, i took the car over and got a new tire and they rotated them for me as well. Great, go fill the tank, go home to pack the car! YIPEEEEEEEEEE we are going to do so great at this show! hot weather, long hair ladies, and our hair forks and sticks would rescue them from the heat!!! I was so excited and feeling really good about it all. We had been over producing products for a couple weeks, and had lots of new beauties to show and sell. I had picked up several packing tips over the last few years from various places, and we had gotten everything prepared the night before. Ou tent canopy and its weights were ready. The tables are in the car, all we have to do is put our boxes in in the morning.

The show was in Salt Lake City. We happen to live about 160 miles east of SLC. The show set up was to begin at 6 A.M....yes, i see your brains calculating..we had to get up at 2;30 A.M. to pack the car, have enough coffee and get on the road. No problem. Alarm is set, but Stacy has always had the uncanny ability to wake himself a few minutes before the alarm goes off, so we were awake without the buzzer, which was nice. the coffee pot had been prepped the night before as well, we had coffee. We were worried about driving this time of day because of animals in the road, but allowed extra time to be slow and cautious.
We got packed, into the car and prayed over our trip as is our custom. WE asked the Lord to protect us and to allow for a great day. Some how that was answered, i think because we are alive. We are OFFF!!!!
We are listening to a book on CD, its a great book by the way, Watership Down, by Richard Adams. Its about rabbits, but is about life too and its very entertaining. Its a long book and we were looking forward to the drive for this, we were on disc 7 of 14, right at the exciting part where Hazel-Rah gets shot...you'll have to go find out the rest of that tale for yourself.
We were more than halfway there, everything going good, when we spot a deer in the road.

WE both saw it and we slowed as well as swerved a little, she was facing the opposite side of the road so we were hoping she would bolt that way as we slowed. ( let me tell you a quick thing, when we moved here everyone told us animals on the road are a big problem, and out here they are big, deer, elk, moose. They can kill you, come through the windshield kicking, squish you to death, or more frequently people swerve to miss them, overcorrect, roll the car and get hurt that way. The advice was BRAKE don't swerve, a little hit is better than a roll-over) SO actually it was more of an evasive move than a swerve, thinking surely she would stay there, run away or saunter off....well, turn and bolt is what she did, she suicided into our NEW TIRE! No kidding, she turned and rammed us. we pulled off the road shaken but not harmed,the deer was gone. It was about 5:30 A.M., in a dark deep canyon in the mountains between towns in rural UT. there is no cell phone service to be had. Did you hear that?!?! Cell phones do not help when you are in a canyon and crashed!

we start to put our flashers on, and being a glorious summer saturday morning there are lots of people on this road heading to the hills lake for fishing......OH no, a truck pulling a trailer,...we need help, we are standing out side the car hoping to flag someone down to drive to the top of the canyon and call highway patrol for us...people don't stop to help, even if you are waving your arms. This guy didn't even look at us, or the road evidently, because he hit the poor deer again...his truck cleared it but his little trailer did not. ThumpThumpThumpthimpthimmmm....now HE is on the other side of the road, distressed and the deer is still laying in the road.
(is there a limit on how long a blog post can be i wonder...)
Stacy walks over to make sure they are ok, while i am making sure other drivers slow before they get there by blinking our lights, evidently people don't look at emergency flashers on crashed cars by the side of the road either...The other folks are fine , they did not see us or the deer. Thier phone has a cell phone booster and it can't get a signal either.

Stacy and the other man drag the deer off the road. His trailer axle is totaled, but the truck cleared the deer and they are fine, they move thier camping stuff into the truck. A few other drivers have now stopped , and someone has agreed to call the police at the top of the canyon. What a boon that we had both our cell phones charged! what a great idea to get a new tire for a deer to aim at! WHOO HOO ! we are having fun now......

Its almost light out, the traffic is amazingly heavy. One officer arrives and goes to the other guy first, not to us. I have neglected to tell you, our car is undriveable and bleeding profusely. the transmission is busted open, the drivers side door will barely open, the headlight is smashed, the whole front corner is severely smashed. WE are the ones who had the accident, please come and talk to us!!!!! both officers that arrived went to the truck first....
SOOOooooo, we wait. finally they get to us, we do our report, licesnse,registration,insurance please over and over over, tow truck driver arrives.....so sorry, we do this all day long, all year long, you are lucky to be alive and not hurt. OK Lord, Thank you....

The town we are going to tow you to is Heber...its the only town here, and its saturday morning. Oh, and by the way, Heber doesn't have a car rental place, neither do they have taxis or buses. SO sorry. No ,we don't know anyone going back to your town. They tow us to the yard and lock up the car, and we call the insurance company (and the art show to let them know our booth will be empty and we must forfeight our fee for the day..GAH.) Yes, she at the insurance company tells me, there is no available help for you there, so sorry.

OK, so Stacy and i begin to walk through town from the autobody shop lot, in our-not-meant-for- walking-shoes-and-clothes-for-art-shows wondering what we are going to do. Surely there is something...
WE go over to the last rumored place that a bus may stop occasionally....perhaps we can get a bus home to get the other car and come get our stuff. Our stuff, that we make a living off of, packed into and left in the crushed car.....its about 7 A.M now...Long day so far...

Noone in the corner "HUB" ever heard of a greyhound going through there, no we don't know anything. Do you have a phone book we can borrow? at least now our phones work. I call every car rental place, all of which are in the NEXT town over, about 30 more miles, noone delivers, picks up or has anything available, So sorry. Remember those commercials " ENterprise, We come to you..*small print* unless you are in a small town in Utah and desperate, then we don't. SO sorry." WE have money with us, we have a card we can use to get the car, we have the means, the cash, jewelry to give you , we can pay! SO sorry...

SO, we are now on high gear creative tryng to think of what to do. We know noone we can call. There is a car dealer in Heber who also has a place in Roosevelt, maybe they need to take something back and we can ride...they are not open on saturday until later, maybe, if they come in. .....We have to hitch a ride home. WHAT?!?! We have to hitch a ride home......floods of old movies, things Dad told you never to do, horror stories of the CSI hitchikers found dead, stranded, mutilated.......But we really had no other option, than walking 100 miles so we prayed again, got a piece of cardboard, which should have been easy, but they had JUST gotten everything into the dumpsters and the truck JUST came and emptied it and there is not a scrap of cardboard in the store, but lets see if we can empty a box for you...thank you so much.

We make a Roosevelt sign and start walking, begging every car that goes by for help. Nope. we walked about 2 miles, settling into a pattern of hearing the cars, turning with our sign to plead.....and a driver pulls over. HALLELUJAH! by now, i don't care about those CSI episodes, they can drop me off wherever they want i just couldn't believe i was going to have to walk 100 miles and was SO happy. THe blessed angel who stopped was a young man named Abe, and he said," You guys are clean and had the look of expectancy that someone should help you, i knew you weren't used to living like this , you really needed help!" he was only going half way, but it would help. YES, very much thank you!

SO we ride with Abe, Stacy in the front me in the back seat crying,...out of relief? gratefuleness to Abe? exhaustion? sore feet? joy over A/C? Desperation? i don't know, probably all of it....But we are safe and not harmed and God is good, He sent Abe. Thank you so much, you helped us more than you will ever know.
WHen we get to his destination we profusely thank him, get his card and give him ours, take our sign and trekk out again. Now we are half way home, and dropped off at the bottom of the hill.....its 9:30 am and we thank the Lord for good cloud cover, because it is hot and we have only a little water left in the bottle we got at the place where they have nothing else available....
we start the same turning and pleading again, and we talk and walk, we found 2 quarters, lots of bones by the road, look at that cloud shape......we are almost to the ONLY rest area on this road for a hundred miles, literally, and i said to Stacy, if noone stops by the time we are near there i need to get to that vending machine. I had no breakfast but a few bites of an apple muffin and coffee since 2 ;30 am......any kind of fuel will be welcome.
all of a sudden a large blue car turns around....with a very elderly couple and thier dog.....they stop and step out and say, now pay attention this is a turning point in my life,
" us 2 old goats couldn't let another 2 old goats keep walking in this heat, where you headin'?"
Well, my joy at the ride was covered by being called an old goat for the first time in my life, and then quickly covered again by the fact that i FEEL like a VERY old goat, probably DO look like one and will be anything, if they will let us sit in thier old floaty lincoln and have a ride...Thank you Lord, for Old goats....it was a huge favor they did us, as they were on thier way to water thier property in the other direction and town was 50 miles back, they said "we never had no money so this is our way of helping in the world"...again, Thank you Lord, for the angels you have sent to our aid. ANd why is our dog behaving, they said? she never behaves around strangers and always barks her head off....not one bark, and lots of kisses from the pup later, we are home safe. We give them a box of snowflakes as thanks as they would not take gas money, and they were off to do thier watering...

We are home. Sunburned, walked over 4 miles with a cardboard sign, in pretty shoes meant for sitting and selling hair forks in, Stacy in shoes also not meant for walking.....we go in the house and our pups are very glad to see us 10 hours early.
We need to change and get back to our car...do we go now or rest a bit? lets sit for just a minute, no lets go, no lets sit......an hour later we both wake up, change and get back in the car to go get our stuff....
Well, the good news is that we know now that we are NOT supposed to be doing art shows, that was our 3rd try and they were consecutively worse outcomes (at least at Parma, Jen and Jerry, NOTHING happened. never thought i would be happier for NOTHING to happen) and we are not sure if we are keeping the brand new canopy and weights to go with it or selling it...perhaps we will use it when we are camping as shade....

love, love, love

2010-07-14T07:45:00.002-06:00

love, love, love
The picture on this post is so cute! i wish it would have transferred the picture too. PLease take a peek over at thier blog, it is worth reading every day!
Much love to you all on this Wednesday!

Of Dragons and Wings...

2010-07-11T10:26:00.000-06:00

As the silk oak dwindles,we begin to use the small pieces for inlays.

This pair of wings inside a Dragon Wings hairstick are amazing! the grain in the wood looks like feather/scales and the silver around them really adds the touch that is needed to top off a perfectly amazing hairstick! These wings curve back along the head, and they are exquisitely carved. Each wing is detailed with the tendons and the flight membranes visible, the frontal shoulders are where the inlay has been placed.

We have more Dragon Wing hair sticks coming, not all in ebony! and each one has its own character, colors, markings and shapes.

An action shot will follow soon, i have not even finished this one yet but i love it so much i had to show it off!

Hope everyone is having a great ,restful Summer Sunday!
love to you all

Kimi

"don't sweat the small stuff....

2010-07-10T13:11:00.000-06:00

Trust God and live a day at a time.

Wouldn't it be great if everyone took more time expressing love and gratitude for each other,for God's goodness, and for the blessings and mercy which we all receive?
To a large degree, the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment. Irrespective of what happened yesterday or last year, and what may or may not happen tomorrow, the present moment is what you are....always!

Without question many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things...all at once. We allow past problems and future concerns to dominate our present moments, so much so that we end up anxious, frustrated, depressed, and hopeless. On the flip side, we also postpone our gratification, our stated priorities, and our happiness, often convincing ourselves that "someday" will be better than today. Unfortunately the same mental dynamics that tell us to look toward the future will only repeat themselves so that "someday" never actually arrives.

Many people live as if life were a dress rehearsal for some later date. It isn't. Now is the only time we have, and the only time we have any control over. When our attention is in the present moment, we push fear from our minds. Fear is the concern over events that might happen in the future.

To combat fear, the best strategy is to learn to bring your attention back to the present. Mark Twain said, "I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." Practice keeping your attention on the here and now. Your efforts will pay great dividends.

"Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" Richard Carlson, PH. D.
Love to you all! The pictures are from our trip into the mountains this week for a little time off and "tree therapy". a few hours alone in the outdoors does a world of good for the soul, the creativeness comes back like a flood of ideas! we drove home filled with new ideas for things to make and do!
Kimi

Freebie Alert : Printable Free Compliments Poster!

2010-07-09T08:04:00.001-06:00

Freebie Alert : Printable Free Compliments Poster!
This poster is so cute! Hang it on your fridge or give them to the kids to hang on thier bulletin boards....a tear sheet of compliments to hand out! have trouble thinking of nice things to say? here you go! have trouble saying i love you out loud? here you go! great simple tool, inexpensive and valuable beyond all measure is a compliment.
Love to you all
Kimi

We will be at the show downtown Salt Lake City

2010-07-08T07:44:00.000-06:00

Just a quickie post to let you know we will be at the Arts and Crafts Green Market in Downtown Slat Lake City on Saturday July 17th...the show runs from 8am to 1 pm. There is food, crafts, art, and a garden amrket area too, i believe.
Historic Pioneer Park
300 South 300 West
Salt Lake City, UT

We would love to meet you!

Positive thoughts for Monday!

2010-07-05T08:49:00.001-06:00

"If little acts of kindness make our own lives better and do good for someone else, why in the world don't we do more of it."

POSITIVE CHARGES FOR A MONDAY
You always project on the outside, how you feel on the inside.

The most important opinion you'll ever have is the one you hold of yourself.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful.

Happy Monday, Everyone! I hope that all was safe and fun over the weekend and holiday for us americans! I, unfortunately, have a dog that is deathly afraid of fireworks noises....she had a terrible night, hence so did I! She was crying and shking, her heart was racing so fast i really thought she was going to have heart failure...i went out of the bedroom, where she kept jumping up on us, and layed on the floor with her for a while, trying to sing to her, pray for her, pet her and calm her...i think i will see if there is a doggie valium i can get for her next fireworks holiday!

Over the weekend we were in the garage making making making....so that today i could be listing as our hair forks sell! we have a box of items not listed so if you are looking for something not in the shop just ask, we may have it here in line!
Much Monday love to you all
Kimi

CELEBRATE the fourth of July, world over...

2010-07-01T16:17:00.000-06:00

OK, OK, i can't stand it!

we are having a sale on our hand mirrors and wooden star /snowflakes!!!!

We have marked the hand mirrors down 30%!!!!! They are crafted to the highest standard, i would call then heirloom mirrors, and made with the beauty of the wood being the focus, nothing fancy on the backs. We designed them to sit down into the wood, so that the wood frame keeps the glass from touching any surface that you may set it on, reducing the risk of scratches! That being said, i have managed to scratch 2 of the mirrors while handling them through the studio and moving them around so much, those 2 mirrors are over 60% marked down! the scratches are very small, still a very beautiful piece of art to have!

We have also taken $5 off of the box of wooden stars / snowflakes in celebration of the holiday!

but even our European customers can take advantage of this sale! it will run From , well, NOW, until sunday night!!

I am so terrible at keeping surprises....good for you though!

Much love to you all,

KImi

Happy Thursday!

2010-07-01T08:52:00.000-06:00

Happy Thursday everyone! It is heading into long weekend here for Americans and we are celebarating with a special surprise for our customers to be announced tomorrow! we will put it here, on our shop and facebbok and twitter of course, for the whole world to share!

But right now, just a bit of encouragement for you!

"Quiet your mind so that inspirations may rise from its depths. An inflow of new thoughts can remake you regardless of every difficulty you may now face.

Isn't that what love is all about? Isn't it a series of "little things" done for someone else for no reason other than the fact that you love them? Yes, love is revealed in the countless little things that take place every day of our lives."

I hope that you are able to keep creating, and share and recieve some love today!
Love to you all
Kimi

A New little peek into Grah-Toe Studios

2010-06-28T17:54:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone! Well, you wanted to see more about the making of hair forks and here is one little peek! Stacy is working at his station with his visor and light on, one more step bringing the forks closer to completion! They go through ALOT to get from "Unborn Hairforks" to what you see listed in the shop and get in your boxes of goodies in the mail!

This is where I do the polishing, weighing of boxes for shipping and taking all the photos in the light box. We made the light box very simply, from directions on the Strobist blog. This one is our second one, always striving to be better, right!?

And here is one of the results of the labors! This beautiful fork is not quite finished, but the inlay is lovely and i wanted it to be the example here. The fork gets drawn on, then Stacy carves it out, does the inlay, rough sands it and it comes to me for finsihing! this designis classical and elegant, silver inlaid with lapis around and in the leaves, an heirloom quality and designed fork!

Well, we hope you enjoyed this mini-tour...off to do more sanding!

Much love and appreciation to all of you!
Kimi

Happy Friday night!

2010-06-25T17:57:00.002-06:00

WEll, Friday night for us is working on hair forks! we are always making stuff, and usually were even before this was our job, it is also our love. SO for anyone else out there at the computer on Friday night heres a little piece of encouragement,no matter what today held for you, rest in this...

BE POSITIVE EVERY DAY

Life is a mixture of moments---
some happy, some sad and most in-between.
Make the most of each day as it happens.
Don't listen to those whispers of doubt;
ignore any voice that says you can't do something.

You're worthy, and you can go as far as you dare to dream.

Life will lead you according to your perceptions.

Let your viewpoint be filled with hope,

and keep your eyes focused on the positive.

I did say there would be a part 2 for the peek into the workings and goings on here in Grah-Toe Studio, and there will be..but i have to come up with the pictures and the words first! it is brewing and stewing and should not be long, so hold on and don't give up on me!! Perhaps it will be the BANG for our fourth of July post and surprise!
Have a blessed evening and weekend, see you soon!
Love to you all
Kimi

It was SO exciting to accidently come upon....

2010-06-23T13:52:00.000-06:00

SO, this morning i grabbed my coffee and went to the computer, like ususal, and when i got to the etsy link, i was at this treasury...
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c1b785bb2d48eef44484ce7/oranges-oranges-she-went-mad-for-those
and i thought, well, that's wierd, i didn't go to treasury, so, still not awake obviously, i typed in the etsy shop again and there it was....and then it hit me, the treasury we are in is ON THE FRONT PAGE OF ETSY! I screamed! DH came running in fear for my life...i was so ..jubilant! it was like a prayer answered, a dream come true..who would ever think we would make it to the front page....YIPEEEEEEEEE!!!
3 cups of coffee later and lots of dancing and spreading the word, i am back to earth now and praying that we get more business from it as well as the exposure!
That made my day!

On a new item note, we introduced our new pocket / purse mirrors today! they are going to be available by themselves, and some will be in sets with a dainty detangler, or a fork or comb! Right now the only woods we have them in are cherry, walnut, padouk and zebrawood. As you can see, they are not nearly the size of our first mirrors, these are hand sized, and will come in thier own sleeping bag for safe carrying! thie one pictured had a knot that we filled with malachite. The others will be customizeable, we can woodburn or engrave or carve or inlay your monogam or whatever your heart desires on the backs of them! butterflies, hearts, names, anniversary dates, whimsical woodland leaves and vines..whatever we can dream up together!
As with our big mirrors, these are made so that the if they are laid glass down the wood will be what is touching the surface, to help reduce scratching on the mirror. They are really cute and we are proud to offer them to you!
Thank you all, for helping us get as far as we have in our career. We look forward to new and exciting designs, and a furthering of our handmade love affair with hair art!
Love to you all
Kimi

The day after Monday....

2010-06-22T10:18:00.003-06:00

The way to happiness: keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.

There is a time to let things happen and there is a time to make things happen. Hugh Prather
Love to you all,Kimi

Hair Swords....Yes, i said swords...

2010-06-21T08:00:00.001-06:00

As you all know, we love to make hair toys. Hair toys that are made especially well, to hold very long and/or thick hair. Hair Forks and sticks that are unique, and have our character built into them.Stacy wanted to make some wood hair swords for hair sticks. Cool, ok, lets do it! Well, Stacy aslo loves to make little things that are detailed. The wood hair swords were a hit!

Then, we decided to wrap the handles, with wire or leather. That was a hit as well, they are really fun and cool looking!

Then, we got a request for a detailed, miniature japanese katana, ray-skin wrapped handle and all. We got pictures and off to the garage Stacy went! He made the little tiny metal parts that go around the blade and hilt gaurd, he watched tutorial videos on authentic Japanese sword handle wrapping. and we went in search of the right materials to do this process, tiny. Since then our swords have been a big hit, and they are getting better and better everytime! we now carry some pairs of katana wrapped pairs, that have the look of katanan wrap but are not toally authentic in their beginning and ending, but it keeps the cost down a bit.
Then, the order that tickled Stacy to no end, was for a hair sword, metal blade in a sheath that could be worn in the hair. THe blade would be invisible while sheathed, and it would look like just a large stick was holding the hair. For this order, he made a display stand like the real swords are often see on.

Then when the sword orders continued he decided to make the little stands to go with any sword that was over $100. It looks really cool, and it is our very special free gift to you. When Stacy puts WAY too much time into these amazing swords already, this is a real treat, becuase the swords are amazing. His craftsmanship is very detailed and fine, and he works on these swords until they are really well done, wether it takes 2 or 3 times the amount of time he thought, he is going to make it right!

Now i was a little put off by the idea or using ray skin...that is sting ray leather. I ADORE sting rays. I think they are one of the most beautiful creatures ever. I have a sterling silver bracelet made with a stingray as each link! But the truth of the matter is, the villagers who catch these rays for food, make money selling the skins as well, and they are going to continue to eat a very reliable food source for them and why waste the parts?! honestly, i am not being cheeky here, i thought long and hard about this. They have been using this material on sword handles for ages. IT makes them look very authentic and cool, and it helps support the people making thier living off of fishing in small villages all over the world.

SO, our sword brag is now at a close for the day, i am just so proud to offer these beautiful and amazing hair sticks to our customers, i wanted to give a little background, tell you about the sword stands and why we send them with some and not with others....and we will sell them as well if requested.

Thanks to all of our customers, we would love to see hair sword action pictureson our facebook page!!

Love to you all

Kimi

Today...

2010-06-20T15:25:00.001-06:00

Today we decided to drive to Nine Mile Canyon. It is on the national scenic byways and it is a cool place, but getting there is quite a drive. It is 48 miles of almost completely dirt,washboard pot holed oil field roads. But the rocks, the towering spires, then the desstination with the petroglyphs is worth the dusty drive. We listened to a book on cd and enjoyed the animals and flowers along the way. Yes, the desert blooms!

It was a sunny beautiful day, and the walk was lovely. We saw lizards and antelope, prairie dogs, chipmunks and something that looked like a lemur, but i am pretty sure it wasn't...we did not drive THAT far! HEEHEE

As i have told you before, we like to take a picture of our feet when we go places, just for fun, and here is us! in the desert, you can see the bottom of my trusty walking staff too.

Lastly, we had to get a picture of my hair in this beautiful place. No hair fork today, silly me, but i felt like having it down since it was a day for my husband and he loves to look at my hiar, but i did not want it all knotted up..so if anyone is interested, i did an english braid with the top half of myhair. then i put the bottom half up in a ponytail under the braid, and wrapped that braid around the pony, pinned with decorated amish pins. then i rope braided the ponytail. It looks pretty cool, if i do say so! Having layered hair makes most braids something i cannot pull off, but when i take the top half and the bottom half seperately, i can do some fun stuff! And Husband loved it.

So we had a good day, came home to eat and rest then went back to forkin'!

Hope you enjoyed our adventure pics!

Love to you all,Kimi

The circle of life...

2010-06-17T07:43:00.001-06:00

Always remember that problems contain values that have improvement potential.

Move away from past failures and mistakes and go forward without letting them be a weight upon you. Every night when you lie down to sleep practice dropping the day into the past. Look confidently to the future with God.

Choosing not to answer the phone, on selected occasions, can be an empowering decision and can greatly reduce the stress in your home life.

Once again, valuable and timely words from PTD newsletter! I try to do these things to help life in our home be smoother and stress free, but it is a daily thing, we must live each day, IN that day and do our best!
Love to you all
Kimi