New Year New Joys!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

We had big plans for a new years announcement, and like so many others we have been bombarded with a nasty flu bug LOL...that sort of put us back a a bit, but we are on the way up and the new announcements will be a few days late , but coming right up!! i can tell you a few new things are happening with the custom order procedure  , and we have a new product to introduce too! we hope you are all going to love it!

We would like to share a goal with you for this year. We would like to get more people who think they can't grow their hair long to our shop!! we know that when you have very thick or what seems to be unruly hair, you just tend to cut it, even when you want to grow it long. Hair forks saved my hair and they can save yours too!! there IS hope for thick long hair! you can have it up without headaches, without breaking everything you try to put it up with!!  Throw out the plastic jaw clips that dig into the scalp and break your hair!! Try a new updo, and try our wood or antler hair forks!!
We enjoy getting to know you and your hair before we recommend the right fork for you and your lifestyle, and we take the time to do that as well as to make them heirloom quality!

If you didn't know about our  F.O.G. program (friend of Grah-Toe) here it is again! When you send someone to us and they tell us you referred them, they get 10% off their first purchase and you get a $5 credit!  so lets see how many people we can help save their hair this year!! WOOT!

We appreciate all our clients so very much,and look forward to much growth for your hair this year, as well as to making exciting new hair art for your gorgeous locks!!  sending you all love, health and prosperity wishes for this new year!!♥

Anniversary SALE at Grah-Toe Studio Etsy Shop Only

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!

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

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!!



 

Some Bun Fun!

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!

Are you in a F.O.G. ?

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 

Notice about custom orders...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rejuvenated and infused with creativity!

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 !!

Savings alert!

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

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

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

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!