We are already looking at the month of July for the next OHM release! Release day is July 2nd!

Straight from OHM Lab this month comes Cairn, with laboratory assisant Patricia McClure aka Mcctrish!

Stacks of rocks, or cairns in Gaelic Scotland, have been built since prehistoric times as trail guides, burial monuments (or markers for buried food and treasures), as astronomy charts, as military defenses, or for ceremonial rites in sacred places. An old Gaelic blessing of friendship states, “I’ll put a stone on your stone.” Coastal cairns, painted white, were used to warn ships of rocky shores or travelers of dangerous cliffs. In South Korea, hikers stack stones for good luck in tribute to the Mountain Spirit.

Today, stacking stones are often used as a meditative practice. The rugged durability of stones represents the soul–or truth itself–that which is eternal, yet the carefully balanced rocks can easily topple, which represents the impermanence of life and all our temporal efforts. The act of stacking and balancing stones requires focus, patience, and profound stillness of the mind–each carefully placed stone is a prayer or thought of gratitude–a meditation on the oneness of self with the vibrations of the stones and the surrounding environment.

Our OHM CAIRN will add a subtle, carefully balanced hue of color to your bracelet, reminding you of the precious impermanence of each day, the gratitude you feel for guideposts along your journey, and the friendships you share that stack blessing upon blessing. “I’ll put a stone on your stone” and a pebble of good luck too!

Exclusive for OHM Australia is Shark Bay!

SHARK BAY is an amazing natural wonderland on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. The bay itself covers a massive area, dotted with countless islands and peninsulas, and teeming with hundreds of species of birds, reptiles, and different fish, including many rays and, yes, sharks. The most massive shark in the world, the whale shark, gathers in SHARK BAY during April and May full moons.

The bay is also home to 10,000 dugongs, or “sea cows,” a cousin of the manatee. Endangered species of green and loggerhead sea turtles nest on the bay’s sandy beaches. Humpback and southern right whales use the bay as a migratory staging area, and bottlenose dolphins forage for food, attracted by the world’s most abundant meadows of seagrass on the bay’s sandy floor. Due to the hot Australian climate and rapid evaporation, the water of the bay is nearly twice as salty as the surrounding ocean. Further south, some of the world’s oldest living algae formations, called stromatolites, have been rising from the water since prehistoric times.

Deep blue sea waves swirl into white foam as they spread across the sandy shore. The vibrant salty blue is flecked with shimmers that could be darting fish, bubbles from a whale, or a nearly transparent jellyfish. Is the sandy hue the seagrass floor? Or sea turtles nesting in the shoreline dunes? Your imagination can soar with the rising flocks of birds or leap with the dolphins or even cruise with graceful menace like a shark. Surely this is an OHM bead worthy of the name SHARK BAY.

And last but not least, Woot Bear Phinneas!

The Woot Bear design was born in Steve Ferrera’s Berkeley art studio in 2016 for an art show at Woot Bear Gallery in San Francisco. The original bear was a 5-inch tall solid cast resin figure painted with acrylic paints. For the show, a dozen top toy designers were asked to customize the bear. The design continues to evolve and find new iterations, this time finding a home in the jewelry and bead world with OHM Beads in Seattle, Washington. The bead designs were created by OHM who incorporated some signature swirls found in their logo.

WOOT BEAR PHINNEAS was launched as part of Project OHMistry, in April of 2020, and is now available as a regular collection item.

A great smaller release for the month of July, I love that I can catch up on my whishlist, but also it has grown (again)!