Happy New Year! We are here to look at the OHM January release and it is another big one! Several fun, cute and surprising collections are coming! Release is on January 13.

BEAUTY COLLECTION

First up is Beauty Ball! Beauty doesn’t come from how you look. Beauty comes from within. You radiate it when you embody yourself and express your truth in energetic form. Feeling beautiful can empower us to release our inhibitions and just play. We all want to have fun. Make up and beads are tools but also toys. Let your inner artist come out and play.

Beauty Blower is a beautiful detailed hair dryer!

Beauty Spot is a lovely lipstick! But my motto is: a bead can be whatever you want it to be! With some imagination this bead could be so much more!

Body and Soul. Are you inexplicably intertwined with someone? For goodness sake, we hope you love them! We are all links in the chain of life, and when you find intimacy with someone in that chain, cherish it. Labels need not apply.

Red or White. Ever hear of Novinophobia? It’s the fear of running out of wine! Wonderful wine: sweet nectar of the grape eases the tensions of the day, lubricates conversation of good company, lights the fires of romance, and enhances our culinary delight. They’ve discovered wineries over 6,000 years old, so folks have been raising a glass, or two, or three, for all of civilized human history.

What’s your preference, red or white? The juice from most purple grapes is greenish-white, so red wine gets its rich ruby color from the grape skin’s pigments.

In ancient days, young women would press the grapes with their bare feet. Dionysus for the Greeks — later Bacchus for the Romans — the god of wine, fertility, and ritual madness, was worshiped with some pretty wild parties. These days, wine still inspires some flawless dance moves and brilliant one-liners! It’s fun to cook with wine; you might even put it in the food. Doctors say red wine has health benefits, or, at the very least, you shouldn’t keep things bottled up. So, wine down and have another glass of red or white.

It doesn’t matter if our glass is half-full or half-empty. We require more wine, and the best wines are those you drink with friends.

A new Chunky bracelet clasp Seahorse-y! Two seahorses supporting each other. The clasp is approximately 3cm long. View the bracelet pages to view size options for chains.

Two Peas in a Pot. You are not alone. You have a partner in life. There are so many types of relationships on this planet.

As partners in this life, you commit to seeing each other through the hard times and celebrating the highs. You could have chosen them: a spouse, a pet, a BFF, a coworker, a friend. They could have been assigned to you: a parent, a sibling, a godfather, a dorm mate.

OHM’s TWO PEAS IN A POD can be seen as a connection to one person in particular. However, it may symbolize two people you are close to and how they relate, or it could be you and another shifting identity depending on what you think when you look at your wrist at that moment. (Are you always on top or bottom?) Of course, it could be all of the above! There is no limit to your imagination.

CHINESE NEW YEAR COLLECTION

Break Through. Find the threshold and push past it. It doesn’t matter which of the four corners you try, just as long it’s hard enough to reach the next level.

There is peace in the shifting of things.

Breeze Past. You don’t have to take everyone with you. The boat will only hold so many. How do you choose who to let go of? Who will you forget? Who will you never know? It’s hard to be a Lot. It’s impossible to be Everything.

Charge Foreward. Now is your time to push. Take one more super deep breath and force yourself to focus on what is in front of you. Birth something into existing through your creativity. Quiet your mind and keep your mind crystalized.

Cross Lines. Reach across and let someone know what you think. Test each other. Offer education to those that need it. We believe the borders we draw are for our protection. A line in the sand, drawn with intent and clarity, is washed away in the wave of entropy like everything and everyone else. Why stay on your side the whole time? Explode out of your box.

Expoding Bamboo. The firecracker’s predecessor was a type of dry bamboo that exploded when heated continuously, used around 200 BC to scare off evil spirits, including the human-eating monster Nian. The Chinese name for firecrackers is “exploding bamboo.”

After the invention of gunpowder in 9th century China, the new gunpowder firecrackers still looked and sounded a lot like the old “exploding bamboo” version. Today, Chinese firecrackers are made of cardboard or plastic in the good luck colors of red and gold; but, the key to a really loud, satisfying explosion is still the pressure. The tighter the firecracker is packed, the bigger the bang!

Firecrackers are now popular worldwide, despite restrictions for safety. They have exploded in celebration of Diwali in India, Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, Bastille Day in France, Halloween in Ireland, and Independence Day in the USA.

In China, it’s traditional during the first three days of the New Year for people to compete in firecracker contests. Chinese New Year parades and dances are all accompanied by the pop of explosions — and children squealing with delight — and colorful strands of fireworks are hung like decorations from houses and businesses for good fortune.

Celebrate your favorite holiday, or whatever occasion, by adding our OHM Exploding Bamboo to your bracelet. This strand of silver firecrackers will jingle and dangle deliciously from your wrist (they won’t explode). Spice up your jewelry with movement, sparkle, eye-catching pleasure, and a year of good luck.

It might scare those evil spirits away too!

Make Change. Our energies add to the frequency that our atoms share, yours and mine. Charge forward to break through barriers in front of you—breeze past those who don’t want your help and cross lines with your closest people. You are here to make change in the world.

Mystic Knot. The Mystic Knot — also called the Infinity Knot — is one of eight lucky signs in Buddhism. This special knot has no discernible beginning or endpoint and symbolizes longevity, prosperity, triumph, love, and health. In Buddhist beliefs, the Mystic Knot represents the never-ending cycle, which offers each of us the ability to overcome illness and adversity and instead create success, fame, fortune, and long life.

Holding and rubbing the knot is said to calm your fears, stress, impatience, and bad temper, bringing a sense of serenity, stability, and mental clarity. Travelers often carry the Mystic Knot as a charm of protection against accidents, thieves, or evil spirits.

Best of all, the Mystic Knot is a powerful symbol of eternal love and the tight, unbreakable bond of family, marriage, and friendship. The Mystic Knot is even reputed to be a potent love charm to improve your relationship fortunes.

Wow, that’s a significant knot! OHM is pleased to present our Mystic Knot as a beautiful charm for luck, prosperity, and protection to add to your bracelet or give as a gift to a friend or loved one, symbolizing the tight and never-ending connection of your connection.

This Mystic Knot will dangle and move delightfully on your wrist, and it will be within easy reach to hold and calm your troubled spirit. You might even improve your life! Worth a try, right?

Ox Ole. There is a tradition in China of dancers wearing masks to resemble animals or mythical beasts such as dragons, fish, or phoenixes while dancing to mimic these creatures’ movements for good luck and fortune. These dances are an integral part of Chinese New Year celebrations and weddings, and many cultural and religious festivals. The large elaborate masks are often made of paper-mache over a bamboo frame and then beautifully painted and adorned with layered cloth, feathers, and fur. Equally colorful costumes accompany the masks, and the dancers shake, leap, and twirl to the vigorous rhythm of powerful drum beats.

During the Chinese New Year, troupes of dancers visit houses and shops in the community to perform a dance called cai qing (採青), plucking the greens, which will bring good fortune to the home or business offering the greens. Originally, the cai qing referred to lettuce, but now the greens can be fruit, seafood, or even beer. The lettuce is hung on a pole for the dancers to pluck. The challenge is that they must remain in the animal’s character and stay within the dance. Rewarded with money in a red envelope tied to the greens to the Dancer, the more difficult the challenge, the greater the reward and good fortune.

To bring you good luck, good fortune, and a remarkable series for collectors, OHM proudly introduces the Chinese Zodiac animals as masks for the dance! 2021 is the Year of the Ox, and this magnificent bull mask has a movable jaw and a ring through its nose, and some seriously sinister horns! Reward yourself with this good luck charm and collect all twelve in the years to come. Now that’s something to look forward to!

The Red Lanterns. Symbolize divine light emanating outward to the world to dispel evil and darkness.

The lighting of paper lanterns has since become a regular part of all Chinese celebrations — sometimes the lanterns are set adrift on water or launched into the air like helium balloons — and this festive art has been passed to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. There are five distinct classes of Chinese lanterns, including the Tomato Light or Big Red lantern, which is the classic round mid-sized version.

Between 1899 and 1901, there was an anti-imperialist, anti-foreign uprising in China called the Boxer Rebellion (because the Europeans called martial arts “Chinese boxing”). The opportunity to fight back against Western encroachment and colonization was very appealing to unemployed village men, many of whom were teenagers.

Village women formed their own fighting units: Red Lanterns (young women ages 12-18), Blue Lanterns (middle-aged women) and Black Lanterns (elderly women). The young Red Lanterns were dressed completely in red, from hats to shoes, and each carried a red fan and a red lantern. These young women became legendary and were said to possess supernatural powers: they could fly, walk on water, stop bullets, throw knives and swords with deadly accuracy, and even stand perfectly still while sending their souls into battle.

Red Lanterns in Chinese culture symbolize joy, good fortune, vitality, longevity, protection from evil, and celebration, so hanging red lanterns is an important part of Chinese New Year, weddings, and all festivals. Our beautiful OHM Red Lantern embodies all of these positive qualities in a delicate flower petal shell hung from a cherry blossom branch. The light within is provided by a dazzling glass orb that catches the fire of brilliant sunlight as it moves and sways from your bracelet.

In addition to its properties of good luck and good health, our Red Lantern bead is also a celebration of those brave young women who leaned into the challenge of their time and became legends of female empowerment, action, skill, and opportunity. They didn’t just support the boys behind the lines; they seized the moment to lead the fight, waving their red lanterns and taking flight.

Wear this bead proudly to remind you of your own strength and skill and to spark your courage to persevere and push through any obstacle.

Year of the Ox. The Ox is the second of the 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese Zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Chinese word for ox translates to bull, water buffalo, cow, or any bovine family member. Each ox/cow year is associated with a different element of the Five Phases: fire, water, wood, metal, and earth. This Year of the Ox begins on February 12, 2021, and is a year of the Metal Ox.

Suppose you were born under the sign of the ox. In that case, you possess great strength and endurance, you are meticulous in planning, you persevere with determination, and you recharge your energy with a slow and steady accumulation. Add the element of metal, and you are decisive in your actions, strong-willed, loyal, and reliable; you can also be blunt and stubborn. The ox personality makes a good leader, hard worker, and a trustworthy friend.

Our OHM Year of the Ox bead is meditating deeply on the example of the Buddha. His eyes are closed, his front hoofs form the Apaan Mudra gesture, his hind legs crossed in the lotus position, and his flowing robe is open to reveal a rounded belly and strands of Mala beads. Our adorable metal ox is indeed accumulating renewed energy in a quiet, calm, steady moment of serene peace. Add our tranquil ox to your bracelet for good luck throughout the year and to remind you of your inner strength and serenity.

Besides, they are a cute little piece of ox, amiright?

RAWR COLLECTION

Gondwana. Long before our current continents broke apart and took their present shape, several giant landmasses called our prehistoric planet dominated supercontinents.

When Rodinia’s supercontinent broke apart, the remaining pieces were named Baltica, Laurentia, Siberia, and the largest chunk — about one-fifth of the Earth’s surface — was called by geologists GONDWANA. Most of what is now Africa, South America, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, and Antarctica formed Gondwana about 550 million years ago until the Jurassic period 180 million years ago.

Gondwana saw the first plants begin to form, the first insects, the first trees, the first amphibians, and the beginning of the reign of dinosaurs by the Jurassic period. A fascinating time on planet Earth with lots and lots of “firsts.” OHM celebrates this era of prehistory explosion of life on land with a beautiful glass bead called GONDWANA.

You can see the ripples of life trickling over the land and, with them, the first creatures crawling from the sea to fill their places in the animal kingdom. Celebrate all of your important “firsts” with GONDWANA on your bracelet!

Jurassic Chronicles. Fossils, cave paintings, bones, claws, and footprints are some of the jigsaw puzzle pieces from the Jurassic period. Scientists carefully fit them together to build a portrait of dinosaur’s habits, personalities, and occupations.

Does the cave painting show a prehistoric hunt? Does the dinosaur fossil show a creature frozen in time or, perhaps, an X-ray of a Ms. Poda by Dr. Egosaurus? Does the curved claw indicate a raptor’s lethal weapon or a ruined manicure for Terry P. Dactyl during a tennis foursome? Does the dino footprint reveal migratory travels or a dinosaur friend tiptoeing barefoot in the rain to feel connected to nature?

Each item is another clue in uncovering the mysteries of the Jurassic Chronicles.

Lohmbar & Sacrohm set. About 50,000 species of animals on our planet have a vertebral column (also called a backbone or spine). The most prominent of this group are the tetrapods, or four-legged creatures, including mammals and humans.

Each segment of the column is called a vertebra. Humans have thirty-three: seven in the Cervical spine (neck), a dozen in the Thoracic spine (connected to the ribs), five in the Lumbar spine (lower back), five vertebrae fused in the Sacrum (back of the hips), and finally four in the Coccyx (tailbone).

The study of dinosaur bones is an integral part of paleontology, and the word “backbone” is likewise a significant human metaphor for strength and character. We say that somebody is “the backbone of our company” or “they showed a lot of backbone changing careers like that.”

To honor all the times that you showed backbone, celebrate our new additions to the RAWR Collection. OHM is proud to offer this vertebrae bead. We at OHM prefer to call them the LOHMBAR & SACROHM. Collect a bunch and make your bracelet backbone!

SACROHM without connecting hook not available separately for use as an “end cap.” LOHMBAR includes a connecting hook to allow you to chain vertebrae together (LOHMBAR is available to purchase separately to extend your backbone).

Collect our dinosaurs, too, and remember that we build, one piece at a time, upon the backs of giants!

OHMSTALOPITHECUS This community of cave-dwelling primates was, perhaps, our human ancestors from the era of dinosaurs, or maybe not.

OHMSTAALOPITHECUS weren’t incredibly clever, yet evidence suggests that they did utilize some tools, particularly a large, studded, all-purpose club. This tool helped acquire meat for food, a weapon against rivals, or capturing a mate (used equally by all genders).

These folks were enthusiastic progenitors, loyal to clan and family, and strongly affected the prehistoric forests, dinosaur population, and even the climate itself. Some scientists speculate that dinosaurs went extinct because these hairy little critters were too fond of dinoburgers, roast dino, rack of dino, and dino nuggets.

Pangaea. Prior to our present continental plan, Pangaea, the last of the great supercontinents, born of previous giant landmasses, fused to form one vast island of life. PANGAEA, from the greek PAN meaning all or whole, and GAIA, Mother Earth, stretched from pole to pole and centered on the equator.

Fossil evidence for Pangaea includes identical species of plants and animals found great distances apart on separate continents. Continuity of mountain ranges is further evidence: the Appalachian Mountain chain continues in Ireland, Britain, Greenland, and Scandinavia because it was once one continuous range!

Around 175 million years ago, Pangaea began the first of three major break-ups that eventually gave shape to the separate continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Antarctica that we know today. Since the dinosaurs didn’t go extinct until 66 million years ago, the era of Pangaea saw their mighty reign under a lush landscape of foliage and insect life.

And so we praise the penultimate period of the prehistory past with a perfectly pleasant pearl called PANGAEA. Notice all the volcanic topography in glass, richly textured with thriving lifeforms, each struggling to grow. As you evolve, you never know your final form, though isn’t the journey worth it?

Rodinia. Before Pangaea, before Gondwana, there was a time when a huge, icy supercontinent covered our prehistoric planet that geologists have dubbed RODINIA, from the Russian родить, formed around 1.3 billion years ago (yes, that’s billion with a “b”).

Lifeforms had not yet crawled from the sea in those bygone eons, so Rodinia was pretty much barren, covered mostly by glaciers, volcanoes, mountains, and bare Earth. Nonetheless, this is where it all began; so, we celebrate this supercontinent, ripe with potential, with our glass pearl RODINIA.

You can see the raw Earth and rock ready to spring forth with life! Every new beginning has endless possibilities. Look how far Earth has traveled! There’s no telling how far you could go!

STEVEN TIBERIUS EGOSAURUS, M.D. (he/him)

Due to his distinctive rows of broad, upright plates and his tail full of spikes, this dinosaur is one of the most recognizable and popular even to this day. And he knows it. Despite his relatively small head, Dr. T., as he wants to be called, possesses a mammoth ego — or as some of his colleagues might describe it, a God-complex — and he bristles at any criticism of his methodology.

Many believe that he developed his ridge of body armor specifically to ward off predators, critics, and bad press. Of course, the doctor is a strict vegetarian and health fanatic, and he views himself as svelte, handsome, and infallible. Still, the doctor is so charismatic that he remains popular anyway.

He is also a skilled and courageous physician, and even big, formidable dinosaurs come whimpering to see the good doctor when they are hurt or ill.

Sabertooth Skull. The Smilodon, more commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, was a relative late-comer to the prehistoric eras, stalking what is now called the Americas about 10,000 years ago.

More powerfully built than the big cats of today, the Smilodon has exceptionally long upper canine teeth, curved like razor-sharp sabers, which allowed for precision killing. You did not want to meet this kitty in the brush if it was hungry and hunting.

Legends of the saber-tooth describe this predator as “he who brings devastation,” and paleontologists who discovered saber-tooth fossils and skulls dubbed the species as “Felis (cat) fatalis (fatal).” Just look at those jaws.

Add our SABERTOOTH SKULL to the other OHM dinosaur skull beads on your bracelet, but be careful: it bites!

SARA P. PODA, Ph.D. (she/her)

This colossal dinosaur was impressive among her peers, not only because she towered above the treetops, but because of her towering intellect as well, or so she thought.

Dr. Poda was proud of her Ph.D. in Education, destined to teach teachers how to teach.

Sara held firmly and proudly to her vegan diet — treetop salads were her favorite — and she has carefully collected some quite expensive items (she loves a necklace, but couldn’t abide a bracelet). Despite her fussiness, Sara was kind and thoughtful, slow and soft of speech and slow to anger. Sara was the kind of dinosaur who would send you a thank you card after sharing a mountain of fermented fruit.

TERRY P. DACTYL, Esq. (they/them)

This flying dinosaur was a carnivore, particularly fond of sushi, who lived and worked in large, sophisticated, tightly guarded nesting structures called firms.

Terry P. Dactyl, Esq. had a customized egg-shell business card to prove that they were, in fact, a prehistoric lawyer. Terry’s large membrane wings allowed them to swoop down into any altercation among the Jurassic inhabitants and immediately begin to litigate on behalf of the less powerful party. Their pointed smile gleamed with sharp teeth, their squawk was loud and confident, and they always managed to work both sides to the betterment of all.

Terry was a flashy character, twinkling with jewelry and expensive dental work, dazzling with style. You had to love Mx. Dactyl, but you could never really trust them. The other dinosaurs often told Pterodactyl jokes behind Terry’s back. Maybe they simply need a hug.

THAIWAN EXCLUSIVE

Bastion of Love. Love is strong. Love is enduring. Love is the ever-giving fuel of life. There is a shielded spring within your center that shall always spill forth, despite your efforts to deny it’s flow.

Gift of Desire. Want is a powerful emotion. Let others know they you want them in this world. Give them the strength to continue down the path.

Scales of Truth. The truth will set you free. Allow the transparency of baring your deepest self with others to provide the strength to shift that which no longer serves you.

Vestige of Hope. Hang tight to the thread of hope. No matter how faint or seemingly invisible that strand is, it’s there. You need only reach out, grasp it, and let it guide you to safety.

Waves of Believe. Embody the ebb and flow of faith, belief, and connection throughout your life. Ride the wave.

Wow, what an awesome and big release this is! Plenty to keep us occupied during this long and dull month!