Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! And here we are with the first preview of the year! Small but awesome! Release day is January 11.

TIGER TWO-STEP

In China, there is a tradition 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 to 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 complex the challenge, the greater the reward and good fortune.

To bring you good luck, good fortune, and a prosperous New Year, OHM has created this fantastic series of Chinese Zodiac animal mask beads to collect for your bracelet. The jaw articulates, and you can imagine the dancers inside leaping, shaking, and stepping rhythmically to the pulsing music! Collect them all.

2022 is the Year of the Tiger. Tigers hold a prominent place in Chinese culture. So dance the TIGER TWO-STEP onto your bracelet to pluck the greens of wealth, good fortune, and prosperity in the coming year!

Collect all twelve in the years to come. Now that’s something to look forward to!

HEART STRING

OHMlab Assistants: @beads.inspired @jojo701212 and @weimingting

AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE: AUSSIE LOVE

Despite its plump, child-like proportions, fluffy ears, and cute Teddy Bear face, the Koala Bear of Australia is not a bear. Koala is a marsupial cousin to the wombat and the kangaroo.

The koala is very important to Aboriginal culture and mythology. The Dreamtime stories tell of a koala rowing the boat that brought indigenous peoples to the continent. The name “koala” means “no water” in the Dharug language because the indigenous people believed the koala never needed to drink.

The Dreamtime tale tells of a lazy, greedy koala who hoarded water in a secret place while everyone else suffered from drought and thirst. A lyrebird caught the selfish koala hanging by his long tail from a tree limb, gulping mouthfuls from his hidden cache of water. The furious lyrebird set fire to the tree, which dispersed the much-needed moisture and scorched the retreating koala’s hind end. To this day, the koala has no tail.

Though it does drink water occasionally, the koala’s sole diet of eucalyptus leaves is very high in water content but low in nutrients. With so little food energy, the koala sleeps up to 20 hours a day and spends its waking hours, mostly at night, just eating. The koala also has the most miniature brain per body weight of any mammal, so he’s not that quick in the thinking department either. Who needs to be clever when you’re so darn cute?

Koalas were spiritually significant to the Aboriginals, but they were also an important food source; however, tribal custom forbade skinning the animal out of respect. Early 20th century Europeans, on the other hand, hunted the koala almost to extinction for its soft fur pelts. The koala is now listed as a vulnerable species but is no longer endangered, and the koala vies with the kangaroo for Australia’s most recognized, most loved symbol. If you love all things Aussie, then you love the cuddly koala!
OHM proudly hails the Land Down Under with this beautiful silver Aussie Love bead. The koala’s adorable baby face forms the “O” in this expression of LOVE.

The Dreamtime stories of the koala teach us to share fearlessly from our abundance of spirit. May this OHM bead sparkling like a refreshing pool of silvery water on your bracelet daily inspire your own generous heart with AUSSIE LOVE!

What a great start of this new year! I know what goes on my wishlist, all of them!