Custom Mala Blog

This was a really great weekend! I got almost all of the way caught up on orders. In fact as of right now I have orders dating back only about 3 days. I think I’ll get 100% caught up this week so that orders are no more than a day or so back.

I do have a three cash orders that are complete and ready to go out but I haven’t received payment yet. I sent out emails but I haven’t heard back on them from the customers. I guess I’ll move them over the the “pre-made” Mala section in a few days if I don’t hear anything.

I made the first of the Purple Jasper Malas. It was a bracelet Mala comprised mainly of Purple Jasper but also used a lot of other elements. Hopefully this week I’ll get to make a 10mm 108ct Purple Jasper Mala that utilizes a Flat Knot. This means all 108 beads will need to be re-drilled to accommodate the 1.5mm cord. I think it will look spectacular though.

I went and sat on Sunday with the Arizona International Buddhist Meditation Center. Two 30 minute (I think…) sitting sessions and one 10 minute Kinyin session. The weather outside for the walking was amazing.

The Tucson Gem Show…All I can say is WOW! It turns out that the “Tucson Gem Show” is actually a collection of a lot of little gem shows throughout the Tucson area all happening at the same time. I went to one single show that was reserved for wholesalers and vendors only. I was lucky I brought my sales tax license or else I wouldn’t have gotten in.

There was a whole lot of amazing stuff there. I got to hold a very very old Dzi bead (something I am planning an carrying in the future) and a Tibetan human skull cap drum to mention a couple.

I spent a lot more money than I expected but I picked up a few new items to offer as options. Some of the new items are:

Hand etched conch shell beads
Hand carved wooden skull beads
Hand carved bone skull beads (in the shape of a skull that is)
Purple jasper
True blue lapis
Rob Burkett cast bronze skull beads
7 or 8 new pendants and metal marker beads
Tibetan Prayer Flags

I also made some good connections for future purchases.

This first trip for me was quite an education- next year I’ll be sure to bring more cash to pick up a lot more goodies.

I participated in another First Friday Art walk last night. This is an art event organized by a non-profit group in Phoenix called Roosevelt Row and is the largest event of it’s kind in the US. I made about 30 21 bead + Guru bead Malas on stretchy cord and brought a few extra 108 and 54 count Malas I had.

The night went really well and the street was PACKED. The weather was great and there was a good vibe the whole time. I bought a used generator to run lights but ended up loaning it out to an oil on canvas painter who needed a generator; I ended up feeding off of my neighbors generator the whole night. I didn’t sell a whole lot but the night was fun. My daughter, Emma, goes with and sells soda bottle cap earrings and my friend Lisa goes and sells water and soda for donation to the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society.

I’ll be out there again next month if anyone in the Phoenix area wants to stop by and say “howdy”.

The inaugural Custom Mala Shop Newsletter has been sent!

And I will need to re-send it tomorrow…

Since I have no experience at all in bulk-emailing I didn’t realize that you can’t send a bunch of email out at one time! 90% of the newsletters I sent out were rejected as SPAM. I’ll re-send them in the morning.

I was a little concerned yesterday because the store was acting funny. It turns out that the webhost was messing with the SQL server and connections to the cart database were timing out. Everything is fixed now.

I need to focus today on getting the Innaugural Custom Mala Shop Newsletter out! It will go out 2 or 3 times a month and will list general store news as well as steeply discounted “stock” Malas. These are Malas that I have in stock for one reason or another.

Also, I am hoping to set up this Friday night in down-town Phoenix for the First Friday Art Walk. I’ll be selling Malas and my daughter will be selling earrings.

It’s been a while since I created a Blog post so I better get to it!

December and January were very busy indeed. December certainly because Christmas was upon us and January because business is simply expanding.

I’ve made some good changs to the way I make Malas I’m really happy about:

• I’ve switched the type of wire I use to a thicker variety. It is really really strong and much less prone to snapping then the previous variety. I’m going to post a picture of one of my kids swinging from a beaded loop of it.
• I’ve replaced the type of sliding knot I was using with a Chinese Flat Knot. This type of knot is a lot sturdier and stronger and just looks a lot better.
• I’m now completing the cord ends of my Snake Knots and Flat Knots with looped-pull ends. They take a more time to do but they look great.
• I’ve also added the Adjustable Flat Knot to the 108, 54, and 27 count Malas. This is great especially for the 108 and 54 because it allows for adjustable wrist-wearing. It’s a tad pricey but the option requires that I re-drill all 54 or 108 beads to accomodate the 1.5mm Chinese Knotting Cord. This cording option is without a doubt my favorite. It is elegant, simple, straight forward, and versatile.
• I’ve added bulk Guru beads and Snake-Knots as purchasable loose items for people who make thier own Malas.

I spent all day Monday pulling new orders and ordering product. It was a rather complicated order because I had to source from multiple vendors ranging from the US to China to India due to special orders.

I finally received all of my 12mm beads on Tuesday. I’ve recently added the option to up-size Guru Beads and Marker Beads from the default 10mm to a larger 12mm. This is necessary (or at least a nice option to have) if you’ve up-sized your main beads to 10mm and want the Guru Bead and Markers to be larger than the main beads. Also, on the 18ct Bracelet Mala the beads are 10mm by default so the customer can now up-size the Guru Bead if desired.

I’m going to be setting up a stand at Phoenix’s “First Friday” this Friday. It is an artists street fair that takes place the first Friday of every month. I’ve been helping a friend there for the last 4 or 5 months sell water for donations for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (same person as with the Charity Malas). This time I’ll be set up next to her displaying Malas. I just need to get my butt into gear and get a table . . . a table cloth . . . a generator if I want light . . . and lights. I think I can pull it all together before Friday!

A quick note on changing an order- when your order completes you will get an email that says “Your order is now complete”. At any point prior to getting that email you can change your order.

Just yesterday I added a Snake-Knot as a new option for all Malas. So now you can elect to add a tassel, pendant, or a Snake Knot to any Mala. Along with the Snake Knot you can choose what you want the color of the cord to be. I also have an additional option to add 5 small beads on each of the Snake Knot’s cord-ends as counters. Right now I only have a few stone-types available but I hope to increase the variety in the near future.

I made Malas all day Sunday but took Saturday off. I recently had all of the river-rock removed from my back yard so now the house gets incredibly dusty very quickly. I spent all day Saturday cleaning the house so I could focus on Mala making on Sunday without worrying about having to clean the house. I got about 12 orders finished in about 7 hours of work. I had one pretty complicated sandalwood/hand-knotting Mala and a few other regular hand-knotting Malas so the productivity was less than if I had a lot of steel cable pieces to make. I also had an order with 5 Malas total so that took some time.

Since I’ve started to make Snake-Knots I brought in some really nice Korean Knotting cord. It’s stiffer and tougher than the stuff I was using for Chinese Slip Knots so I think I’ll switch to it for those knots as well. In fact I should add the option to select cord color for the Sliding Knot. With the new cord the rose part of the Slip Knot is larger and more well-defined. You can really see the detail in the knot.

I was pretty satisfied with Sunday though- of the 12 orders 4 of them were international. One went to Spain, one to the UK, one to Canada, and the fourth went to Switzerland.

This is the inaugural post in my “Custom Mala Blog”.

I thought I’d set up a blog to post some of the thoughts and experiences I have as I assemble the Malas my customers create. I’ll also use this Blog as a vehicle to announce changes and additions to the store.