Amid the colorful and whimsical and the detail lush creations, these seem to be an odd-one-out you could say. But they have actually been around almost as long as Bewilder and Pine.
They began as an idea to combine simple symbols with a mini-monolith form. The stone titles all came from one of my favorite Taoist books, "365 Tao" which I also pulled from for inspiration about 20 years ago for a series of multimedia art shows where I invited 30 artists and dancers to interpret the one word titles from the book that I used in the show thru their own creative medium. It included, video, dance, painting, textile art, sculpture, poetry, spoken word and improvised movement . The music I wrote back then for the shows was also inspired by the one word titles out of this book.
So it is no surprise I turned to the book again to create something new.
The main thing I want to say here is that it has taken four years to really perfect these stones. I've tinkered with the symbols and even the words used for the set have changed a bit over time.
But last week I sold a set of all 11 and decided that they are, for now, "done"
So this is really the first time I've written about them. They quietly move thru the shop at a pretty good pace and often will sell in bunches with some people ordering one and some two or even three for their altars or for friends. Often I did not have the entire set available when I first introduced them as finding the time to remake them among all of my other projects was iffy at best. Now I just list them as in stock and make them to order as it only takes a day from start to finish do do them and I really feel I have them down.
I've also had people request custom stones for words of their choosing which I am always happy to dwell on and create. . . even one that was inspired by a symbol from the "Legend of Zelda" for a very sweet UK customer! :)
But it was just this week, after making the complete set and photographing them all together, that I realized they are indeed, "something". SO here they are, my own set of Taoist Meditation Stones. Inspired by many things but all my own. :)
nicolas
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| The entire set of 11 Taoist Stones |
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| The Taoist stone for "Flow" and you just have to love an item that photographs so well in sunlight! :) |
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| Simple, clean packaging for a simple product. |
I am glad to see these highlighted, the one for balance, i think it was, was one of the first things i ever favorited in your shop.
ReplyDeleteI like to use these, especially as a reminder about all ideas being good ideas. I had little stock in them as a marketable product when I first created them. . . mostly because, well, they are really just completely out of my own imagination and there are no other Taoist meditation Stones in the world that I am aware of. lol But here I am a hundred or so sold later. . . still going strong and getting better all the time! :)
ReplyDeleteIt means a lot to me that you favorited them way back then! I am sure it was a boost to my confidence about them. :)