Featured Seller: Om Shanti Handcrafts

This week's featured seller is OMSHANTI. She is a fellow BDC teammate - "Big Damn Crafters"...any Firefly/Serenity fans out there will know what it refers to :)

Ma Cobb's Joint Liniment ... Firefly fans rejoice!

Her shop on etsy carries, jewelery, salves, bath salts, oils, lotions, teas, body spray, lipbalms and for those who just can't decide - she has gift certificates.

> Where can we find you on the web?
Etsy - shop name: omshanti, Creative Cafe Salesrooms and DaWanda

> How did you get started in this line of crafting?/How long have you been doing this?

I've been making my products since 2007, but the tale's longer than that. Round about 2005 I had a friend open an herb business, so of course I bought things from her. Only right to support a friend and an independent business, right? And I'd been buying beads for years. Somehow it took me until last summer to actually do anything with the stuff. I whipped up a batch of bath salts and tried them -- heaven! After that it's just been figuring out new things to do, and playing with recipes.


Ease Your Nerves Tea ... I think many of us could you this right about now

I worked for a while last summer at a friend's shop as well. Pretty quiet most days, so I found things to do -- and she just happened to have beading equipment. I brought in beads and started playing, and found I was having too much fun to stop.

1) Running out of friends to give what I was making (and room to storewhat I hadn't given away).
2) Running out of money to buy more supplies with.
3) Working at Walmart. As you can imagine, working at Walmart can drive a person to a lot of things. I consider opening my own business to be a fairly sane response to the applied stress. I could, after all, have chosen highexplosives. And so, Om Shanti Handcrafts.

> What inspires you?
A lot of my jewelry comes from music -- I'll be listening to a song and my fingers want beads. Sometimes I'll work directly from colour cues in the music, sometimes I'll be working from other words or just from the feel of it. 'Mixed with Honey' is a pretty good example of this. Sometimes I'll see two things together, usually contrasting colours, and get ideas from that.

My kitten Loiosh in the grass turned into an amber and jade piece, Follow Me Down.

My herbal things vary a lot. Some of them are medicinal in nature and that's more a matter of researching what I need to put into them -- though there are times I'll hear a little voice in the back of my head saying 'put in the raspberry leaves! You won't be sorry!' Frighteningly enough, so far it's been right. I chalk it up to subconsciously remembered knowledge and try not to think about it too hard. Some of my things are just plain nummy, though -- the lip balms and bath salts, some of the soaps -- and those can be just plain fun.

I'll ask people for ideas -- friends or just random folks. I'll pick up two bottles of essential oils and smell them together*. I'll make up a small batch and just chuck things in. On a good day, I'll remember afterwards what I put into it. On a bad day...there's a lot ofwhining**.
* This can backfire wildly. Lavender and black pepper? DO NOT WANT.**

Due to a number of bad days, I write everything down. Bad days are now confined to cats stealing the notes. Alas, this has not made bad days happen significantly less often.

> What's the one bit of business advice you wish every artisan/biz owner/crafter/etsian knew?
Jump in a do it. DO IT. Will you be successful? Maybe. Maybe not. But unless you try, you won't know. And you want to give it a try. Believe me, you do. DO IT.