An Auspicious Day

The first consignment of mosaics left my Kathmandu mosaic studio yesterday en route to the exhibition that we will be holding in Skipton, North Yorkshire, UK on the 4th December. The excitement of the girls was tangible and sweet to witness. It must have been amazing for them to be preparing for such an event so soon after having been trapped inside miserable Indian circuses. The central exhibit will be the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism. For the unitiated, like me, they are:

the white parasol - keeps away the heat of evil desires

two fish - symbols of happiness and utility

seashell - symbol of blessedness to the right

lotus - pledge of salvation and symbol of divine origin

vessel - treasury of all desires

victory - banner erected on Mt Meru, centre of the Buddhist cosmos

wheel - eight spokes represent the eight fold path

endless knot - mystic diagram representing endless rebirths

Whatever one makes of the religious significance of these, or otherwise, I think they look great and the girls have really excelled themselves in subject material that they can relate to. I am very tempted to buy these myself to celebrate the auspicious day when we complete our international adoption process with Alisha. That will be something that she too can treasure in later life and always have as a valued, and no doubt much-needed, reminder of her native land.

Mosaics at an exhibition

The girls in my studio in Godawari, Kathmandu, are working flat out to meet a mosaics exhibition deadline. Our old friends at Namaste-UK Ltd (http://www.namaste-uk.com/) visited the studio last month and were so taken by the work that they immediately offered to stage an exhibition in Skipton on the 4th December. That is excruciatingly tight, but we've pulled the stops out to not only deliver the goods but also to produce some new designs. These include some Tibetan themes like the jewellry and carpet motifs pictured right. I will be giving a talk at the exhibition and we're crossing our fingers that it will be well attended by potential buyers and give Himalayan Mosaics a great early boost.

But of course these days you don't have to leave home to attend an exhibition. London law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse are now very kindly hosting an exhibition of our mosaics through Second Life. If you haven't signed up for Second Life you can get a flavour of this initiative here:

http://www.ffw.com/news/2007/nov/art-exhibition-realsecond-lif.aspx