Would  you like to see violet wands used in a totally new way?  We're collaborating with a designer named Carrie Mae Rose in her 'Wearable Weapons' project.  Her work was featured in Digicult, the online Italian magazine.  Carrie is an artist in residence at Eyebeam in New York.  What an exciting and beautiful way to feature violet wands!

Hope you had a Happy Valentine's day.  I did!  I started a duck over the weekend, so it was duck breast with crispy skin and orange sauce the first day.  Today it was shredded with braised red cabbage and mushroom slaw and duck/merlot reduction with fennel laced mashed potatoes.  Tomorrow it will be pate from the fat, liver, giblets, with coriander and whole peppercorns.  The next day, a potted terrine from the remaining meat with juniper berries, and cognac aspic. And finally, the day after that, the confit.  And the fat is rendered, and the stock is cooling.  One duck, many days of heaven.

And we went out for Thai for lunch.  Life is good.

I just put up an article under the 'Stuff Hardly Anyone Knows' section entitled 'Is it You or Your Wand?' that discusses the differences among people's conductivity and resistivity that may affect your wand play.  Its technical, I know, but if you're having trouble with a technique or toy or even a whole person, that article can help you understand what might be going on, and it can help you make adjustments in what you're doing.   Everyone is different, and everyone experiences electricity differently, and it might not even be the same from time to time.

Every now and then, not too often, I'll get a mail from someone very frustrated with violet wands, who wants to use them and nothing seems to be going right when they try.  Usually I run my litmus test by them, and ask them what happens when they try Indirect techniques.  Remember, Indirect techniques consist of those techniques that pass the electricity through the top person first. Anything that affects that passing through, is going to show up at the other end.

And I just realized Im going to have to write another article about the electrical discharge that comes off you when you're doing Indirect, because hardly anyone knows about it. So I'll save the rest for that article, because its measurable and you can measure how much electricity you're losing through yourself or your setup AT HOME.  And measuring it, you can make changes and redirect some of the current you're losing.

But for these unusual cases, by discussing their results when using Indirect, usually I can help them make changes in their setups or techniques that get them more consistent results for the person they are playing with.  Then things might gel for you and you'll be cooking with electricity!  The nice thing about violet wands is you can do so much with them, and you aren't restricted to one way...they are 100% customizable.  But you do want to know everything that can be done with them, right?  You've made an investment, or are thinking about making one, and you want to use it to its full potential! The whole bird!  and let nothing go to waste!  Are you doing everything with your wand that you could be doing?

Are you experiencing everything that you want to experience with it?  Don't stay stuck on just your mushroom, there's a world of gourmet delight in a wand!

One toy, many days of heaven.  Life is good!

PS.  Got a neon electrode?  Even very mild static electricity will light up a neon electrode.  Try it yourself by darkening the room, and trying to get some static going..rub your cat on your electrode or something.  If you're lucky, you'll see your neon electrode light up for a millisecond.  You can sometimes even see it happen if you are replacing your neon electrodes in their foam cut out divider in a kit case.

And a Happy Holidays to anyone celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukahh or Ramadan or the Winter Solstice.  May you be blessed.

We just finished our last huge shipment for Christmas delivery, today at 3pm EST.  We shipped every day this week, but all Christmas orders made it out of here on time and are due to arrive to their owners on 12/23 or 12/24.

Several exhausted people helped close up the shop, turn off the computers and the lights.  And now, I get to take my one vacation that I get a year.  I'm so looking forward to it!  Not that I don't love you, my darlings, for I do, but everyone needs down time.  We take ours between Christmas and New Year.  Oh, orders will still process, that's no problem, so feel free!  But anything requiring my attention will have to wait.  Time to start my Christmas shopping!