The remaining  days in Mexico City  have been punctuated by fireworks’ whirrs and pops left over from the bicentennial celebration of the Independencia, and soothed with the sounds of classical guitar at a corner cafe as well as the smooth tenor notes of a strolling singer in an antique gallery.  And our nights’ sleep have been jolted by brake squeals, drunken conversation, and bad rock bands from the bar across the street.  But we were lulled back to sleep with quiet memories of Jorge Marin’s empty angel wings filled by a mother and child on a boulevard near Chapultepec Park

Jorge Marin's sculpture "Alas de la Ciudad", 2010

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In order to set the mood for the Decatur Beach Party on June 18, the city is sponsoring a window decorating contest with a beach theme.  So– what is the Beach Party?  Live music, dancing on the square and 60 tons of sand– sound like a good time?  You know that Decatur knows how to party!

Our entry for the Window Decorating Contest?  We have composed a global sunbather above, complete with an Indian paper mache head, thangka
hands and feet and a hand-made paper fan from Thailand.  She is sipping a strawberry drink from an antique lassi cup, enjoying some French Caribbean music and reading Flight of the Mermaid under a Mexican sun.

A number of businesses all over downtown Decatur have entered.  Come on over and take a stroll around to view the windows and vote for your favorite!  To vote for Mingei’s window, text “Dec mingei” to  80672 .  Only one vote per hour from each number!  You can vote until June 18, when it is time for the  Decatur Beach Party!

Here are a few photos from her home and a few words about why she loves Mingei!

Tired of the Container Store look?  Tired of mall styles dictating your decor?  If you yearn to escape the commercial and reveal your true soul in your home, walk into the spirit-filled space of Mingei World Arts in Decatur.  At Mingei, you will tap into cultural creativity from ethnic groups around the globe.

An old basket sits atop a graphically striking textile.

New products emerge from recycled materials and vintage artifacts adapt to new uses.  Rare handmade objects are art for display.  What you can do with Mingei “stuff” is limited only by your imagination.

A yak butter container holds dry flowers.  A Hmong spirit lock fills a small wall space.  A chapati rolling pin or a weaving shuttle becomes a towel rod.  A dowry chest is a colorful coffee table.  A hand-worked shawl dresses a window or accents a sofa.  A framed page of Tibetan script or Miao baby head cover enriches the look of a living room.  And whether or not you use your Tjap as a stamp, it makes a unique doorstop.

Framed enbroidered baby head covers grace the wall above Gail's sofa, which holds a collection of luscious pillows. The coffeetable is draped with a woman's hand woven headcovering.

Come to Mingei to birth your creative soul and transform your home!

–Gail Goodwin

Gail Goodwin's house is full of textiles and other gorgeous pieces from her travels with her husband Clark, supplemented by items she has picked up at Mingei.

Calling all customers!  Every day things leave the store and go into your wonderful homes or find their way into other homes as gifts.  Sometimes you tell us about the wonderful, unique ways you are using the dewali oil lamps, old buttermilk pots or cannon balls you acquired at Mingei.  Occasionally,  you sent pictures or an invitation so we can see for ourselves the creative and functional way you are using your “artifactual”  Mingei finds!

Here’s your chance to be featured on the Mingei blog.  Please send us your photos of Mingei items in context, and write us a little about what you have done and maybe how you were inspired.  The first one will be posted directly!

Thanks in advance!

And we also have the essential tool for playing pov pob, a Hmong courting game played by young folks in Laos.  What do you need?  A single simple cotton ball, made from scraps of indigo batik fabric.  Girls and boys line up to face each other and toss the ball back and forth to those who catch their eye.  If no one tosses to you, or if someone drops or refuses to catch your toss– heartbreak.  The game is played during Hmong New Year at the time of the full moon in November.

We’ll soon be posting more about the Hmong people and about some of their beautiful crafts and artifacts we have in the store.  In the meantime, you may want to read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman, the Mingei Book Club selection for May.  It is available at Mingei for $15.00.  We will meet at the store on Tuesday, May 11 at 7:30 pm.  Everyone is welcome!

A vintage Nat that passed through Mingei once upon a time

Nats are nature spirits that pre-date Buddhism in Burma, but are now worshipped along with Buddhist traditions or at least acknowledged and placated by people who also practice Buddhism.  They are spirits of mountains, of lakes and trees, of birds, but also the spirits of  people who died violent or premature deaths, otherwise known as “green ghosts” in Burma– spirits who suffered traumatic deaths and therefore cannot leave this plane.  There are countless nats, but they were consolidated by an 11th century Burmese king into a more manageable pantheon of 37.  Many families or communities may honor and tend to additional nats, however.  Many of these are local nats they feel must not be ignored.

Nats are very powerful, and easily disturbed.  They appreciate receiving offerings.  In fact, if you are not attentive to them, they may cause mischief, or worse.  When a large number of traffic accidents take place on a certain stretch of road, a shrine may be built to the Nat thought to be causing the problem, in hopes that the accidents will stop.

Nats can also be helpful to those who honor them.  Shrines to Nats are commonly built in homes, at crossroads, and at central worship sites.  People offer them gifts, food and drink to keep them happy and helpful.

If you’d like to set up your own Nat shrine, or just enjoy a beautifully carved figure and the interesting cultural and religious traditions they represent, have we got a Nat for you!  At least, we will soon.  After many years of not being able to find good-quality Nat figures in Thailand, where they find their way from Burma or Myanmar, several of our vendors had wonderful examples,  so we gathered quite a few.  We are very excited about the quality and affordability of these Nat figures  and look forward to sharing them with you.

When they arrive and are unpacked,  we will post the stories of these particular Nats ( as we can determine) and their photos.

In the meantime, to put you in a “natty” mood, you may want to read Amy Tan’s novel Saving Fish From Drowning or the amazing memoir by Pascal Khoo Thwe called From The Land of Green Ghosts (A Mingei Book Club selection from last year.  Both are available at Mingei and both are fascinating views into Burmese culture, and Nats.

A well-known blue hat has been hanging out right by our store for the last week or so.  This very blue fellow, a creation of local artist James Dean, has a permanent table now at the Yogurt Tap, and is constantly consuming yogurt and Javamonkey espresso (our  neighbor on the other side).  We just wish he would come on into Mingei.  We have some scarves that would look really good on him.

And, in his honor–come into Mingei and say “DeCATur” at check out to get 15% off any non-book item in the store that is not from Thailand, Laos or Burma.  Our sea shipment will be here soon and we need to make some room!

Watch our facebook fan page for tomorrow’s secret password!  This game will continue through Friday.

For now, the violence has subsided and  protests in Bangkok have paused for a few days to celebrate Songkran, or the Water Festival, also known as Thai New Year.  This holiday, celebrated from April 13-15,  was originally celebrated in the northern parts of the country, introduced by the Burmese who adopted it from the Hindu festival Holi.

While colored pigments and water are tossed in India during Holi, plain water is splashed on everyone during Songkran, which is festivized most vigorously in Chiang Mai.  During Songkran, Thais shoot each other with squirt guns or douse everyone with hoses, but also may give their home altar figures of Buddhas a bath and wash temple Buddhas with fragrant water to bring good luck and prosperity.  This is actually how the water-tossing came about.  The holy water that had poured over the Buddhas was collected and used to bless loved ones.  Today, while some still focus on the religious meanings of the holiday, on the streets, it is more about the fun.

And today in Bangkok, the Red Shirts have dropped their arms and taken up squirt guns (read about it in  the New York Times.)  We have contacted some Thai friends to get some more personal accounts of what is happening, but they seem to be away from their computers, probably out getting drenched!  Until we have their reports, we’ll have to tap some other sources.  In the meantime, enjoy this video of the protesters and tourists having a wet old time in Bangkok.  Aaaahh!!!

Readers by Sergio Santos and Calixto Santiago

This is National Library Week, and have we got a library for you!

The green cabinet near the counter at Mingei is full of whimsical carvings of cows, mermaids, goats and dogs and other studious creatures reading.    All of these readers are from the village of La Union in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, a beautiful agricultural spot in the mountains which had no library until two summers ago.  That problem has now been remedied, thanks to the tremendous generosity of our customers and of fabulous and big-hearted local performers Carmen  Deedy and John McCutcheon who created a wonderful benefit performance for us at the Georgia Center for the Book.    To continue to support the village and their library, we sell the reading figures at Mingei and send 20% of the sales to the library.  To read more about this project, click the link on your right (under About Mingei World Arts)!

While the green cabinet is full– that’s all there is!  We have worked our way through the spares tucked away in the back and are down to what we have on display.   It is time to get those carvers working again so  we can get plenty more in time for the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day weekend!

Now here’s where it gets fun.  Is there is special someone in your life who really needs a snail reading Mastering the Art of French Cooking? or a red dog reading Clifford?  Because of our special relationship with the carvers, we are able to make special requests.  We would love to help you plan a very special gift, choosing the price range and carver for just the piece you want.  Since we are working with artists, sometimes the final product differs from the vision; sometimes it is better!  Come on in to talk to us about your ideas!  The figures begin at $35 for the beautifully detailed little pieces by Maximino Santiago and go up from there.  Most are $55-$60.  A fine piece by well-known carver Gabino Reyes could be $250-$300.  We work regularly with 11 carvers in the village, so there is quite a variety of styles– something for everyone.  Depending on your request, we may ask for a deposit.

We will be sending our wish list to Mexico early in May, so please make your requests by May 1.