update on what is going on
- Micha Strauss
- May 26
- 5 min read
well, we have so much to share today!
first things first, the new CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine is doing an amazing job crafting prayer wheels! what a trip this is!
after so many years of crafting prayer wheels one by one by hand (18 years and 3243 wheels made), to be replaced by this amazing machine who just crafts prayer wheels one after the other, no complaints, no pain, no nothing... just crafting... wow...
this is amazing!
it took one year to the date almost but we finally have the HEGR prayer wheels made by a machine and it has helped us lowered the costs so now we can offer it at the price Rinpoche asked us to on our shop.
we are so honored.
this was a long year with many twists and turns, many ups and downs, war... but at the end of it, we have the goal achieved!
this is incredible and we owe it all to Rinpoche for putting us on the path to have available to the world, a powerful prayer wheel, made from high quality hardwoods, billions of mantras inside, spinning perfectly and smoothly, silently, for the benefit of all beings!
we are so honored...
so, as a start we offer only 3 kinds of hardwoods,
Maple
Walnut
Sapeli (Mahogany like hardwood)
we had to ditch the African Walnut (for now) which is too soft for the CNC machine (brakes off the machine and fly around the room each time i try) and the Cherry hardwood which we still did not have time to test try... hopefully in the next few weeks we will give that a shot and if that works, we will have 4 hardwood options to offer the world.
this is absolutely amazing!
we are so honored and feel so blessed!
we have sent samples to the Garchen Buddhist Institute to show Rinpoche what we have accomplished to his request.
our package should arrive in about 10 days.
this is truly amazing and heart warming!!!
H.H. The Dalai Lama
about a week ago we had a good friend visit us at the studio. this is an amazing woman named Ruth Katz Klein, an artist herself.
she came to talk with us about a gift prayer wheel for His Holiness since she is going next month to see him. Ruth has a very special connection to His Holiness and has visited him many times in this lifetime. His Holiness spots here in a crowd, in the street from a far... always.
they share some amazing and very special connection.
Ruth has made a very special brass cast of Atisha's Stupa in a miniature size and in 2019 she asked us to collaborate with her and make His Holiness a special World Peace Prayer Wheel that has her stupa on the top of it and offer it to His Holiness.
and so we did.
here are the photos of the occasion of Ruth offering the prayer wheel to His Holiness with the explanation on what this special interfaith world peace prayer wheel is and what it holds inside of it.
His Holiness loved it!!!!
he was SO happy!!!
and now comes the best news!
the reason Ruth came to visit us was to ask for a new prayer wheel to offer His Holiness since she is going to see him again!
Ruth wanted us to craft a prayer wheel that is a copy of Atisha's Stupa but we saw that we do not have enough time to do this perfectly since it is a big job for me as the wood turner...
Ayelet asked her, since we do not have enough time, would she consider offering His Holiness a different prayer wheel? like the one we have on the shelf?
Ruth took the prayer wheel and started to cry with joy...
she said she had a vision on the way to our studio... and in that vision she saw this prayer wheel...
we all cried with joy a bit...
Ruth asked us to make a special stand for it and we did.
since Ruth lives in Jerusalem and we do not get there almost never, we had a good friend of ours who works for the government to take the wheel with him to his office in the government building and told Ruth to pick up the package from there.
in doing THAT we had that prayer wheel visit Israel's government building and bless it...
is that not amazing too?! hahahahahaha
best thing yet ;-)
next month Ruth will travel to see His Holiness and offer this amazing world peace prayer wheel to him.
here it is with the box Ayelet made.
Fundraiser news
we have reached 9% and it is all thanks to your kindness and love!!!
we are SO honored!!!
we have ordered 10 wheels, nano film, microfilm, and now (tomorrow) it will all arrive here at our studio and we can make the first ten wind wheels and spread them all over Israel!
this is AMAZING!!!!
we are so excited!!!
what an amazing thing to do in this life...
it is all thanks to you out there and all your support and help!
one year ago we were in such a different path for this project and now, one year later, here we are, ready to make the first 10 wheels and install them all over the country to spread the blessings...
we got word from the Bustan Paradise foundation that their layers are now in full sway to get the official 501(c) (3) so they can start and issue tax exempt invoices to all who donated and to all who wish to donate from now on.
we know that a few of you out there are waiting for that so you can make big donations that are tax exempt. we hope and pray that very soon now, any day now we will have news on this for you all!
the lawyers are now on it.
should not take long now.
we also got word from the GiveButter platform that from now on, anyone making a recurring donation that is a monthly automated donation (some of you out there did this already and we are so humbled and honored!) the GiveButter platform will donate 10$ too!
this is absolutely incredible!
here is the link, feel free to share it with anyone you know, this project is for world peace, it is the biggest thing we have done in our short little lives:
so many good things are going on!
we had to share this with y'all out there!
with you, we have a purpose for this life...
without you, we are just two regular little unimportant people...
with you, we are prayer wheel makers.
without you, we are nothing.
thank you for making our life matter!
with much love and so much appreciation,
Micha & Ayelet
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