Good day, good folks on the internet, I'm so happy to catch up with you again this week. Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat - 53 days now, and everyone is getting their gifts together. As usual, Caprilicious will offer a free parcel wrapping service, so if you need that, please let me know when you pay for your item. I will also include a card, with any message you wish to add (the only thing I cannot promise is neat and tidy handwriting, but I will do my best!) I've just realised that Caprilicious Jewellery will be seven years old this November - wow, seven long years have gone by and I'm still at it! And I have no plans to stop for the foreseeable future as I'm enjoying myself so much, and as long as I have you to encourage me in my endeavours to make interesting and fun pieces I will go on! I generally take stock at this time of year. I started out as a jewellery school drop out, went on to simple beading and necklace making, wire work, polymer clay and resin, metal clay, soutache, fold forming and soldering and now have set off on a journey into bead work jewellery. I now use all of these modalities and sometimes try to use more than one in a piece, which turns them into mixed media pieces. The jewellery all comes out of my imagination, and because I like to incorporate unusual and handmade elements, conceived and made entirely at Caprilicious, I never find anyone attempting to copy me. As imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and to imitate someone is to pay the person a genuine compliment in my opinion (and I know that others differ) I wonder sometimes whether I should feel a bit offended that no one tries to imitate Caprilicious, and then I know that I'm happy this way. Bubbles I finished a piece of jewellery I started the week before. Bubbles is a wire doodle necklace, where I have filled negative space with a wire doodle that to my eye looks likes a froth of bubbles. It seemed like it would be an easy piece to make when I started out, but in fact it turned out to be very tedious and time consuming.I made it with mixed metals, both of them enamel coated and therefore tarnish free. A little cabochon of druzy agate was anchored to one side with a wire rose and leaf and a handmade chain finished the piece off beautifully. This will be a piece that can be worn to work as it is very simple, and can even be worn over a roll neck by simply increasing the length of the extender chain so that the piece hangs a bit lower. Of course, it will look lovely on an evening out, so it is very versatile. I've been beading around Swarovski rivolis to make a fairly complicated necklace while watching TV all week, but that piece may take a while yet. I ran out of Rivolis and have sent for some more, by the time I finish this piece, I will be well experienced at beading around cabochons. I also made some polymer clay flower beads, and the challenge is now to find places to incorporate them, of course, there's no hurry and they can sit and wait a while in a box that is full of beads that I made earlier. Frou FrouThe raw amethyst points in this necklace have been sitting in my stash for over a year. I received the micro pave diamante butterflies in the post this morning and was instantly smitten and just had to use a couple of them the same day. I think sometimes elements speak to me, begging to be used and I cannot deny them. And so was born this sweet necklace. I wondered whether the butterflies would look good with a darker bead, but of course I can make that next time - the amethyst was shrieking for attention and when I closed my eyes, I could see exactly what the necklace would look like. Flirtatious Frou Frou, the butterfly necklace! The light flashes off the butterflies and they are quite difficult to photograph - but believe me, they are very, very pretty. Payday Deal Announcement - Happy Birthday Caprilicious! So here it is - the big Birthday Announcement As it is a birthday month, I am going to celebrate in style. In the past I did a giveaway and only one person got lucky and I think seven years deserves a damn good blowout. So this year, I'm going to offer a Code for 20% off any piece of jewellery, from the 1st to the 7th of every month till November 2019. The code will be advertised on this page, my Instagram feed and Facebook page in the last week of every month, and hopefully more than one person will benefit from Caprilicious' birthday happiness. Spread a Little Happiness, I say, and why not? The code cannot be used with any other offers, of course, and I'm sure you will understand why. Depending on the vagaries of my mood and the weather, the offer will extend to just one or two pieces of jewellery, or all the pieces on the website - this month, it extends to all the jewellery on the Caprilicious website. The code till the 7th of November is HappyBirthday. Beat the festive rush and get all your gifts and parcels in the post on time in the UK. I send international parcels out by courier so the last date depends on the couriers. Royal Mail last post timings for 2018 Tuesday 18 December
That's me for another week, folks. I am in London for some of next week, but I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx
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Frida Kahlo I happened on a biography of Frida Kahlo, the Mexican painter who was famous for her self portraits. Her work has been described as surrealist and in 1938 André Breton, principal initiator of the surrealist movement, described Kahlo's art as a "ribbon around a bomb". She famously said ' I was born a bitch, I was born a painter' . She was married to the Mexican Muralist Diego Rivera and he is a Dia de los Muertos icon with a lot of imagery related to this holiday in his work. Día de los Muertos is a holiday rooted in the ancient past of Mesoamerica. This festival is celebrated by a people in awe and the celebration of the eternal cycle of life and death. During the latter part of the colonial period, the people began making brightly colored sugar –candy skulls and exchanging them between family and friends as tokens of affection. These became common items alongside the image of Guadalupe, flowers, water, bread, and copal. Skeleton dolls made of clay and papier maché were made depicting people in everyday activities. These dolls soon became a part of tradition. I found a shop selling these skulls as beads during one of my foraging sessions online, and I fell in love with them. They are Peruvian and ceramic, - and expensive, decorated with flowers and the prettiest skulls I have ever seen. But, at the time, I had no idea what i was going to do with them - most people wore them as earrings or as charms on a bracelet, but I was determined to do something different with them. This is what I came up with - more pictures on the website and on my Facebook page - Caprilcious Jewellery. Murano glass is a famous product of the Venetian island of Murano, located off the shore of Venice, Italy. The glass made there is world famous - and expensive - and there are many imitations. Murrine technique begins with the layering of colored liquid glass, which is then stretched into long rods called canes. When cold, these canes are then sliced in cross-section, which reveals the layered pattern. The better-known term "millefiori" is a style of murrine that is defined by each layer of molten color being molded into a star, then cooled and layered again. When sliced, this type of murrine has the appearance of many flowers, thus mille- (thousand) fiori (flowers). Polymer clay is not called the 'Chameleon clay' for nothing. Cane work and Millefiori are the mainstay of the polymer clay artist and the use of gold and silver foil and pigments with translucent clay has led to the technique of making 'faux glass'. Last week I attempted, disastrously, to make faux glass beads - this time, using a different technique altogether, I have got there - after hours of rolling and baking and foiling, I made a bib necklace and got it to shine like a piece of glass - here is the result of my efforts - it is certainly lighter - and cheaper than a slab of glass, not to mention safer! Having made the bib, I had to find a way of suspending it around the neck, and I think it looks really pretty - what do you think - do leave your comments. One thing I am definitely learning from making jewellery is patience. I have called it the Midnight in Moscow necklace - was on holiday there many years ago, and this necklace reminds me of that holiday. Fired up my kiln last weekend and made a few pieces with Copper clay to start with - they need to be 'pickled' to remove firescale and polished and then I will be ready to show them to you - that will be next weeks task - I hope to include polymer clay, resin, wire and turn a simple piece of copper into a work of wearable art.
I had some time off from my day job this last week, so spent some of it experimenting with the jewellery making, photography, and generally relaxing. Also found a bit of time to upload some more pictures onto the Facebook vendor app - so I now have an online outlet - it's a start - I may not have done my jewellery justice with the descriptions and pictures - but as I said, it's a start. I invite you all to come in and have a browse. Thats all for this week folks, have a nice week and wrap up warm - it's cold out there - snowing around our part of the world. |
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