Hello everyone, Caprilicious Jewellery wishes you all a very Happy New Year. May the coming year be full of grand adventures and opportunities and the world be a better place to live in. 2023 has been dire for some countries around the world and for the economies of many. Covid was bad enough, but no one could have imagined that there were lower depths to which humanity could sink. However, here we are at the end of 2023, and many people are worse off than they were after the pandemic. As a glass half full person myself, I'm hoping for peace around the world this year - it's time we cast aside hatred for people who do not think or pray in the same way that we do and embrace humanity as a whole. Spare a thought for those who are suffering at this time in lands far away from the greed of their leaders, hungry for power, money and land, who are using their people as pawns in their shameless manipulations. Leaders the world over appear to be moving politically to the right, which is a scary prospect for the rest of us. I've been back from India for just about a week and have suffered terribly with jet lag - I have a couple of days off in the first week of January and then my nose goes back to the grindstone with a vengeance. I have a couple of months of hard work, and then go back to India again for my nephews wedding, this time with hubby in tow. I thought I'd show you some of my pieces from 2023, a lot of which are sold out - I met a few of my supporters in India and they got snapped up so quickly that I was surprised at how soon they flew off my shelves. This is a medley of those that are still on the shelves and some that were sold on earlier in the year. Clicking on the pictures will take you to the item, if still in the shop, and the use of the code HAPPY2024 at checkout will get you a 20% discount on everything on my pages till the end of January '24 - a HAPPY NEW YEAR, indeed!! Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year filled with hope, health, and happiness - with a generous sprinkle of fun, jewellery, and all the little things that make life worthwhile. Have a wonderful celebration and I'll catch up with you in 2024.
Until then, xx
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Hello, lovely people, how are you today? It's freezing out doors and I am tucked up under a warm fleece, watching TV and playing with wire and beads. Mike and I are off to India soon, to my neices wedding, and I'm really looking forward to the warmth of the sunshine and the fabulous colours and food back home. I'm sure I'll have many photographs to show you when I get back. In the meantime, I had a few pieces I decided to make to take back with me, so that is what I've done all week. I have some people in mind for each piece, so I haven't put them on the website yet. However, if they do not get picked up in India for one reason or another, I will put them on when I get back. I bought some mother of pearl leaves a few months ago - I've been meaning to make them up, but something else always got in the way. They are weightless and shine with an ethereal inner light. Cutting through the shells is a laborious process and the dust is toxic, which makes them relatively expensive, but still, oh so beautiful. Have a look and see what you think. These are the larger pair of the two, and are approximately 3" long and 2" wide - the pearls are a bit heavy on the ear, so I put them on stud findings so that they don't tear the earlobe. These are 2" long with tiny garnet teardrop beads, all in silver, with silver ear-wires. I also had a pair of dried red rose buds, dipped in resin - I put them on long kidney wires made of hypoallergenic stainless steel, and wrapped tiny labradorite beads onto the ear wires themselves. Red and grey is a fabulous combination, especially if the grey has unexpected flashes of light when you move your head. I thought that this was all I was going to make, when a parcel arrived from Hong-Kong with the prettiest beads I've ever seen. The manufacturer cut amethyst beads into tooth like nuggets and heat-treated them - the final treatment was a turquoise blue dye. I'm always a sucker for the combination of turquoise and amethyst and simply had to make this into a necklace as soon as I opened the package, it was too compelling to wait any longer. Tiny 2mm pearls and pyrite beads space the beads out, and a 'lost wax' cast Kenyan sun bronze bead is a focal point. I am really looking forward to my holiday - work has been hard, but enjoyable, and now it's time for a break. A wedding is always fun and it will be great to see my family again in happy circumstances. Missing three weeks of cold weather in the UK is an added bonus!
That's me for now, folks. Have a wonderful week, and I'll catch you soon. Until then xx Hello folks, I'm so happy to be here today. The sun is shining and the weather is getting warmer. Last weekend hubby and I decided that it was warm enough to go and sit outdoors at our favourite cafe in town and watch the world go by over a glass of wine and a little bowl of triple cooked chips. We insured against a freak cloud covering over the uncertain warmth of the watery sunlight by overdressing - layers and layers of clothes went on until we resembled Sumo wrestlers. We rolled into the cafe only to find that there were no freak clouds and we were sat in mini saunas of our own making - we probably lost a couple of pounds just through sweating into our layers ( I only wish it were that easy!). The onset of spring always brings hubby out in bouts of sneezing - he cannot cope with the pollen from the May blossom, but it is hard to get him to stay out of it. By the time the slightly warmer weather arrives, all of us in the Western hemisphere are fed up of huddling indoors and want to shed our clothes like snakeskins and go out in the weak sunshine. Fortunately he seems to get over his allergies once the blossom is gone and is free from the sniffles for the rest of the summer. The flowers have started to bud and the whole place is beginning to resemble a garden, which is a change from the wasteland it resembled a few short weeks ago. This necklace is inspired by the flowers that I am looking forward to with all my heart. The name of course comes from the song by James Taylor - someone who's music I was first introduced to in my childhood, who is still going strong in his seventies. BlossomI have had these beautigul handmade glass beads embellished with little flowers in my little bead hoard for ages. I am totally in awe of people who can manipulate glass to make something so beautiful - imagine the heat of the furnace, the burns that are inevitable and tubes of glass melted to a toffee like consistency and then twisted and turned at arms length to become these beauties. If you've never been to a glass blower's yard, I'd urge you to do it sometime. I couldn't resist wearing the necklace, as you can see, and it truly is pretty. The earrings were made earlier, when I first got these beads. I hope you are all planning a lovely Bank Holiday weekend - I plan to rest up as I've had a couple of hectic weeks at the day job, and I also have a bead embroidery project brewing in my head which I shall start up tonight. All the 'ingredients' have been assembled and it's time to get started. Have a fabulous weekend and I'll catch you soon,
Until then xx Hello lovely people, so glad to join you here again. I'm very excited this week - two of my friends from medical school are going to be with me in a about fifteen days time and I'm getting ready for some fun and games! One of them had a talk to deliver in Brussels and decided to make a little detour into France and then come and visit with me - on hearing this, another mate from our group decided to come as well. They are coming all the way from the USA to Warwickshire, just to spend some time with me and I'm all of a tizzy! I have to work all of next week, Monday to Thursday, and have just got the weekend to prepare for them and do the shopping, cooking and cleaning that a housefull of guests entails. I hear you thinking - two guests a housefull do not make - but one of them is coming with her two grown-up kids in tow - so yes, it does! My bestie picked up a few pieces from Caprilicious and I sent her 'Fiesta' as a gift with the rest of her goodies. She likes to wear matching earrings, while I don't ever make them - I think a statement necklace is more than enough for one person at any occasion. However, my policy has always been 'the customer is always right, even when she's wrong' and I try to live by that tenet. I set out to make a pair of earrings to match and decided that I would use the motifs in the necklace, but put them on a black background so that the designs stood out - I just hope she likes them and doesn't want them on a red/pink background - in any case it will take me just a few minutes to whip up another pair, now that they've been made before, I know exactly how to make another lot. And, because I didn't want to turn on an oven to make just one pair, I made a few more, which she is welcome to have, should she like them - or perhaps her daughter will.
I've spent evenings in front of the telly populating a necklace with little beads and if I have time, ought to finish it by the end of next week.
That's me for now, folks. Have a wonderful week, and I'll catch you next Friday, around the same time, same place. Until then xx Hello everyone, how are you today? Britain has been basking in a heat wave and although I've been busy and locked into the hospital, it's nice to know that outside, someone, somewhere, is lying on a patch of grass, basking in the sun. Life has been crazy busy and I simply didn't have time to get to you last week, but here I am at last, bright eyed and bushy tailed. The garden is enjoying the weather, and hubby is spending loads of time outdoors, watering the plants. I have friends coming to stay with me from the USA in four weeks time and I'm hoping the garden will still look nice, and all the flowers aren't spent by the time they get here. With all that's going on at work, I had no time to pick up my beads or pliers, but when I received a few beautiful pairs of earring beads, I wasted no time in putting them together. One pair is already spoken for, but the others are loaded onto the website now. Here are a few pictures of my simple, but beautiful earrings. These acid green beauties are made with Cymophane, an opalescent version of chrysoberyl. I've never seen these gems before and scrambled to pick them up as soon as I saw them. This is the second time I'm making them and I think they are ever so sleek, sohisticated and elegant. As they are so simple, the fact that they are long won't be a reason why you can't wear them during the daytime, and to work, if you so choose. In fact I see them with a white shirt and jeans, just as easily as a little black dress. The flowers in the garden are calling out to me to make another floral piece and I have the whole thing planned out in my head. In the meantime, I have the weekend off, but loads of prep to do for a presentation next week. Long lie-ins, lazy brunches in the garden, out in the sunshine - and a laptop by my side, constantly reminding me that I'm playing hooky, instead of preparing for the next week - I'm going to feel like I'm back in school! That's me for this week, folks. Have a fabulous week and I hope to catch up with you again next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx Hello, good people, and thanks for joining me once again. It has gone cold in the UK and set to get worse. However, what we experience here, especially in the Midlands where I live is piffling compared to North America, so I shouldn't really make a big deal of it. Moaning about the weather is part of the British psyche and I've lived in the UK long enough to participate in the national weather angst! I saw this picture on Facebook and thought it was so cute, I had to save it for everyone here. I've made one of the prettiest necklaces using a bunch of tiny seed beads, and I've been so keen to show it to you. Unfortunately, I suddenly decided that I absolutely needed a particular clasp when I saw it used by another beader - I've been hunting for the selfsame thing all over. It's quite difficult, hunting down something when you don't know where the other person got it from, what it's name is, or what to put in a search engine when looking for it. I can't remember who the lady was who had it on one of the pieces she had made, or I might have asked her, although she might not have told me. But, determined as I am, I spent days looking for it and finally struck gold. Hubby was pretty annoyed with me, as I seemed to be on the computer all the time - he was probably just looking for a bit of attention. However, I've had a hard week at work, and the last thing I needed of an evening is conversation. Watching rubbish on the telly while beading or scrolling through various shops on my phone in silence seems to be the better pastime than making an effort to chat. Never mind, next week is likely to be better and I will stroke his ego and give him some attention at the weekend. As I said last week, I'm going on the Earrings Show in December - the 10th and 11th is the Caprilicious show, so I've begun to salt away a few pairs of earrings specifically for that. I always like to have lots of stock, so that ladies who like earrings have something new to look at, and I like my earrings to be as different as possible to what the others display. I make the components myself rather than assemble what I have bought from others, and therefore it takes a while to put them together. Anyone who knows Caprilicious knows my love of peacocks - this pair was made using purple crystals at the centre of the eye, surrounded by silver lined seed beads in four colours. I'm not sure the camera picks up the way these earrings glow - silver lined beads have an ethereal sheen and I think this is a very pretty pair of earrings, as light as a (peacock) feather. I picked up two pairs of stick beads of lapis lazuli and turquoise - the beads themselves are so pretty, I felt that they ought to be presented in as simple a manner as possible. I spent a few months wrestling with the idea of adding little embellishments to the tops of the beads but in the end, have presented them simply with little micro pave bails and sterling ear wires that enhance rather than detract from the beauty of the stones. Unfortunately still photographs do not pick up little nuances, such as the glow of the silver lined beads, the little glints of pyrite in the lapis beads or the glints from the micro pave diamante - some degree of movement is required for that. I'm looking forward to this weekend which is going to be about pampering - long lie ins, soaks in the bath, and generally a relaxed time, both to get over the week I've had, and to get ready for next weekend when I'm going to be on call again. 29 days to Christmas, folks! Hubby is buying me a new laptop in the sales and I'm half excited, while the other half of me is a bit anxious about losing all the photographs stored on my old laptop. Yes, they are sitting in cloud storage as well, but there's nothing like being able to access them straight up from the computer. Oh well, I'll just have to grin and bear it. That's me for this week, folks. Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello everyone, and how are you today? It's been the mildest November, ever, and I'm just hoping that the rest of the year remains as wonderful. Thank you everyone who picked up pieces of jewellery during the birthday sale - they have all gone out and should be with you in the next couple of days. I spent some time making earrings last week - as well as the beginnings of another necklace which I will have to hold on to for another time as it isn't quite finished yet. I'm on the Earrings Show again in December and feel the need to put together a few new pieces for the ladies who browse the show. We went for a little drive last week and fetched up in a quaint little courtyard outside an outfitters for bikers called The Idle Torque - there was a little cafe, and an organic butcher, a vegetable shop, a blacksmith and a schoolhouse. We sat in the courtyard on a crisp autumn morning and had a cup of tea from the cafe, when a little cat joined us - he was so friendly, I was quite envious. We've ended up with a very standoffish cat at home who only comes to us when he wants to and when his tummy tells him that it's running on empty. What we would have loved was a friendly lap cat that draped itself over us like a mink stole, but alas! it was not to be. There were some fierce looking hombres standing around in leathers, ponytails, piercings, hobnailed boots, and strange hairstyles and beards - they looked a bit intimidating to say the least, and I thought we ought to leave, but when Mike said hello they ambled over with gap toothed grins and waggly beards, and were friendly enough. I followed my first beading pattern this week - the first time I've ever followed any sort of pattern. I fell in love with a picture on Pinterest and it led me to DragonflyDesigns UK on Etsy. The colours in the earrings were so attractive I bought the pattern - after all how hard could it be? Well, I started the earrings and cut them up a few times, and then the whole lot skulked in a corner waiting for me, until I decided not to be such a coward and allow a beading pattern to win. The earrings are called Tequila Sunrise and are actually quite complicated to make for a beginner, but with perseverance, they turned out to be very pretty. Tequila SunriseThe Real Tequila Sunrise!
A Tequila Sunset has the same ingredients as the original Tequila Sunrise, but with a splash of soda water mixed with grenadine to give the drink a red hue at the top instead of the bottom. Here's the Caprilicious version for you. Tequila SunsetI also made a pair of South Western style earrings using turquoise and a lavish fringe with Czech dagger beads - they are light and ever so pretty, and the movement - OMG! I am blown away! They are lined with leather and they are worthy of any cowgirl princess. 37 days to go to Christmas - have you ordered your turkey yet? What about your presents? Don't forget that Caprilicious is happy to wrap your gifts and send them out to your friends - all you have to do is mention it on PayPal and it will be sorted out for you. That's me for now, folks. Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello everyone, apologies for being a bit late with the blog, but we were out till late last night. We went to a candlelight concert - a tribute to Nat King Cole and Ray Charles at a venue in Birmingham, which was wonderful. Candlelit events are springing up in small venues throughout Birmingham, to encourage artistes who have had a fallow period due to the pandemic. This one was in a little venue called The Mill in Deritend, Birmingham - an area which was once run down and industrialised is now hopping with student bars, beer gardens and live music venues. It adjoins the Custard Factory where I once did a show and it will be a great area to explore when we get a minute one of the days. This week, I made three pairs of earrings, all to the same design. I have some tiny semiprecious gemstone beads that have the smallest perforations - they won't even take a No 11 embroidery needle - to those in the know, that's pretty tiny. I found a packet of extremely fine silver wire ball pins - only just thicker than a human hair and I made little beaded drops with them. When I'd finished, I had a little heap of wrapped beads, like 'hundreds and thousands', the small hard pieces of coloured sugar used to decorate cakes, and biscuits. I also had sore finger tips and repetitive strain injury in my wrists! It's only when they are put together in one photograph that you can tell the numbers of beads that were wrapped individually before being put together in charming bunches, and why my finger tips feel like they've been attacked with a hack saw! Caprilicious will be on the Earrings Show on Facebook on 14/8/21 from 8 pm, through to Sunday the 15th till 8 pm - come on down and join me if you can. Click on the picture above to be taken to my show on the day. That's me for this week, folks. Have a wonderful week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello all you lovely people, how are you? I've been relaxing at home - I haven't gone out for the entire week, apart from the one foray into Sainsbury's to do the weekly shop on Saturday. I'll say one thing for mask wearing - you don't have to bother with make up! Anyway, hopefully our crazy, uneasy existence with masking and distancing will grind down to a slow halt at the end of this long tunnel. I hope that those of you who have been offered the vaccine have gone out and had it. I've had my first dose of the Pfizer jab with no problems at all to report, and the next one is mid March. Hubby has had his too, the Astra Zeneca one this time with no side effects either, and he has to wait till April for his second dose. I've been prepping for the Earrings Show on Saturday/ Sunday - 27th/28th - it starts at 830 pm on the 27th, so if you can come along and support my act, please do - just click on the link or look for The Earrings Show on Facebook. This time, I've got plenty of new bead woven pieces, and they are an inexpensive yet colourful way to brighten up your outfit. I have spent a small part of each evening embroidering the new necklace I've been working on since last week - Woodland Fantasy sans lizards. A few more flowers and I'll be ready to work on some leaves. And here are my earrings, all photographed and ready for the Earrings Show - tell me what you think. Would you wear them? If not, why not? If you like them, what is it that attracts you? I'd love to know for future reference. The last pair were made with faceted onyx and Japanese Tensha beads - Tensha beads are handcrafted beauties, each individually made and are imported all the way from Japan. Each bead features an intricate decorative pattern of flowers, or swirling feathers. The patterns are very precise, and are actually housed within the bead - this makes the bead very durable and resistant to the scratches of wear and tear. The word Tensha means to transfer. Each delicate design is carefully placed on top of a durable acrylic round, then fully lacquered with another layer of crystal clear acrylic to protect the beautiful art from abrasion. Tensha beads are believed to have originally been created as a substitute for more traditional porcelain beads, as porcelain was harder to work with, took longer to paint, and was far more fragile. Tensha beads are made of a special acrylic that makes them lightweight. They are also provide an easier canvas so the artist can transfer even more detailed imagery without fear of loosing elements of the design in the process. I saw them used in a necklace on Pinterest and hunted them down for Caprilicious - I didn't want to swamp the detail on the beads with loads of other design elements and the earrings may be relatively simple, but they are simply beautiful and ever so light. That's me for now, folks. Have a good week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello, folks, it's lovely to catch up with you again. I'm back at work this week, and working all weekend - but hey! life goes on despite all that. I love my creative exploits - it is wonderful to come home and shrug off the cares of the day with a few beads and a reel of wire. That reminds me, it's been a long time since I played with wire. These days, I seem to play with seed beads all the time, but I decided to break the duck after almost an year and make a simple but rather beautiful necklace. I saw a pendant set in sterling silver in the virtual window of a vendor from whom I tend to pick up little bits and bobs - it was breathtaking in its simplicity. I fell totally in love, and of course I had to have it for Caprilicious. Unfortunately it was just a bit too expensive, so I set about bargaining with him until I finally got it at a more realistic price. I wanted to put it in a necklace almost straight away, but decided to send for the beads (as if I don't have enough, already) and had to wait impatiently until they arrived. At that point in time I was deep into Rhapsody in Blue so had to wait yet some more. My patience was finally rewarded this week - the necklace is finished and I think it is particularly pretty. I used a beautiful lapis and pearl silver clasp I brought back from Jaipur and sparkly, faceted haematite beads that have been electroplated with silver. It's been so long since I made a simple but effective necklace - I've spent most of the pandemic constructing beaded confections that I had almost forgotten how - almost but not quite! They brought me rubies from the mine, And held them to the sun; I said, they are drops of frozen wine From Eden's vats that run. R W Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the Transcendentalist Movement of the mid-19th century, which believed in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and that while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. What a brilliant concept! Zen and the Art of Making Beaded EarringsI've been making a few more pairs of earrings - I find that it is very soothing, sewing on little seed beads one by one, picking up colours at random, and brick stitch in particular is akin to raking sand into waves or ripple patterns - this is a practice originally used by Zen Buddhists in the attempt to focus ones mind and aid concentration. All the days problems flow away from me as if by magic and I'm smiling as I head off to bed. I hope you like my little earrings, they are made by weaving beads around metal frames, some of which I patinated in verdigris. I enjoyed making them and there are more to come, in preparation for The Earrings Show on the 28th of the month, and in the pursuit of Zen! That's all I have time for, folks. Have a wonderful week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx |
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