This week, there were some very difficult decisions to be made - I had to submit a single button to the Button Project picking for my theme 'Silk' , 'Metamorphosis' , or 'Heritage'  -  I could eventually add another three to a set of four to be sold off by the organisers when the project ended.
I decided to go with  'Metamorphosis' as my theme, loosely interpreted by me as the change or transformation that occurs as night follows day. I thought that there would most probably be too many butterfly/ larva buttons as the other theme was Silk- and anyway, who wants to make or wear a dead caterpillar? - not me, that's who!

I made the four buttons in polymer clay, and took my pictures, I was quietly pleased with the way they turned out. I planned to give each one a gradation from a dark blue to a pink/yellow/orange, and I added a leaf motif in the background, so the button would eventually resemble a fossil. The method I used was pioneered by Sophy Dumoulin of CraftArt Edu. However, with this technique, there is no way of telling what the piece will look like till it is cured, sanded and buffed - sanding reveals the true design, hidden inside, almost like a metamorphosis in itself - I held my breath till, lo, and behold, the buttons appeared - not entirely the way I envisaged, but near enough.

I was now faced with the choice of button - I had to decide which one was the best and was destined to be the original exhibit, with the others sitting in a box, waiting to hear if someone loved them enough to give them a home. How bad would they feel, if they had to come back home to Nuneaton in a padded envelope - how could I put my sweet button babies through this? 
And once I decided which one I liked best, should I send the required photograph on a dark background, or on white? 
Having agonised over this for a long while, I gave up and decided to listen to some music instead, till the Aspirin cleared my head.

The one at the top left is the one I chose eventually, with the dark background. Now, all that is left is to wait and see whether the organisers will accept my entry.

Through Caprilicious, I met a lovely lady I shall call BN - she makes jewellery too and is like me, a doctor. She loves Caprilicious and took the trouble to come all the way to Nuneaton to see me - I was ever so pleased to meet her and we talked jewellery for hours - it was nice to find someone to chat with on a topic that is so dear to my heart, without fear of their eyes glazing over with boredom - I'm sure I do that a lot at work, and have to restrain myself, quite often, when my radar picks up the glazed expression I used to get when my mother lectured me on my many misdemeanors as a teenager. I only hope I am quicker to spot 'the look' than my mother was!

BN gifted me some beads - she said it was like a goody bag on Ready Steady Cook - I had to make pieces of jewellery using the ingredients from her bag, the only difference being there was no stipulated time limit. In return, she had some of my polymer clay faux amber and a few other bits and bobs. After she left, I made Bedouin Oasis, with some of her beads, one of my handmade polymer clay pendants, with two pairs of earrings to match.

I teamed Tiger Ebony wood bicone beads and shell segments in an asymmetric necklace and the colours so reminded me of an oasis - calm and serene - the pendant seemed to work well with that theme, its center looks like a rippling body of water to me - I wore the necklace to work, and got a load of compliments - I was very pleased with the response.

This necklace stemmed from BN's question - 'could you create small?' - I wasn't too sure that I could rise up to the challenge - Caprilicious seems to have become all about the large, flamboyant piece - but I am sure there are plenty of capricious women who want their delicious pieces small and dainty. So, I went off with my thinking cap and sat in a corner for a while ( should that be a dunce's cap you sit in a corner with??) and came up with Indigo Evenings. The iolite I picked is a beautiful deep blue, the colour of twilight in the tropics, and I looked in my gemstone stash in vain to find a green to complement it - I finally found the perfect green in my box of crystals, and added some tiny pearls to make a piece that is so dainty, it looks almost fragile in my hands - so, BN, if you are reading this, have I fulfilled your challenge?

In the mid nineties, I used to borrow this little girl from my friends, and she and I would stay up all night, watching cartoons, eating ice cream and Jelly and crisps in bed - she loved to come and stay with me, and her parents had the weekend to themselves - The Little Mermaid was one of the movies we watched, over and over, without ever tiring of it. 
I made this cuff in memory of those days, using the pen and ink technique learned from Alice Stroppel. It took simply ages to get her hair just so, fortunately, I now have a table where I can leave all the makings without feeling guilty about the mess. The place looked like a bombsite for days and days, while I struggled to juggle the demands of the bracelet, and the rigours of the day job.

BN gave me some slate grey veined jasper - the stones look like little pebbles from a river bed - initially I thought I would put them with coral ( and I might, yet) but while doing a rummage in my bead stash, I found these lipstick coloured pink dyed howlite, and they seemed to be clamoring to be let out of the box - I think they go really well together. As I have said before, I am not a particularly 'pink' person - but this necklace found its way from the light box where I photographed it, straight around my neck, and hence, to work. The grey jasper lends the piece a bit of sophistication, and raises its game. One look at it, and I don't have to say another word about how it got it's name.

The gentleman whose photograph I used as inspiration for Glacial Fantasy      
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/manisholiday/ or http://kingdom-of-sky.blogspot.co.uk/ for more pictures) liked the necklace so much, he ordered another for his girlfriend! Kudos, indeed - such kind gestures make it all worthwhile! 

That's all this week sweet people, thanks for stopping by - catch you next week, same time, same place,
xx

Oh well, it would seem I spoke too soon - even as I hit the 'publish live' button with the last instalment of my blog, it started to rain, and has continued to, in sporadic bursts ever since. Just the kind of weather to snuggle up with a pair of pliers - so I did!
We have been busy with last minute preparation for a visit from my mother who will be with us for four weeks. So, I had to put my foot down with a firm hand - no more playing with wire for a bit! - having given myself a good telling off for putting it off till the last minute, I set to with a Hoover, dust pan and brush, picking tiny bits of wire off the floor, and bringing in fresh flowers and food supplies, and generally behaving in a daughterly manner!
So this means I haven't made too many pretties this week - I decided to stick to little things that would take small amounts of time - every time I tired of housework, I made a pair of earrings - judging by the number of earrings I made, it is obvious that I tired soon, and often!
Mum turned up - she's 84, and made the journey from India to Birmingham looking fresh as a daisy - that's scary - cos I always look wiped out when I make that journey - she says she doesn't suffer with jet lag, so having unpacked her bag and handed out the presents, she is raring to go - shopping to refill her cases - excuse me while I go and lie down for a bit!

This seems to be the time for me to work on objects I got from Tina Holden's shop, Beadcomber, on Etsy. The first was a blue glazed pearlescent face cabochon, and I fell in love with it - when it spoke to me, it said 'Medusa'.
Now, most people would be forgiven for thinking that Medusa was ugly, because one look at her, and a man would be turned to stone - this of course is the legend, but prior to the legend she was a beautiful maiden, who was extremely vain and knew just how alluring she was. She p***ed off Athena, the Goddess of beauty, and guardian of Athens by boasting about it constantly. This, Athena could put up with, with gritted teeth - you don't want a reputation for being mean to a pretty virgin now, do you? but the straw that broke the camel's back was when Medusa had torrid sex with Poseidon in Athena's temple - that was it - she was cursed into being ugly forever - not just any old ugly, but so plug ugly that anyone who looked at her would turn to stone. Not happy with that, her innocent sisters were made to meet the same fate as well - I suppose they got theirs by association!
Mike, my dear other (and much better) half, took mum off for a walk in the park, and I had time to play for a while.
My Medusa ( or more accurately, mine and Tina's Medusa ) is pre curse Medusa - a precursor?? - sorry, bad joke -  she is still beautiful at this time, but the wire work around her prophesies her fate. The wire work is from a tutorial by Donna Spadfore, once again on Etsy, but I had to adapt it from fitting a smallish pendant bead to a large cabochon, by adding a wire bezel and frame. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it once wrapped, but when finished, it was ornate enough to be a stand alone piece, so I added a wire bail and an organza ribbon, and that was Medusa finished.  
Medusa has become a symbol for female empowerment in recent times, and is also on the logo of Versace - not as pretty as my Medusa, though!

I had a sea urchin I made using one of Tina Holden's moulds, to which I had given an antique bronze effect, and I put it together with some branch coral in a creamy white and gold tone cloisonne beads and Chinese electroplated crystals in a honey tone. To set these off, a copper segment appeared as if by magic, in blue jewel colours with Czech fire polished beads, and shells that I tinted gold and varnished, to match the sea urchin.

I also had the time to string together two rows of Royal blue Swarovski crystals with some lovely channel set rhinestone spacers to make what I called the 'Bewitched' necklace. I put the spacers in at an angle, to make their own pattern in the necklace, rather than using them as spacers normally are.

That's all for this week folks - catch you next week - need to go shopping with my shopaholic mother now :)
xx