Hello people, how are you doing today? It's raining cats and dogs where I live, but I guess that's OK as there's nowhere to go and nothing to do because of the lockdown, which hopefully, will begin to relax bit by bit soon. This week, I finally finished the necklace I was making last week and sent it off to its new owner. This is the second necklace I've made of this design and I'm not sure if I'll ever make another again. I've been asked about a bracelet in that vein and that's most likely a goer. And there it is, folks, sans lizards, with bees as requested; and in a predominance of red, as that is the new owners favorite colour. The labradorite flashes a deep and vibrant blue unashamedly - the last picture was taken in the sunlight. I put it in the post this afternoon, after work and will now wait until she receives it early next week to find out what she thinks of it. Another of my lovely clients in the USA bought this pair of earrings, but when they arrived, she felt they were too long for her and she gifted them to a friend. I was asked if I would come up with a shorter pair and once the necklace was finished, I gave that a go. The first pair, I thought were a bit longer than the remit set for me, and I had some teal coloured Shibori ribbon left over, so I started over. Although they are in the same tones, with similar beads they are quite different. It is next to impossible to make the same narrow shape in the original pair in a shorter style, as it's beauty is because of the length which gives it a degree of grace, and the profusion of sumptuous pearls and beads. That being said the new ones are just as elegant, light and easy to wear. If the lady doesn't want them they will go onto the website next week. 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
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Hello lovely people, how are you? We are already ankle deep into March and this year seems to be shaping up very much like the last one. However, for some folks, things are moving, just a little bit. As of today people in care homes in the UK can have one member of their household visit them indoors after having a Covid test. It won't make a difference to me because I don't know anyone in a care home, but I'll bet this news is making thousands of people very happy - I'm not sure if they are allowed to hug the people they visit, but at least they can get past talking to them through a closed window. Anyway, surely this means that things are moving in the right direction? I haven't anywhere to go apart from work and the supermarket and nobody wants to visit me - or they can't even if they want to, unless I move to a care home. I draw the line at that move though - I'm not ready for that just yet! Having spent the most part of last weekend on the Earrings Show, I went back to work, right into the thick of it. I have been attempting to perfect the art of not needing any sleep - or at least needing very little, so I can read my books, play with social media, make jewellery and watch a bit of TV after work. Some of these activities can be done together fortunately, so multitasking is the name of my game. It feels like all I've done this week is to add little beads, one by one to the Woodland Fantasy sans Lizards necklace and finally my persistence has paid off and all the beadwork is finished. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress - if I carry on at this pace, it should be finished, lined, edged and the beads attached to the back by the end of next week. For some reason, I've been obsessing about these tiny beads - I haven't played with any of the other things I so loved in the recent past - wire, or polymer clay or metal clay. I must remedy that soon, but the joy of painting with beads is so uplifting that I don't seem to want to create with anything else. I have orders for another necklace and a pair of Shibori earrings, so it may yet be a while before I move back to older techniques. That's me for this week, folks. I shall now go and get all dressed up to go to the supermarket - heaven knows there's nowhere else to go. Have a good week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx Hello, good people, how's tricks today? Once again, it's lovely to touch base with you and I hope over the years that I've earned the compliment you pay me when you come back to look at the Caprilicious Blog. This week we are going to have a short post as I have been working on stuff, but it is as yet unfinished. An enquiry came in about 'Woodland Fantasy', from a young lady who said she'd been eyeing it up for a while but in the end couldn't bring herself to make the final gesture of purchasing it because she had a dislike of lizards. Lizards, by far get a really bad press - I myself am not particularly a fan, but they have an incredibly sinuous shape and are beautiful to create with - the ones in this necklace, I thought were pretty cute. Unfortunately I couldn't just whip them off the piece, which would have been an instant win win situation for both of us - I'm not able to add or subtract elements once the necklace is given its backing, so I did the next best thing - I agreed to take on a commissioned piece, sans lizards. The lady said she was into saving bees - so I sent away for a couple of pretty cloisonné bees and started the piece off with a labradorite cabochon I brought back from Jaipur. This piece of Labradorite is particularly beautiful - I've shown you three pictures taken from three different angles and the flash of blue is clearly visible when the light shines on the cabochon - it looks like sheet lightening to me. Labradorite can display an iridescent optical effect (or schiller) known as labradorescence. Thanks to the parallel formation of mineral inter-growths within the structure of the stone, light bounces back-and-forth, which creates its distinctive shimmery, ethereal effect. Not only is this visual appearance extremely attractive, but it also represents the energy of the Labradorite crystal healing properties. By guiding you toward the light and out of the darkness, Labradorite is meant to open your eyes to the magic and possibilities that surround you. Labradorite was first found in Labrador, Canada. According to native Canadian lore, Labradorite is said to contain the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis. It is believed that the lights were “set free” by one of their ancestors who broke through the rocks with his spear. According to the legend, the lights that remained were set into stone, and thus Labradorite was born. Deposits have also been found in Madagascar, China and the USA, Finland, Russia and the Ukraine. Herpetophobia is a fear of reptiles - lizards and snakes. I'm not a fan of creepy crawlies myself, and I totally understand this. When I trained to be a clinical hypnotherapist, we were taught to cure arachnophobia or a fear of spiders with NLP - to get the person to imagine they held a spider in the palm of their hands and the spider was wearing red lipstick and false eyelashes and fluttering it's eyes and smiling at the person whose hand it was sitting on. A more disgusting image I cannot imagine! I would've told the instructor straight away that that thought wouldn't have cured me at all and he'd need to tailor a different strategy for me, if I was a sufferer. I've heard of kissing frogs to find your prince, but this might just be taking it a bit too far. I also found myself some Zen time by making a pair of stud earrings - I dangled a silvery grey baroque pearl from the lower edge of each stud. Simple, but effective, I think. That's me for this week, folks. At close of play on Friday I have a week off to play with beads or whatever else I fancy. Google tells me that at this time last year I was in India, having myself a fabulous old time. It saddens me that I cannot be with my mother who, at 93 cannot last forever - I know that that particular clock is ticking, but there's not much I can do about it. We make do with video calls at the weekend, but obviously, it's not the same.
Have a wonderful week, friends, and I'll catch you next Friday, same tie, same place. Until then, xx Hello people, how are you this week? Rain has stopped play for most of us in the UK this week and we've all been stuck indoors - all except the greatest dog lovers and most intrepid runners who still pound the streets in the downpour. I stayed indoors when I wasn't at work and finished Woodland Fantasy, and I'm so pleased that I had the time to do it. I took a photograph of one of the junior doctors being fitted for an operating hood - I've requested one for myself and when I was showing her the pictures I took, she scrolled onto a picture of the necklace which was actually a close up of the beading. She mistook the beaded flowers for real ones - what a compliment! Unless of course, she has poor eyesight - I don't know her well, so couldn't be sure. Anyway, she was most impressed when she realised that they weren't a close up of the flowers in my garden, and I was thrilled with the compliment. Woodland Fantasy'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon, Act 2 Scene 1 I read a bit of Shakespeare as a child in school and the language in the Merchant of Venice seemed so difficult to understand, that I thought our teacher was a genius when she translated it into modern English for us so effortlessly. Eventually, I knew most of the play by heart as chunks of it were handed out to us to learn when we were naughty - and I had many many occasions to be hauled up for one thing or another. I eventually read A Midsummer Night's Dream as an adult, and watched the play in Stratford where it was purportedly written. I was totally taken by the romance and mischief of the play and I've tried to make my necklace resonate with that idea. As soon as I had the slab of labradorite come through the post, I knew it would represent a body of water one day - it has been with me for over four years now and it only just called to me a few weeks ago with an idea of how to use it. I don't want to sound all fanciful and 'artisty' - but the ideas don't seem to come straight away, but if I just wait, something seems to click and a necklace happens. By the way, 'eglantine' is a brier rose and the woodbine plant is a creeper, much like a honeysuckle. I can see Titania, lying by the labradorite pool amongst the flowers, little creatures flitting and scurrying about. There are water lilies, lily pads, and even a few cobwebs dripping with raindrops. Little Vintaj brass lizards and crystal scarab beetles, as well as a dragonfly chase each other, and Titania is sure to arrive any minute, the scene is set for her. These photographs resolutely refuse to pick up the flashes of light coming from deep within the labradorite - I would have had to shine a light over it but that would have changed the quality of the rest of the picture. The necklace is meant to sit close to the base of the throat, and has a toggle clasp which allows for an extension of around two inches. The beads at the back are hand carved fluorite flowers in two colours, as if there aren't quite enough flowers in the necklace! I am totally overawed by Woodland Fantasy and can hardly believe that it came from my fingers. Wow! I'm still getting used to it. If you'd like to read more about the process involved in making it, and see regular progress photographs, do take a look at previous blog posts, if you haven't already. I'm still out in the garden every chance I get, although I don't like the rain too much. Hopefully the heat wave predicted for next week materialises and we can enjoy a few days in the sun. 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 lovely people, I'm so glad we've survived just over 100 days of lockdown in one piece - now all we have to do is hold our collective breaths until a vaccine is available hopefully later on in the year, and we are home free. In the meantime, I plod on, sewing away industriously, trying out new techniques, and trying to make each of my necklaces different from the last one, and if possible, even more interesting and beautiful. I spend a lot of time in my garden in the summertime and the flowers that bloom there tend to inspire me to make floral jewellery. My last big floral piece 'Hope Springs Eternal' got an "Honorable Mention" in the contest I entered it into; and a lot of you played a role in that, being kind enough to make the journey onto Facebook and vote for me. Thank you very much for that. However, I felt that Hope was the ultimate floral piece, with its lashings of Czech flower beads and froth of wisteria, and anything after it would either be a pale imitation or not be up to scratch. I realised that I was trying to recreate in my necklace a flower bed with a mass of blooms, all higgledy piggledy, as if they had self seeded there and hadn't been planted by human hands. I prefer this to ordered rows of flowers, marching in twos and threes like crocodiles of schoolgirls, towards a central fountain - I find that sort of planting very pretentious, and akin to municipal gardens tended by fussy little old men. My gardens have no colour scheme - everything is allowed. It appeals to me, although purists may be shocked at my seemingly ill disciplined approach to flower beds. A s I pondered about how I was going to achieve this effect, I came across Jessica Grimm, Dima Santina and Margaret Cobleigh. These ladies are American embroiderers who posted Japanese bead embroidery projects on their blogs - one look and I was hooked. I sent off for a book by an expert they all mentioned, Margaret Lee, and loved the flowers on the cover page. However, I just wanted the techniques, not to follow the projects to the letter. The next few photographs will take you through my daily progress with this necklace, which I have named Woodland Fantasy. The photographs are all taken with my phone - I'm thinking I need to take a few lessons on how to get the best from my phone as I'm using it more and more. I still like using my good DSLR camera for the final pictures, though. At the end of Day 4 and midway into Day 5 I felt quite satisfied with the way my Woodland Fantasy was turning out, but there was still a niggling thought at the back of my mind - it lacked vibrancy, somehow and needed a vivid yellow to up the colour quotient - well, that's what I thought, and some of you might not agree with me. Also, if I had left well alone, it would have been closer to Margaret Lee's work than mine and of course, I couldn't allow that! So on went the bright yellow crystals, dotted here and there as if they were scattered there by an unseen hand, much like the way I throw Nigella and seeds into my flower beds so that the flowers pop up all over the place. It rained most of the week, so beading was my major entertainment - and all while in splits of laughter as I binge watched Friday Night Dinner on Netflix. My husband thinks I'm crazy because I love silly comedy, but I'm unrepentant. I love Tamsin Greig and Mark Heap, they were so good in the Green Wing that I bought the boxed set, and Friday Night Dinner is very, very funny. The week is almost over now, and I have yet to fill in the bare spots in the necklace with black beads and back, and edge it as well as find a way to hang it - it may be a while yet before I am finished with it. And here's a picture of Wilfred, bringing me a playmate - isn't he clever!! He certainly thought so! That's me for this week, folks. Have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello people, how are you? The sun is shining and the garden is blooming, but yet it's hard to enjoy this bounty when it has to be done in seclusion. I had a friend visit with me today after so many weeks now that restrictions are lifted a bit, and we sat out in the garden and had a good long natter, drinking shandies and sitting in the shade - that was so good. The garden is benefitting from the attention we are lavishing on it - everything is standing upright and there isn't a weed or a slug that hasn't been got rid of, never to be heard from again. I've also been practicing my photography skills and the flowers have lent themselves to this task in the absence of other inspiration. I used to like to go and sit in busy places - train stations, city centres, pubs, and parks were favourites; and photograph the people there, going about their business not knowing that my beady eye is upon them. I've agreed to do a virtual show of earrings at The Earring Show on Facebook and will be displaying my wares online on the 12th of July. Although I have loads of stock, I felt I should make at least one more new piece and came up with this pair of stud earring danglers. Initial response was quite enthusiastic so I hope they will be well received at the show. The beads are all imported from the Czech Republic and Japan. Woodland FantasyThese are two little brass Vintaj lizards I bought from an outlet in the USA and they are beautiful - their only problem is that there is no way to anchor them to a piece of jewellery apart from using glue. I don't generally use glue for this purpose as once the glue deteriorates the attachments come loose. I decided very early on in the game that my jewellery has to stand the test of time and so double sew all my beads, and sew a bezel around every cabochon so that the crystals, beads and cabochons are extra secure. I've had the lizards for almost five years now as I didn't know how I would use them. My recent foray into beading has meant that I've been using this hole making tool, so I decided to give it a go. I've no idea what it is called, and if anyone does, please tell me in the comments. As you can see, the lizards are pretty tiny and I approached the task very gingerly. I held my breath - and all of a sudden I had two usable little critters. A large labradorite slab lay unused for many years. This is a very deceptive stone which at first look appears dull and grey - walk it into the light and suddenly it flashes fire with an inner iridescence that can be shocking if you're not expecting it. I tend to put a lot of colour around a labradorite so that the piece is colourful and interesting even when it isn't giving away its secret. I planned that the slab would represent a woodland pool, with little creatures around it - I added an enamelled dragonfly and a crystal scarab beetle and set to work making the pendant. Little lily pads were made individually and added to the edge of the 'pond', and three lotus flowers sewn onto one edge. This piece had very little planning involved in its making - but even after I had put in a lot of the beadwork, I wasn't happy - I wanted more. I changed tack and turned the pendant sideways, and attached it to a collar devised from Lacy's Stiff Stuff, and now it is a focal point in a statement necklace. Now what? The clue is in the name - Woodland Fantasy. I've just discovered Japanese seed beading and have sent off for Margaret Lee's fabulous book on these techniques. Japan is the home of the Miyuki and Toho seed beads and the embroidery techniques look like tapestry. I can't wait until the book arrives and I start again on my necklace. Until then, I shall have to find something else with which to occupy my hands. That's me for this week, folks. Before I sign off, if anyone can tell me why Wilfred the cat absolutely refuses to sleep in his new and lovely fluffy bed, preferring to sleep in a wooden tray on the dining table, I would be very interested in the answer. I just don't get it. I've sprayed it with catnip, and put morsels of of cat treats into it, but try as I might I had no luck, I even considered trying to curl up in it myself to set him an example. I ended up selling it on Facebook Marketplace this morning. Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday,
Until then xx Hello all, and how are you today? It's now only 75 days to Christmas and I have so many pieces of jewellery to make, gifts for Christmas, both for Caprilicious and for friends and family, as well as pieces for a show planned for February in Bangalore. In between times, the day job remains hectic and I appear to be doing a lot of work related travel, especially in November. I've been collecting beads left over from previously made pieces and orphan beads for a while now, and decided that they needed to be used up - the bag was getting too full. Since they are left overs, the necklaces will be priced inexpensively and will be suitable for gifts, and of course, for yourself - why not? It would be rude not to at these prices. I had a couple of days off at the beginning of the week and took photographs of what I call the 'Last but not the Least' necklaces and posted them at the bottom of the wire and gemstone necklace page thinking that I'd announce their arrival today. However, an eagle eyed magpie of a Caprilicious woman actually found them before I had a chance to tell anyone about them and snaffled one. I will have more on the website as the weeks go by and I use up all my orphans. The last necklace in these pictures is the one that has sold, in case you're wondering. Chequerboard CharismaI'm enjoying embroidery with beads almost as much as wire work - which is something I never thought I'd say. The ability to make something from almost nothing, like a conjuring act, really appeals to me and I endeavour to learn something new, however small in each piece I make. This next piece incorporates square Tila beads from the Czech Republic which have two holes - I've had them for ages and decided it was about time I used them. I made three pieces, using extremely flashy pieces of hand carved labradorite - I originally meant to put them together in a square pendant with a few more elements included to make up the gaps. However, I realised that no matter how I placed them, the piece resembled a face with two eyes and a mouth so I abandoned this design in favour of a long pendant. It is extremely difficult to photograph as it is impossible to focus on one part of it without another looking all blurry. My photographic skills most definitely are not up to the task. I see this worn with black or white linen or silk, both during the day or night. It has been hung on a beaded necklace, but can be slipped off and put on a cord of the wearers choice. I've added another tutorial to the website - this time for the use of Pebeo Paint and resin on polymer clay - the project is called Molten Lava Earrings and I have some already made up on the earrings page if you fancy having a look. The tutorial was in the Artisan Jewellery Times, which is no longer in publication. I didn't want these tutorials to be lost forever, especially as they might help someone who is starting out with clay - my projects are easy and fun to try. 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 readers, good day to you. I had a fabulous couple of days off in Chester last week, and am now raring to go with the Handmade Fair at Ragley Hall. It would appear that there are quite a few stalls, and it ought to be fun. I've drafted in the help of a couple of ladies at the hospital one of whom has agreed to help me on the stall. The other had a bridal shop in town a couple of years ago and still has a lot of the fittings and furnishings and I'm hoping to scavenge some from her. Here's the blurb for the shopping village at the fair. Chester is an ancient city, which still has the original Roman wall encircling it's centre. One of the entrances to the wall was right by our hotel, and we spent a half day walking around on it. As it was a lovely day, tourists and children were out in full force and we watched as a crocodile of little uns walked around on the 'Roman Tour' all dressed as centurions, complete with shields. There were also older kids in blazers and boaters, congregated around an old fashioned sweet shop that looked like they had strayed from a Harry Potter film set in Diagon Alley. The cathedral was beautiful, but they wouldn't allow too many pictures inside it as the choir was practising. We sat in the courtyard in dappled sunlight listening to the angelic voices of the choristers filtering out to us. Here are some pictures of Chester for you. I hope my pictures made you want to go and visit Chester, I'd certainly reccommend it for a weekend out. We got back and picked up the cat from the cattery where he had spent the night, no doubt cussing and swearing at his humans, who dared to go off and leave him in prison. And then almost seamlessly, I slipped back into beads and wire, happy as a pig in muck! Nicole Hanna was running a 'Finish It' competition and I had only a couple of days to enter. As usual, she gave out part of a tutorial and the entrants had to finish it without changing more than one component. All the entrants received the whole tutorial for our pains and there is now a Pinterest page with all the entries. I already constantly challenge myself by remaining solder-free, torch-free and casting-free but it's nice to have a ready made challenge to help push the envelope of what's possible in wire jewellery by engineering, layering and weaving ever more complicated and intricate sculptural pieces, using fine-gauge wire for embroidering and beading my 'sculptures'. One of the midwives at work had a donut that she wanted zhooshed up and I made a little bail like contraption for it in copper wire. I tend to prefer the non tarnished, shiny look. I know that loads of people like bare copper, and oxidise it with Liver of Sulphur and ammonia fumes and even boiled eggs to bring out the texture, but I'm quite happy with shiny - I wonder if it's a throwback to my youth where gold was the only thing I wore as my mother turned her nose up at base metals including silver. OshunAn Oshun is a Yoruba Orisha of the sweet or fresh waters. She is widely loved, as she is known for healing the sick and bringing fertility and prosperity, watching over the poor and bringing them what they need. As Orisha of love, Oshun is represented as a beautiful, charming and coquettish young woman. In some tales she is said to be a mermaid, with a fish's tail. I made the pendant with an ancient block of faux ivory cane. It cracked beautifully over the core of the bead, and when antiqued, the pendant looked like authentic aged ivory. I added some tassels to signify braided hair, and pulled together beads I had made earlier. I had red rugby ball shaped wooden beads that I'd embellished with strips of clay, gooseberry shaped polmer clay beads and wooden discs I bought in India. I'd been saving a pack of rustic ceramic beads I brought back when on holiday in Greece and I thought they went well with the beads in this necklace. And then, spring sprang - the sun shone, the top came down in my little Miata, and the Snakeshead fritillaries and bluebells made an appearance. I began to imagine in pastels, pale pink or green floaty dresses, scarves, walking by the sea barefoot in the sand and a completely different vibe developed in the second half of the week. It's amazing how our outlook on life is governed by a tiny bit of sunshine, in the Northern Hemisphere. I dug out all the labradorite beads I had in my stash and put them together with a beautiful abalone clasp and large baroque pearls. I apologise for the photographs, but labradorite is very difficult to picturise, it flashes with movement, but the beautiful flashes of colour seem to hide when photographed. I know that small business advisors say that one ought to develop a brand identity and make similar pieces, so that people know when they are looking at a piece of jewellery that it has been made by Caprilicious. I'd be bored to death with this strategy and so I'd like to think, would be my Caprilicious women. This is my particular design ethic - to make different styles of jewellery to suit the ever changing personalities and moods of a woman. The two designs from this week are poles apart, but I would wear both of them on different occasions, and be equally happy with them.
That's me for this week folks. Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx Hello again, readers, how are you all today? Britain is in a frenzy of anticipation - Team GB is not doing so badly at the Olympics in Rio and people are glued to their television sets. We are not that into sport and have taken advantage of the sunshine to relax in the garden and I made a few pieces of jewellery. I was watching reruns of Series 3 of Absolutely Fabulous. Jennifer Saunders wore a beautiful necklace through most of the show and I fell in love with it - it is bright, bold and colourful, and big! So very Caprilicious! I decided to have a go at trying to make it out of polymer clay. I looked for a still picture of the necklace but could find nothing that was remotely of any use, it was as if the bloody woman moved on purpose just to keep me from getting a good look at it - I had to watch the recorded show over and over, making drawings to help me - my lack of drawing skills are legendary and even the simplest shapes elude me. I eventually decided to make it from memory in colours that caught my eye and when I went to hang it, I found a Nepalese thread work necklace that seemed perfect! An international effort, if ever there was one. I asked Lorena Angulo, a Mexican artisan jeweller from San Antonio in Texas, whether she knew if the cascade of hearts signified anything and she replied that it looked very much like a Milagro heart - Milagros are religious folk charms that are traditionally used for healing purposes and as votive offerings in Mexico, southern Spain and in other Latin American countries. They are frequently attached to altars, shrines, and sacred objects found in places of worship, and they are often purchased in churches and cathedrals, or from street vendors. Milagros come in a variety of shapes and dimensions and are fabricated from many different materials, depending on local customs. A lot of Lorena's work is influenced by her origins and she often makes these Milagros (or would that be Milagra?? who knows??), beautifully carved from precious metal clay. I'm playing this on the blog today - just because..... It's a fabulous song and I love Alison Moyet, enjoy! The Little Miss CollectionI bought these silver pendants with the most beautiful semi precious stones in Jaipur during my last holiday in India. I had no idea what I wanted to do with them, so they just sat in a box until one day, suddenly, Ms Muse remembered them and seemed to know how exactly how to string them. I used the three butterflies to make pretty necklaces which would be ideal for young ladies, and of course older ladies who are young at heart! The gemstones in these pendants are really pretty a Little Miss would look lovely in her first piece of heirloom jewellery. Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of children's books, best remembered for the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture since 1971. The stories are set in a fictional universe called "Misterland", which is inhabited by the Mr. Men and Little Misses themselves, as well as some ordinary human characters such as shopkeepers, doctors and postmen. There are also various animals and Walter the Worm appears frequently. The characters are human in their behaviours and attributes. After Roger's death, his son wrote a few more books in the series and in April 2004, his widow Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters to UK entertainment group Chorion for a reported £28 million. Little Miss SunshineAmetrine pebbles carry the butterfly pendant which has the most beautiful topaz and citrine gemstones and a few left over ametrines went into earrings to match. Little Miss FabulousThe butterfly is made in two colours of topaz and an amethyst. I strung it simply on a silver chain, and added little dangles in peridot, apatite, jade and amethyst on either side of the pendant. A little pink jade butterfly finishes the pendant, dangling from the extension chain at the back. Little Miss MoonlightThere isn't really a Little Miss Moonlight in Hargreaves's series, but who knows, they might just make her up after this. This butterfly has iridescent moonstones as well as amethyst and turquoise and is strung on a necklace of square labradorite beads, with tiny pale pink seed pearls between the labradorites. I even made some earrings to go with the necklace. The box clasp, enhanced by a little moonstone also came from Jaipur and is very, very pretty. I see these worn to a prom, or at a first dance, gifted to a bridesmaid or even worn by the bride. It is nice for young girls to develop an appreciation of fine things that they need to take care of and cherish, and a simple piece of heirloom jewellery may be one of the best ways to start. That's me for this week folks. Have a fabulous weekend and I shall catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then
xx Dear readers, thanks for stopping by this week, it is always a pleasure to have your company. As I mentioned last week, I've had a few days away in Edinburgh, both sight seeing and attending a reunion to which I was invited. Of course, I took the opportunity to showcase Caprilicious Jewellery - I take any opportunity to showcase my jewellery! and I was gratified that so many people came and took a look and picked up some pieces. I never know how much or what to carry and consequently end up taking too much - however, after a few of these events, I am now an expert at packing and unpacking and can do it all without help in the space of twenty minutes. The display of course, never satisfies my aesthetic sensibilities, but as I usually show far away from home and am unable to carry too many display items, I have to make the best of what is available. As you can see from the pictures above, Edinburgh is a fairly masculine, sombre city built in sandstone, not without the occasional pop of colour and a whimsical sense of humour. The reunion was at a school, where the men played cricket and the ladies chatted, drank tea and shopped at Caprilicious. There was a raucous party that night at a club overlooking the estuary with the Firth of Forth in the distance, and we all had a great time dancing to the sounds made by the Madivala Cockroaches! These stalwart gentlemen all come from St John's Medical College in Bangalore and practice in the UK. I have to say their musical skills were impressive and extremely professional, for all that they are busy doctors scattered around the UK and have very little time to play together.
Last week, I made a dark and brooding black and white necklace, but Ms Muse got going this week with an explosion of colour. I made some hollow beads earlier as a prototype for a tutorial I am writing for Bead and Jewellery magazine later on in the year. The beads are gaily coloured with oil pastels and doodled on, giving a carved effect. They are about 2 inches in diameter, but very light as they are hollow. I showed them to a friend and he looked dismayed. 'Who on earth would wear beads this size?' he asked, with a shocked expression. I didn't know what I could make with them either, until something went 'Whirrrrrr.......click' in my head and I suddenly knew exactly how to string them. The Doodlebead NecklaceKnotted together with ultrasuede, showing off the carving on the beads to great effect and a length of Kumihimo braid at the back, this is a cheerfully colourful necklace. Persian BlueIt would seem that Ms Muse hadn't finished with colour yet. I picked out a beautiful flashy blue labradorite cabochon and beaded around it. Soutache embroidery comprises of a few different elements that are repeated over and over - the difference between one artisan and another are in the colours and beads used and the layout of the various elements. I don't often plan the design before I start or the colours I want to use, and tend to rummage in my box of braid and beads, picking out those that catch my eye in a random manner. What emerges is as much of a surprise to me as it is to anyone who watches the piece evolve. I sometimes post pictures on the Caprilicious Instagram account of work in progress when I finish up for the night, and I have no idea what is going to happen to the piece when I next pick it up. This one ended up colourful, with blues and greens, yellow and orange. I wanted it to be a smaller piece that could be worn both day or night and hope I have succeeded. I hung it on a copper torque necklace that has been coated with a non tarnish finish. There is something extremely Middle Eastern about this pendant and the flashy azure blue of the labradorite inspired the name. The colour Persian blue comes from the blue of Persian pottery and the tiles used in mosques and palaces in the Middle East. That's me for this week folks. We have been re bonding with our cats who were put into the cattery when we were in Edinburgh - they weren't too pleased about it, and let us know in no uncertain terms. They are being spoiled and pampered to attempt to make up for it. Have a lovely week and I'll catch you next weekend, same time, same place. Until then xx |
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