The view from the Tea Bar - is my gurning little friend trying to tell Mike something? Hello all, I hope you have been enjoying your summer - in the UK we have had approximately 20 days of warmth, mainly in dribs and drabs - last weekend was good though, with a chance to sit outside in the sun - barbeque food flying off the shelves in the supermarkets - no one celebrates a sunny day like we do in the UK - we have so few. We have a thermometer mounted on the fence outside a kitchen window from the counter we call the 'tea bar' ( we drink a lot of tea in this house) and Mike tells me the temperature on the fence about twenty times a day - and it has been .... warm ... ish. To celebrate our 30 seconds of summer, I made a couple of pieces with warm coral - I had some enamelled pendants made earlier, to which I had added polymer clay bezels, and I pulled out my collection of coral and turquoise and set to work. The first piece was inspired by the pendant, which reminded me of a tropical sunset, and the Flame of the Forest trees which are so common in India. We had some in school, and they had long flat seed pods, which we used to cover with silver paper from cigarette packets - we had no access to foil in those days, or Toys'rus - heaven forbid - and use them in mock sword fights. They are certainly a beautiful tree when in bloom, and the coral shards I used mimic them perfectly. The second pendant was made using a cloisonne technique, where cells made of wire are used to keep the enamel colours apart - I made something resembling a 'tablet' - perhaps for a shy person as a gift to express his love - what can say it better than hearts and flowers - and very non calorific too. I added wire flowers and a heart, and more coral and turquoise, and this one is one of a kind - most definitely. A lot of people from a jewellery forum I belong to recognised it as my work, even before they read my name on my post - I think wire is truly something I love to play with, and obviously, it shows! Love Letter My newly acquired stash of crystal beads was by now feeling ignored, after all the attention it got last week, so to placate it, I made some dragonfly earrings - what better symbol of summer than a dragonfly - and here they are. The wings are made of Czech pressed glass daggers, and the earrings are on extra long kidney earwires. Eastern Promise I acquired a number of pendants, beads and baubles from a Nepalese artisan of the Limbu tribe in Kathmandu. The owner of the company supports indigenous tribal women, and the designs are made in the mountainous regions of Eastern Nepal, bordering on Bhutan and Sikkhim. Although relatively expensive, they are so beautiful, I was not able to resist them. I want to make 'East meets West' fusion pieces of jewellery, that go with any sort of apparel, and have scoured the recesses of my mind for new ideas with traditional elements. The artisans themselves are well paid by the company that sold them to me, it warms my heart to find ethical vendors from the East, there is so much to be said for paying a fair price if it gets back to the right people. Do feel free to leave me a message if you like the pieces that follow on these pages, as I use up the stuff I bought - they are too pretty to be put away in a drawer and forgotten about. I have enough for two to three weeks of enjoyable creating - it is bound to take me that long to find different ways of showing off these beauties, as I am keen for them to be as fantabulous as they deserve. Yes, I have been busy - what with buying these, looking at them over and over, rummaging in the old stash, making the necklaces, photographing them and putting them online, both in the Facebook shop and on this website, doing a weeks work at the day job - Phew! - but I just got so excited when I acquired these, I couldn't resist making them up. I did buy a few more, but I have had to go looking for Lapis Lazuli beads to make them up - what I have is so pretty, it needs just the right beads to go with it - so have spent time sourcing the lapis beads, as well as all the other things I have had to keep up with this week.
Next week, I look forward to a visit from an old friend - we haven't met since 1971 and I might not have time to do much in the way of jewellery making. I leave you with a picture a friend from a jewellery making forum put up on her site. See you next week. xx
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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! The Coral Tide Pool NecklaceI 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 Don't you just love that Dr Seuss! - I only read The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham as an adult as he was'nt popular reading for children in India when I was growing up - but he gave me many hours of sheer pleasure reading it to a friend's daughter in my twenties. Just like playing with plasticine! - Polymer Clay is just that, but the stuff that can be made with it is amazing. I have to say I was rubbish at it as a child - but I am really surprising myself with my first experiments with the clay. I moulded it and coloured it and patted it, and put it in the oven with a paper 'tent' over it and held my breath for 30 minutes - then I had to wait for it to cool without opening the oven - and this is what I found - after some polishing and buffing I think it is quite pretty, and I am now off and away. So, from these two and a few other shiny ingredients, and a bit of anxiety while my baby baked in the oven, I got this! Magic, or what?? - I am going to eventually combine these pieces with silver and copper clay and make mixed media jewellery - of course, my favourite, wire, will have to be in on the act. I made a bracelet for Jan, who is celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary in Barbados - she is an amazing midwife who used to be a seamstress before she did midwifery - needless to say, she repairs and renovates clothes for half the workplace, and I have had cause in the last couple of years to use her services - she has been ever so sweet, nothing was too much trouble for her. I hope she has a great time and that she loves the bracelet. I used my Wigjig to make the links - have owned for an year but never used - actually quite a lot of fun to use, although not as easy as it sounds - but is anything?? The idea is that all the elements come out more or less alike, so repetition is easy - hmmm...... - OK, I suppose it is better than going freeform -the makers of the Jig seem to take themselves extremely seriously and even have an Internet based WigJig University, with free designs a nd ideas - may be thats why it took me this long to actually use it - I prefer a light hearted approach to my hobby!!
BLINGTASTIC!!!!! Ladies and Gentlemen - I proudly present Ms Meg Jayanth! - Tatatararararaaa- the epitome of a Caprilicious Woman. Doesn't the necklace look great on her? - and she isnt even trying- effortlessly caprilicious dahling! Christmas is upon us and I have been busy making little gifts for friends and people I work with - I should have many pictures to post after the festivities. I finally have time to make something for mysellf - Mike has given me his money clip - in the shape of an S - he has had that for many years and I am now going to use it as a pendant bail for a pendant I will make with a palm sized slab of bloodstone, which also happens to be my birthstone. I have been collecting all the materials and have promised myself that I will make it tomorrow. It's such fun to have a new piece of jewellery to try out each week, even if I am only 'Test Driving' it! Meg's mum Sheela ( never thought I'd use the word 'mum' in the same sentence as 'Sheela'-she's the least mumsy person I know! has sent me pictures of Meg in her Coral Seascape necklace too - feast for the eyes I say - and I mean both of them, lol -have a look for yourselves - what do you think?? |
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