Hello readers, and thanks for dropping by the Caprilicious Blog. I hope you have all had a good week - we have rising temperatures here in the UK, and this has naturally turned our thoughts to the summer that is so tantalisingly near, but yet,.............. But first, I took on a couple of challenges this week - I do so love a good challenge. To my mind, it sets the creative juices flowing, and focuses ones mind on a task, rather than thoughts aimlessly milling around like a swarm of ants. I spotted the first challenge on Facebook - it was a 'finish this' challenge by Nicole Hanna - she published half a tutorial for a piece of wire-work jewellery, and the competition was open to anyone who cared to join - I saw the notice only two days before the competition ended, so I set to work almost immediately. I'm aiming for the completed tutorial that she is offering to all the participants, that's prize enough for me. The Unfinished SymphonyWe were given a recipe for the ingredients, and weren't allowed to make more than one substitution, or add any others. The results will be shown in an album on Flickr, and when I have the whole tutorial, I will make the pendant accordingly and am most interested to see how different it will be from mine. I played with clay all last weekend, and made up a bunch of scarf jewellery for my friends from Look in the Bag. Once I had finished, my workspace looked like a bomb had gone off over it and I despaired of ever tidying it. I find it hard to work in a messy environment, and when I saw the next challenge, it inspired me to try and clear my table of all the stuff I had on it. "Clean-up, Fix-up" your workspace BLOG HOPSharyl McMillian-Nelson of Sharyl's Jewelry and Reflections challenged us to clear up our workspace and blog about it. She has a long list of participants from all around the world - jewellery making, chronic untidiness and the internet, have brought us together. If you clink on the link above, you will find the list of the other participants in this challenge. Well, I have two workspaces - one for the weekends, when I have time to play with clay, and another where I sit of an evening, in front of the telly with Mike, and the beads and wirework come out to play. There is a third, in the conservatory where I have my kiln and enamels, but as it isn't very active, there isn't much point talking about it for now, although I hope this will change fairly soon. I had just finished making the multi strand necklace with beads, and wire and polymer clay pieces you will find below, and my stuff was all over the place. I keep a limited amount of beads and some findings right by my chair, in boxes on the floor, being too lazy to get up and walk to my storage area each time I need something. Unfortunately, I do not have a 'before' picture to show you, just the 'after' one - you can see the boxes balanced precariously on each other, but all the beads went back into their respective boxes without too much trouble, and the wire was coaxed into going back onto the shelf, so the area looks relatively tidy - and that's the best I could do! As you can see, the pliers refused to move and stayed sat on one of the last naughty spools of wire in a sulk - they should have gone onto the plier holders on the top shelf - I left the refuseniks be, as I didn't have any energy left after that monumental effort. This is the room where I play with clay - it is only tiny, and I have a trestle table to work on, a trolley with paints and stuff on it, a computer table with the buffer, all jostling for space with a filing cabinet, a cupboard that holds our coats and outdoor wear, another cupboard meant for cleaning implements which I share with my cleaning lady ( and am sneakily encroaching on when she isn't looking, shelf by shelf ), a wall that is lined with books, and shelves that hold photography equipment - a lot to fit into that tiny space. I consider it nothing short of a miracle that I can see the white ceramic tile I use as my work surface. I took all the clay off the table and put it back into boxes under the table, all my implements were wiped down with wet wipes, and stashed in their mugs and glasses - all the mugs that get chipped in our house find their way to my work space - they know I'll give them a good home in my efforts to stay organised. A set of library steps have been encroached on - I use any flat surface to hold something temporarily - and that quickly becomes a permanent fixture, but as these steps are my husband's pride and joy, I daren't do that for longer than a day or I will find all my stuff unceremoniously dumped on my table when he goes in to look for a book! Anyway, this is as tidy as it gets - but very far from being all shipshape and Bristol fashion. I have to tell you that before I went all 'crafty' the room was a third bedroom, converted into a sort of library for all the books Mike and I own. I used to play with clay in the kitchen, but that meant I had to clear up my clutter every evening, and projects had to be finished or binned at the end of the day - we all know, that doesn't work one little teeny weeny bit! Club TropicanaI made this polymer clay veneer for another project, but then ended up using it to make a few small pendants instead. I used one of these pendants in a bohemian necklace in bright colours - just right for the summer ahead. The inspiration was beach jewellery from Thailand - usually made with macrame, but I decided to use the look, and recreate it in my own way. There were a pair of earrings to match, and I think this necklace will look great with summer whites. I used polymer clay beads, wire, African trade beads, which my sister in law kindly found for me when she was on a safari holiday, and I had a ball putting this piece together.
That's it for this week folks, cleaning up after myself has exhausted me and I need to lie down with a cold compress on my head, catch you next week, same time, same place - have a lovely weekend xx
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Hello all, I hope you have all had a good week and beat the pre Christmas anxiety bug by getting it all ready beforehand. If you haven't, don't forget, Caprilicious offers a free gift wrap service and your gifts can be sent straight out to your friends from here. Last week was all about bracelets - Neelam Modi, of Look in the Bag kick started this orgy of bracelet making by buying one that I had tucked away somewhere, and almost forgotten about. She sent me this lovely collage, and I decided straight away that I ought to make some more in a similar style, it looked so good on her (she is a graphic designer who conjures up the most beautiful silk scarves with her own designs on them, paired with a little piece of jewellery, all presented in a bag that can be used as an accessory, as well as packaging for the scarf - what a fab gift idea). So I looked around for stuff I could incorporate into this sort of bracelet, and here's what i came up with. The first one is a blue agate geode - not dissimilar to the one on Neelam's wrist - except that one was green. I also used an amethyst flower, and a bronzite flower that I got off my friend BN, in a bead swap. I sat in front of the telly the whole week making nets out of wire - I hope you think all that effort wasn't wasted. Then, I had a phone call from my sister in law who suggested I make some more bracelets in the Chinese Whispers mode - out came the polymer clay and these rolled off the table a few hours later..... Sisters go to TeaI played with the face cane, made a week ago and under instruction from Alice Stroppel, I manipulated the cane so I got three different faces from the same cane - I wouldn't say these ladies are beauties - not by a long chalk, but their faces have character ( is that one way of saying they look like old boots!) and they look like they are related to one another - so, 'Sisters go to Tea' was the title of this little offering - since I still have some face cane left, there may be a 'Sisters...' series forthcoming. I think the bracelet is whimsical and fun, and my sense of humour ensures that I will wear it - what do you think? - do you think it's a fun bracelet or do you prefer you jewellery to be more ornate and conventional/sedate?? I think there's a place for both kinds. For some reason, I was a busy little bee and felt like making a few more pieces - every time I took a break from the wire netting, I made a necklace! MirageKyanite and opalite in different shapes and sizes carry the last of my leaf skeletons. Dyed red and blue jade teardrops were added to the leaf with a wire flourish. I love kyanite, which resembles shards of blue cracked ice, with a shimmer deep inside the stone. The molecules are arranged in sheets or layers, which give the stone it's distinctive shimmer - to me it resembles a mirage. MajorelleThe main colour in the Majorelle gardens in Marrakesh is a cobalt blue, which is vivid and cheerful. At the entrance however, as if the architect wanted to ease you into the brightness, is a restful pond in a very different shade of blue. I named this necklace after the gardens, the blue chalcedony in it is such a restful colour. The yellow agate and creamy jasper provide a calm counterpoint. I know these colours are very summery - but the very drabness of winter makes me want to create in Technicolour - and these days people follow the sun for holidays, so there's no such thing as a seasonally inappropriate colour. Rose GardenA song from my youth - Rose Garden! I made some roses for the Caprilicious birthday giveaway a couple of weeks ago - and I made these two fairly robust, so that they could be used in a necklace - much like the wedding garlands worn by the main protagonists in Indian weddings. Along with an Afghani pendant, the necklace looked pretty festive - I test drove it one evening, to rave reviews! I love that I made almost all the elements myself - in fact all the elements except the pendant and the crystal beads and clasp.
This weekend, I will bring out the tree, and put up all my decorations, get all my presents wrapped up and ready to go, and work at the day job - HELP! At least I've posted off my Christmas cards, so there's one thing crossed off the list. Have a good weekend, and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place xx 'When a woman puts on a heel, she has a different posture, a different attitude. She really stands up and has a consciousness of her body.' I was raised to be a mouse, shy and quiet, dressed in simple clothes that helped me to merge with the crowd - that was the way good little Indian girls were brought up when I was a child - very Victorian - unfortunately, my personality wouldn't be repressed and the mismatch when "I" escaped was sometimes very odd. Eventually, I said to myself, to hell with being quiet and nondescript - I shall be me - and then, it was like a weight dropped off my shoulders - I was free! The habit of being shy and quiet though, has been ingrained into me, and rears its ugly head when I am in a roomful of people I don't know - that is when I need my piece of statement jewellery to give me a boost with a soupçon of extra confidence, and help me regain my equilibrium. When I make a piece of jewellery for the Caprilicious Woman, this is what I aim for - the wearer walks tall, knowing she wears a distinctive piece of jewellery, marking her as a feisty, interesting woman, who cares about herself, has ideals and dreams and is capable of taking her destiny in her hands and running with it - she is the 'Caprilicious Woman'. Just as your Louboutins give you that 'attitude', a piece of Caprilicious jewellery should help you stand out from the crowd, be noticed and most importantly, feel good about yourself. Mike and I watch Some Like it Hot, with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon at least once a year - it is a standby favourite for rainy Sunday afternoons, along with Singing in the Rain, and Top Hat. Isn't Marilyn cute?? Apparently she was four months pregnant when she shot this scene - I couldn't tell - clearly, she has some really good foundation garments on here. I was looking to use these Moroccan Berber tarnished silver metal beads I recently acquired - they are large but light, as they are hollow. Teamed with a couple of hot pink agate beads, and rough cut black tourmaline, I used fuchsia pink pearls as spacers - I had to call this necklace after my favourite film. Some Like it Hot I used both my little point and shoot camera and my brand new Nikon to take these pictures - I can see why I am going to enjoy the Nikon once I understand it better - just now it feels like I am driving a car for the first time, coordinating all it's functions seems like an impossible task. Sruthi Singh, a design blogger who calls herself the East Coast Desi, featured our house and garden on her blog - she was curious about how the design ethic in the decor of the place I live in matched up to the jewellery I make. You can read her article here - the photographs were taken by a friend, and the piece was written by Sruthi. Don't forget to leave a comment on her blog - she will be really chuffed to hear from you. I took delivery of these exciting and colourful pendants from the Afghanistan/ Turkmenistan area and decided to make some colourful beads to go with them. Armed with a tutorial from a Russian polymer clay artist, Ms Kopilka and my extruder, I set out to put some really bright colours together and see what happened. The extruder reminds me of an implement from my mothers kitchen, used to make deep fried savoury snacks. I have never made these snacks myself, my excuse being that I don't deep fry anything ( although this hasn't stopped me eating them!) I find it really ironic that I, the most un-domestic goddess, am now using kitchen implements in my avocation that I would never have dreamed of using to cook with! This is how the beads from this technique came out - pretty colourful, eh? I still have loads of the cane I made in the picture above and more beads to come from it later on. I also made some Kumihimo braid using Chinese satin thread and nubbly sari ribbon fabric .......... Turkish Delight The first of these beauties went onto the Kumihimo braided cord, which I then festooned to my heart's content with coins made of shell and pewter - very pretty, with a tinkle and a rustle reminiscent of belly dancers in Istanbul. As the story goes, people threw coins at the feet of Ottoman street dancers, and having nowhere else to store them to protect against theft, the dancers sewed the coins into their belts and scarves. After a while, it became an issue of prestige - the belly dancer with the most coins was obviously the best one, so they began to wear their coins attached to their clothing, visible for all to see, as a sort of clanking, rustling, curriculum vitae cum bank account. They add rhythm and colour to the costumes and the dance, and I certainly think they suit this necklace down to the ground - what do you think ?? It would have been a boring necklace without them, in my opinion.
That's all I had time for this week, folks, stay well and have fun, and I'll catch you soon, same time, same place xx I love the imagery conjured up by Walter de la Mare in his poem 'Silver', and I made this necklace in tribute.The pale blue quartz beads have gentle facets which make them reflective, as if touched by moonlight. An aspen leaf skeleton that was wide enough to fit easily in the palm of my hand seemed like it needed a bit of elongation and movement to balance the piece, so I added a dangle of little silver electroplated glass beads and blue chalcedony, killing two birds. The bead caps were made when trying out an idea a while ago, and seemed to set the blue agate bead off, this in turn giving the necklace a pop of colour. I think Mr de la Mare would have approved, don't you?? Here's the rest of the poem, in case you don't remember it. Moving swiftly on, I swung from lunar to solar imagery - my muse certainly keeps my brain ticking over! Reliquary from the SunSolar quartz is a natural agatized quartz cut from stalactites. The centers and the edges of these stones are translucent and there are dendritic or tree like inclusions at the very centre of the stone. For believers in crystal healing, solar quartz is probably the most versatile multipurpose healing stone, quartz amplifies energy and healing, draws and sends energy, and stimulates natural crystals in the body’s tissues and fluids to resonate at new healing frequency. I just think it is so pretty - I cannot resist it, whether it heals or not. When I hold and look at solar quartz it immediately draws my eyes towards the center of the stone, like diving into a beautiful pool of water - it is almost hypnotic. Non-traditional elements are gaining in popularity and I embrace the use of wild & rough-cut gemstones in my designs. These little silver amulets came from India. Amulets are meant to preserve magical contents in the form of sacred texts written on a leaf, or paper. They are usually worn close to the skin and hidden away from the eyes of onlookers who might decrease their powers. The Romans definition of an amulet was a bit broader; they did not have to wear the object for it to be considered an amulet. A bat carried around a house three times and hung up side down in a window was considered an amulet. The gallbladder of a male black dog was used to protect the home from magic. This, then, is the necklace I made with four little amulets or reliquaries, and the solar quartz pendant. Zorohayda Many years ago, I read the story of the Alhambra by Washington Irving - this book was written by this American author who lived in the palace of the Alhambra while he wrote about it in a semi historical, semi fantasy manner. I was really keen to see the palace that inspired those fabulous stories, and on a holiday to Malaga, managed to travel to Granada on a day trip. The Alhambra was described as a 'pearl set in emeralds' and its grounds are filled with the most beautiful plants. It looks fairly forbidding, as the exterior is very plain sandstone, but once inside, it is lavishly decorated with swirling Arabic script and arabesques, fountains, courtyards, lace like carved windows, column arcades, pools - it is easy to sense the aura of romance that emanates from it. Zayda, Zoraida and Zorohayda were the three daughters of king Mohamed IV, also known as 'Mohamed the Left handed' according to Washington Irving. The king kept them imprisoned in the Tower of the Princesses to guard their virtue, but the two older sisters escaped with a couple of Spanish cavaliers. Zorohayda, however, was too timid to leave, and spent the rest of her life in the Alhambra, and then became the resident ghost, singing sweetly and playing a silvery lute, until she managed to get a young maiden to sprinkle her with water from one of the fountains. She bequeathed the maiden her silvery lute. As the story goes, over the years, the lute was melted down for it's silver content, but its strings were used in Paganini's fiddle - from which of course, sprang the most beautiful music, once again. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/i/irving/washington/i72a/ This web edition of Washington Irving's book 'The Alhambra' is published by eBooks@Adelaide. The pendant in this necklace reminded me of the lace work in the windows of the Alhambra palace, and teamed with green jade and brushed silver tone beads, this necklace is redolent with the romance of that beautiful palace. I'm sure the romantics amongst you will appreciate this little tale, and the necklace that goes with it - the story is well worth reading, and the Alhambra, and Granada are most definitely worthy of a bucket list.
I hope you have enjoyed my little flights of fancy - that's it for this week, have a good one, and I will catch you later, same time, same place xx You know the old saying "..... are like buses, you wait forever, and then three show up at once" - well, in my case, the '.....' at the beginning of this aphorism was old friends. I met people whom I hadn't met for over twenty, and in one case, thirty years last week, and it was really fabulous to see them again. Friends from the USA were visiting the UK, doing a bit of sightseeing with their children, and had arranged to meet up with us along the way. Of course this meant that my fingers were flying all week, making little gifts for them, and I didn't make anything else for Caprilicious the whole week. One of my friends had her hubby and two daughters in tow, and I made little pendants for the three ladies. I was meant to meet them at another friends place, although this didn't work out quite the way we intended, one more was made for the hostess. Two days later, another friend came to stay with me overnight - she interrupted a schedule of sightseeing with her son, and took a train all the way from London to Warwickshire to visit with us, and we had a great deal of fun, catching up till 3 am, chatting about all the things that had happened to us in the past years. Since we hadn't met since she moved to USA in 1974, there was a lot to talk about! I wanted her to have something to remember me by - just in case we didn't meet again for another age - but the world has shrunk since we were kids and chances are it wont be so long before we meet up again. She received a little pendant as well, and I sent one more to her sister in the US of A who was meant to be with us, but couldn't make it. Mike enjoyed their visit with us too - a Cohiba each and Courvosier to wash the taste down contributed to a conversation with my friend's son till 4 am, setting the world to rights. All these were inspired by the wire weaving of Nicole Hanna, and I have been trying to make my pendants smaller and smaller - almost in competition with myself to see how tiny I can get the weave down to. I am all pendanted out, and my fingers are sore from wire twisting and weaving - next week will have to be a nice simple couple of necklaces (except, I don't know quite know how to do simple, and now people have come to expect a few flourishes from Caprilicious - sweet and simple doesn't cut it!). It was a nice feeling to be able to give them something that I have made myself - these people already have at least one of everything else and it is difficult to buy gifts for them. I took delivery of some really pretty silver pendants I ordered a while ago, and will spend the next couple of weeks making little necklaces with them, to nurse my sore fingertips back to the rude health they normally enjoy. Take a look at them - they are really pretty. I have fallen in love with gemstones that have hidden depths - fire opals, hawkeye,
and solar quartz - their beauty is visible when they are moved in the light - a little secret between them and their wearer, my inner child is well pleased by this. You can see that I have collected plenty of shinies - storing them away like a magpie - but of course, I am well brought up and have this compulsion to share - that means you can have some too - they will be on these pages one by one, when I get around to parting with them, I promise, sooner, rather than later. Have a fabulous week won't you, and I'll catch you all next week, same time, same place xx 'Clasp my love around your neck, The windows in our house and light playing on the carpet Wear my heart on your finger. My soul will be your pendant: I live to adorn you - You're the precious one'. ~ Grey Livingston, Genuine Adoration. I found this poem quoted by various people on one of my random browsing sessions - but cannot for the life of me find out who Grey Livingston is - even Google doesn't know! If you are a reader of poetry and know, please drop me a line. Will the real Grey Livingston stand up and take a bow, please. Well hello, readers, how have you been? It has been a good week here in sunny Warwickshire, at work, in the garden and making some fun pieces of jewellery. Stained glass has long been a favourite in our house, and we have had a couple of window panes replaced with a Frank Lloyd Wright design. Mike and I often watch the colours from the window inch across the floor on sunshiny days. I have been trying out a new technique, and am having so much fun, I don't want to stop. I once bought a pair of earrings from a little boutique in Stratford on Avon, and always wanted to learn how to make them - and now I have. It is liquid resin painted onto a metal frame, and a bit fiddly, but with fabulous results. The transparent resin lets the light through like stained glass, but of course, the pieces are very light, and suitable for earrings. I think they might just be a bit too fragile for heavier wear in necklaces etc. There is also an opaque resin, which is meant to give a porcelain effect. Have a look at the earrings made using wire shaped into dragonflies, butterflies and flowers - they are so very pretty . These flowers are more robust than 'the real thing' and have allowed me to manipulate the wire underneath into various shapes after the resin was applied and dried. However, they are made with a thin film of resin suspended over a wire frame, and will need to be treated with a degree of delicacy. They are so pretty, I hope people will find it worth their while to look after them. Sea Breeze This piece is made from a dendritic opal pendant and aquamarine nuggets offset by baroque pearls, blue agate, and silver crystals. The prosaic explanation for a sea breeze is that the warm air overland rises in the daytime, and is replaced by the cooler air from over the sea - well, what a killjoy explanation that is! When I imagine a sea breeze, it is something light and frothy, bringing the scent of the sea, and a taste of salt to the lips, fluttering white clothes, and flying hair, walking hand in hand on a beach, with perhaps a little dog running on ahead - am I a romantic at heart?? or have too many romantic movies addled my brain - you might think so; I couldn't possibly comment. I grew up loving books like Summer of '42 by Herman Raucher, and perhaps this has coloured my rose tinted spectacles a deeper shade of pink! Dendritic opal is not really an opal, as it has no shimmer to it. The manganese oxide which is the black part of the stone is an excellent balance to the white. The stone is popular because of the black and white contrasting colours that go with many outfits and other gemstones, and the patterns are amazing and strikingly realistic. 'Dendritic' refers to the tree or fern like patterns in the stone. This pendant is set in sterling silver, with pale blue aquamarines, and I loved the contrast between the milky white opaque 'opal' and the transparent aquamarines that look like droplets of water. Thank you very much, thank you very very very very much.... This necklace was bought as a birthday gift for her friend by one of my customers - both she and her friend were pleased with the service they received from Caprilicious - its nice to get thank you notes, and for both the customer and her friend to 'love love love' it. Chardonnay I love free form nuggets - all the little shapes and sizes mean that somebody hasn't tried to tame the wildness of nature. Druzy and geodes appeal to me similarly - I don't believe that everything must be cut and trimmed into shape by human hands, which is what we tend to do to give us that feeling of superiority - we ought to be able to revel in natural beauty. These amethyst nuggets reminded me of little grapes, so I hung a bunch of green Czech teardrops in front of the leaf skeleton, and named it after my favourite wine. Maya This beautiful pendant deserved a beautiful necklace to go with it - three strands of blue gold stone beads were press ganged into action - coral and turquoise accents tied them in with the blues and reds in the pendant. Blue gold stone looks black at first sight, but in the light, it is actually a dark navy, with little glints of gold deep inside. The gold glints are from copper particles in the stone, and are very pretty. The word Maya comes from Sanskrit and means magic, illusion or deception, a veil draped over the eyes of the beholder so that they are unable to perceive the truth. The gold stone beads certainly deceived me - I bought them thinking they were black! but on reflection, I like the deep blue just as well, or even better - and the flash of gold is fabulous - here's one time an illusion has served me well! For readers in the UAE, pieces of jewellery from Caprilicious are being sold online and in store by Farhat Khan of Ehtnic Couture - contact her here https://www.facebook.com/writetofarhat to find her in Abu Dhabi.
That's it for this week folks, catch you next week, same time, same place. UK readers will definitely have a fabulous weekend - according to the weatherman, the summer is finally here - probably for all of four days. Enjoy, and I will catch up with you later xx Welcome, readers, to the Caprilicious Blog. Wandering around the garden centre last weekend, I fell in love with the most beautiful statue of Kwan Yin. We have a small garden, and didn't quite know where I would put her - but she simply had to be brought home. I have never felt so strongly drawn to an inanimate object, and with a few surprised glances in my direction, Mike dutifully trotted off to order the statue and pay for her delivery. The serenity of her face is almost infectious - and of course, we could all do with some of that - serenity, not an infection! Last week, I made some squiggle earrings - they were tacked on at the end of the blog. They were very difficult to make, and of course, it is always a nightmare to get free form earrings to be equal and opposite and mirror one another exactly. However, the degree of difficulty was a challenge, and it seemed to work out - more or less - they are light and pretty, but don't accurately reflect the amount of work that has gone into them, or the degree of difficulty. Perhaps, that's as it should be! My friend BN tried on a pendant I had made earlier - Bluebells - and said it was a bit big for her at 2" in diameter. She wondered if I could make a smaller one - once again a challenge, as most of my pieces are on the larger side. Both of them are here for you to compare - Bluebells, and Baby Bluebells. I do so enjoy rising to a challenge, and with both pendants patinated and the patina preserved with micro crystalline wax, I cannot decide which one is best - can you?? At this point, I should have given up wire work, and gone on to something less onerous on the hands, but instead, ploughed on with a Ssssssserpent! With four lengths of copper wire, each about 2 feet long, the serpent slowly but surely wound its way around my neck, with frequent stops to rest my fingers. It took over ten hours to wrap and shape this necklace, and finish it to my satisfaction. When presented to a Wire Workers group on Facebook, the notifications on my page went wild for a couple of days - they understood the work that had gone into it, and were gratifyingly enthusiastic.
NaginaThe legend of Nagina, remembered from my childhood was that snakes partner for life, and if one of a pair is killed, the image of the 'murderer' stays on the retina of the dead snake, which only another snake can see. The female of the species being deadlier than the male, and all that, Nagina would hunt out the murderer of her spouse, and from then on, his days were numbered. Perhaps the male snake just goes off and finds another spouse and does not bother with all this exhausting avenging of the beloveds death jazz ( or am I being sexist here??). This legend was made into a Bollywood movie in the late eighties, with Nagina transmogrifying into a beautiful woman ( of course!) who sang and danced and swayed like a snake, every time a flute like instrument was played, with many costume changes, including pale grey contact lenses when in snake/woman form, and writhed orgiastically, morphing back and forth from snake to woman in order to wreak her revenge. The song is on You tube - she came over all peculiar and unnecessary as soon as she heard this instrument and looked like she was about to do herself a mischief! If you want to see it, you will have to find it on You Tube - I refuse to have it on the blog - type the word Nagina into a You Tube search, and voila! I foreswore wire for a while after this, my hands and wrist hurt so much, Mike had to massage them to get the circulation going again. One of Gerry's friends at the jewellery party gave me a box of beads from a necklace she had loved, but had sadly broken - some of the beads were missing, and she asked me to replace them with coral and turquoise, and make her a symmetrical necklace, about 18" long. Symmetry is not my strong point, but hey, the customer is always right! So, here goes..... These pictures were sent out to her and I was gratified to find a message in my inbox saying she loved them. The Wings of LoveThese earrings were sitting forlornly in a box, waiting patiently for a new home. Their chance to shine came the other day when one of my old friends walked in with her son, looking for a gift for the son's teacher. Gratifyingly, the young lad fell in love with so many of my pieces - he is about 11 years old, and he oohed and aahed over the pieces I was showing his mother - he was the best salesman I could have hoped for - he got his mom to buy a couple of items for herself, and just flipped out over the colours on these wings. I showed them the remaining wings in my stash, and pictures of the stuff made earlier, and his mother ordered a pendant to go with these earrings - all I can say is, K can you come work for me?? and what a lucky teacher! For those who haven't seen them before, these are the wings of an Indonesian beetle - the wings are collected after it dies, and made into jewellery - they are not coloured or varnished - this is nature in all her beauty - no wonder they are called 'Jewel Beetles'. The beautiful iridescence of the beetle wings will endure and remain splendid for many decades - examples survive from India that are over one hundred years old, including use as decoration in Victorian tea - cosies. This week has just flown by and the weekend is here again - I am down to work at the day job on Saturday, and hopefully it isn't raining on Sunday as we have plans to go to the Upton on Severn Jazz Festival. That's all I have time for this week, have a great weekend, catch you same time, same place
xx Hello folks, it's nice to chat to you again. If you have been following the Caprilicious blog, you know that I had all but put my life on hold, preparing for my very first jewellery party at my friend Gerry's house in the north of England. Well, it's done and dusted, and in my opinion, went off very well. Gerry had invited about twenty five of her friends, about half of whom turned up, as is always the way. She put out a veritable feast - with savoury snacks and cakes, and had let me have the run of her dining room to display my jewellery. I spent an hour setting it all out, and then ... we were off and away with the first ring of the doorbell. I had some wonderful feedback, everyone was wowed by the colourful stuff in the room, and they all left clutching their Caprilicious boxes with a couple of pieces of jewellery at least, in each box. I earwigged one conversation where a lady was likening the necklace she was holding to something her friend had bought by Bulgari! Bulgari, of course, have been making and selling jewellery out of Italy since 1844 and would have been quite offended by the comparison, but I certainly wasn't! When I got back home, I hung a sold sign on the pieces that had gone at the party, and took them off the website. This was the response I got to the 'faux Bulgari' piece from a passer by on Facebook - and what a nice, kind, generous person she must be! Oh well, you can't please everybody - but, I just had to respond in kind - and then barred the person from my page - the last thing I need is a dialogue, bandying insults with a person of this mean a spirit. Necklacism One lady came along 'just to have a look' because she didn't wear necklaces - only bracelets and earrings - but then got completely carried away, trying on everything, and left with four necklaces! So I even had a convert to 'necklacism'. I wore 'Wake up, Titania' so people could see that it wasn't impossible to wear and carry off a fairly substantial necklace. All in all, it was a very interesting experience, made easier with the help of my friend BN, who came along to help me set things out, make sandwiches, hold mirrors up for people, straighten up the display, and generally be extremely helpful - thank you BN. It took me a few days to recover, and I left my jewellery making materials be for a while. Unpacking and setting up for the working week, and cajoling the cat into talking to us again took all my concentration. When I had fully recovered, I sat down with five feet of copper wire, and a few beads, and got down to some serious wire weaving - in all, this pendant took about twenty feet of wire in two thicknesses. I saw this picture on http://www.superbwallpapers.com/ while I was idly browsing, and it really caught my imagination - this pendant is called Colliding Planets, after the picture. Colliding PlanetsThe Queen of Hearts PendantI've had these Swarovski 'Cosmic' squares in my collection for a while now - the magpie in me wanted (needed!) to hoard them for a while. I used a few, and then was content to look at the rest, and get them to sparkle in the light when moved. They are 'cosmic' squares inasmuch the edges are rounded - like a square that's been slightly squished in a child's drawing. The shine of these crystals is magnificent, and I just knew that I would need to find the perfect project for them. They are swamped by the usual Caprilicious statement piece, so I decided that a small piece would have to be the showcase for these beautiful 'Bermuda Blue Cosmic Squares'. The pendant was made from a Nicole Hanna tutorial. One of my customers asked me to send her friend a birthday gift, and include a note saying it was from her. I had thought about this at Christmas and used this idea to good effect - how many times have you had a florist send someone flowers over the phone, or the internet - you never know whether the bouquet you sent was like the picture on the website, or if ordered over the phone to a price, whether it was any good at all - perhaps it was made up of buttercups and dandelions and your friend was too embarrassed to tell you! I sent a little birthday card with the gift, and a message that the gift was 'from ......, via Caprilicious Jewellery.' If only I had copperplate handwriting - alas, years of writing as a doctor, and now typing at the computer have taken their toll on my writing - it has gone all wild and woolly, a bit like the person holding the pen. This squiggle pendant started its life as one of a pair, from a tutorial for earrings, but I ran out of wire and ended the weave any which way I could - this meant I couldn't make one to match, as I couldn't replicate the mistakes I had made! It sat in my stash until I could figure out a way to use it. BN liked it so much, I gave it to her, and she sent me this picture - she hung it on a wire bail and added impression jasper to make a necklace. Isn't it amazing how the same focal can excite such different responses from two people. I only wish I had taken a picture of the piece as it was for the blog - I was going to turn it into a focal for a bracelet, but this is delicate and pretty, and somehow the delicacy of the jasper, suits the piece to perfection. This was what I was trying to make! I sat down last night with a reel of wire and made this all the way through the movie Water for Elephants. It was a very sweet love story, and easy to follow, so I was able to multi task my way through it. We get films from LoveFilms each week and most of my jewellery making is done with a DVD playing in the background - the more complex the story line, the less weaving I do, but this movie was just right for this highly complex design - you cannot imagine how difficult it is to make a matching pair of free form woven earrings until you try - a lot of cursing under the breath occurs. That's all I have for you this week folks, thanks for dropping by. Don't forget to hit the 'follow this blog' button, and have a good weekend. I am working this weekend, and hope it will be quiet enough to play with the kiln, or some polymer clay, even. Catch you next week, same time, same place, xx Good morning, and how nice it is to have you stop by. How are you today? We have had a mixed bag, weather wise, in Britain (what a cliché - a blog from the UK mentioning the weather in almost the first sentence!), and our collective moods have been up and down with the vagaries of the elusive summer sunshine. I spent the week preparing frantically for the jewellery party at my friend's place at the weekend - cleaning and polishing stuff I tried to chose carefully to match the demographics of the people who are likely to be there. I am determined to put on a decent show - both for Caprilicious, and for my friend, who has bigged me up and invited all her friends - Gerri and I have known each other for ages, having been at school together. These good folk will be driving for up to an hour to get there and will be expecting a decent show for their effort. I will tell you all about it next week, when I have recovered my equilibrium. Just now, I am wandering around the house muttering and shaking my head, looking for stuff the house appears to have eaten - a bit like Gollum and his 'Preciousssssssssssssssss'. These stones landed on my doorstep earlier this week, bought from a vendor in India - 342 carats of carved cabochons in Labradorite and rose quartz, 73 carats of prehnite teardrops, and best of all, 233 carats of a labradorite slab. You might well wonder why I would want to buy a large flat grey stone - enlarge the picture, and you will see a fine tracery of blue, that resembles lightening bolts running through the stone. This is what happened when I tilted the stone so it got some light shining on it from the living room window - the flash of Schiller is unmistakeable. When I tilted it further towards the light, the flash was so brilliant, I almost needed my sun glasses to look into it directly. I have put these stones away, deep in my stash, and will bring them out periodically to look at, and stroke, until one of them speaks up and demands to be used. The large slab will remain with me, until I can be certain it will go to a good home, it is so beautiful, it deserves preferential treatment. Beads Unlimited are a bead company in Brighton. I occasionally submit designs to their website, for their readers gallery, and Jo Porter went along to the Caprilicious website to take a look at my other designs - she loved them so much, she offered to feature me on her Bead Barmy Blog - and here's a screen capture of what she wrote. To read it for yourself, here's the link - http://www.beadbarmy.com/2013/06/hobby-to-business-caprilicious-jewellery/ Thank you Jo, and Beads Unlimited, for your kind words and your little gift of beads and wire. Flutterby from last week was a hit, and sold even before the blog was released on Friday. I had one more cloisonne butterfly and I decided that it too, should be allowed free - and so Flutterby (2) was born. I used amethyst, fluorite and emerald nuggets, so that the two of them wouldn't be identical. Flutterby (2) With my foot still poorly, I gave it a fighting chance by resting it as much as possible - this meant that I could not work with polymer clay, as this meant treks back and forth from the oven to my work room. So I played with my kiln and fired some silver clay, and for the first time, bronze clay as well. Silver is now so expensive, I had to make sure I got it right- here are the pieces I made..... Metal clay is made from powdered metal mixed with water and a substance called "methyl cellulose" to create a clay-like dough. Metal clay handles similar to traditional modeling clays, and when dried is transformed into a solid, metallic object through a firing process. During firing, the methyl cellulose binder is burned away and the metal particles "sinter" into a solid form. The montage below shows some of the story. I managed to make quite a few pieces, and only one of them broke in the heat of the kiln, probably because the imprint of the design was a bit too deep - Oh well, I can live with that. The whole thing was fired for an hour in an oxygen depleted environment, buried in carbon particles in a lidded stainless steel container and left to cool in the kiln overnight. And then, I held my breath as I opened up the container and scrabbled around in the charcoal for the pieces of bronze that I had buried the day before - would they be OK, or would they be rubbish???? It's amazing what a bit of soapy water in the tumbler can do - the stainless steel shot works its way into every crevice and shines and hardens the metal - I love my little tumbler, it makes the metal so pretty - I forgot to put a couple of pieces in the tumbler, and you can see the difference straight away. I couldn't wait to add some pretty gemstones and turn them into danglers. Daffodils Daffodils lining the road to Coombe Abbey ............Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. Wordsworth One cannot imagine an English Country Garden without daffodils - I found this beautiful set of brass stampings on a site in the USA and bought a few of them - this is the second one I have used, with a woven copper frame and loads of Czech glass. I meant to put a beaded necklace on it, but in the end decided to give it a more modern look with a leather thong. A blue chalcedony tear drop finished the piece off with elegance. That's it for this week, thank you for stopping by. Must go and pack the car now and see how many things I can forget! Catch you next week, same time, same place with the story
xx p.s. for those of you who read the Caprilicious blog each week, to the side of the title is a logo that reads 'Follow my blog with Bloglovin' - this will ensure that it lands in your inbox without fail, so you don't need to be connected to Facebook to get it. Alternatively, below this is the Network Blogs link - this will do the same - you can take you pick see you soon xx Hello, I hope all of you reading this are having a good summer - in the UK, we are about six weeks behind the rest of Europe, hopefully we will be paid back in October when it lasts six weeks longer than it does on the Continent - but, somehow, I don't think so, do you?? I made a necklace with graduated coral heishi beads and a single fog quartz focal - I loved the idea of a fog contained in a bead - I wish we could do that, come winter. A load of people liked it - and thank you to those that did. However, one lady put a comment under the picture 'Gaudy!', she spat! I chose to think she got the spelling wrong and actually meant 'Gaudi'! People are the strangest creatures - if they don't like something, they seem to have a compulsion to make sure the designer knows it - I wonder why? They could vote with their feet, or fingers in this case, and just click over to something that suits them better. One lady saw fit to comment that my little flight of fancy about a pendant I had made was 'pure BS' and that I should 'cut it out' - a lesson in good manners was in order, I think. At the end of the day, all designs are born from somebody's flight of fancy - I just verbalize mine, is all! Anyway, let me show you some pictures of Parc Guell in Barcelona, designed by Gaudi - I say vibrant, some say gaudy...................... Rouge I think she meant Gaudi - don't you??? If not, I invite her to use her finger.......... Petite Fleur
Ammonite Ammonites are cephalopods that lived 240 - 60 million years ago, and are now extinct. They are related to the cuttlefish and octopus, and are thought to have lived in shallow water, as the predator of the day. Many specimens found in Madagascar and Alberta display iridescence. These iridescent ammonites are often of gem quality (ammolite) when polished - ammolite is very, very expensive. I just love the little critters, and buy them whenever I can - I do not understand my fascination with them, as I usually look for highly coloured objects. I decided to make some up as earrings in polymer clay, using a faux Raku pottery technique - this involves the use of real gold and silver foil, alcohol inks and layers of transparent clay - so I played, and these are what I made....... The little elongated shapes were from left-over veneer, and I shall make earrings out of them. I made so many ammonites, that I offered them up for a swap on a jewellery makers swap shop on Facebook, and got a string of coral in return for four beads - a win, win result! The last little critter was turned into a pendant with a bit of wire work to one side, and a wire embellished leather thong - very now, I think. Charis Charis is a Greek word for grace - and specifically relates to the three Charities - goddesses of beauty and were Aphrodite's attendants. When Aphrodite rose from a cushion of foam in the sea and reached the island of Cythera, where the Graces were, they dressed her in jewels, placed her in a chariot, and led her to Olympus, where Aphrodite became one of the Olympians. They were Aglaia (Beauty or Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer), the daughters of Zeus and the nymph Eurynome. Considered the embodiment of grace and beauty, they brought joy to gods and men and inspired artists. This story inspired artists like Botticelli and Rubens, and I thought this necklace could easily be worn by one of the Graces in the painting below - it is simple, and elegant. I have been busy producing little earrings and pendants - a friend of mine up in Cheshire has offered to invite her friends round to a jewellery party for Caprilicious - my very first! I am anxious that I must get the mix right, and have something for everyone - I don't want anyone to go away disappointed, since some of them will be driving a fair distance to see what I have on offer. These lovely ceramic flowers and donuts are in pretty summer colours, and I hung them on suede cord that can be tied around the neck - the donuts have contrasting suede tassels and lamp work beads, and look like Chinese lanterns. Miles and miles of wire has been wrapped this week, and my hands are quite tired and sore. If you want to have a closer look at the pieces I have made specifically for the party, here's the link :- https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.512787555442719.1073741880.171880539533424&&l=fc852cbf61
I am at work at the day job all weekend, and hopefully it will remain quiet enough for me to make a few little bits and bobs - I want to make some butterflies and dragonflies in wire - I just love them and they are so right for summer. Catch you next week, same time, same place - have a lovely week in the meanwhile xx |
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