This week, I hoped to write to you from downtown Bangkok. A few Thai massages, a spot of retail therapy, a bit of sight seeing was going to get me into good shape for the onslaught of what is coming at me next week. But, c'est la vie, the good people of Bangkok decided to have a riot instead, and we had to cancel our plans at the last moment - perhaps they knew we were coming! Since I wrote last, the jewellery exhibition machinery has lurched forward into top gear with a great deal of crashing and groaning - but now, everything is good to go - all I have to do is set up shop on the Monday and open my doors on Tuesday, and hopefully get a halfway decent response. People have been dropping by saying they aren't around on the day, and could they have a look - and have gone away holding a few bits and pieces, which has cheered me up no end - I just need a few folks to walk through the doors, and I am hopeful of a successful event. If any of you know people in Bangalore, please pass on the invitation to my exhibition. The Grow Your Blog PartyVicki Boster writes a blog called 2 Bags Full - all about her 'adventures in travel, knitting, and the blessings of my everyday life'. She hosts a blog party where those who write a blog register, go a visiting each others blogs, and perhaps follow the ones they find interesting - I thought Caprilicious ought to go to the party. And since this is a bit like spreading the word using jungle drums, I signed up for a giveaway - a piece of jewellery entitled Jungle Drums seemed most apt. As I am away from home, I wrote this part of the post a while ago, well before the date so that I would be sure that Caprilicious did not miss out - she shall go to the ball!
Next week, I shall be on my way back home - once again torn in two, no different from others who come from the Indian diaspora - in love with India and all things Indian, but home is where the hearth is and wherever you wander there's no place like home - enough of the cliches and puns - I go now to borrow a couple of mannequins from some friends who own a jewellery shop and to put some final touches to the arrangements for Tuesday. Wish me and Caprilicious luck, readers, and keep everything crossed for a successful event - I will be sure to get some pictures and tell you all about it. See you next week, same place, same time (ish! - jet lag permitting). xx
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Hello, readers, here we are in downtown Pune, or Poona, as it was originally known. I thought I'd give you a quick update on the preparations for the forthcoming exhibition. I already had so much planned for the three weeks while I visited with my family, that adding a jewellery exhibition to my frenzied schedule seems like an act of masochism. The first hurdle was to pack all my jewellery as best I could, and then hope that it all made it to the other side in one piece. It took me a while to muster up the courage to open my cases, but by and large, everything was intact - thanks to the guy who invented bubble wrap, no doubt. I had picked out a venue, sight unseen, but when I got to it, didn't think that Caprilicious would fit the ambience of the place which was heavily laden with Indian antique furniture. A quest for another venue took us to Raintree, an old Raj style bungalow, renovated beautifully with dedicated exhibition space. Once we settled on that, the machinery was cranked up to a dull roar - posters, invitations, packaging, phone calls, mailing lists - OMG! my feet haven't touched the ground. This colonial style 75 year old "bungalow" with its beautiful garden and shop space was a dream-location for a show. The owner is ever so obliging, and bent over backwards to help in any way she could. Neelam Modi, my advertising whiz kid friend remade my invitation for me, and the cards have now been posted out. I have had a restful couple of days with my sister, and will go back to Banglore, refreshed, to sort out yet more of the minutiae - before I have a short trip to Bangkok - the hard life of a jet setter! I don't know how they cope - I am going to need another holiday once this one is done. I did have time to pick up some delightful silver beads to bring back home with me, and will be on the look out for more. I'd best go now - to get on the flight back to Bangalore and sink my teeth into yet more preparation for Caprilicious' big day. Thanks for stopping by, and do keep everything crossed for Caprilicious, wont you?? Catch you next week, same place, same time
xx Hello readers, I hope you are now all filled full of good cheer and conviviality, have made (and broken) your New Year's resolutions and are ready to get the old noses back to the grindstone. As a reward for working through Christmas, I have taken almost all of January off to visit with my mother - well, in a way, that's hard work too, but then, someone's got to do it! Storm clouds are raging on both sides of the Atlantic - much worse in the USA than here in Britain,and I won't be sorry to go into a bit of sunshine and get away from the greyness of it all. I think one can tell by the pieces that came off the work table this week, that I am in pre holiday mode. I picked a playful lampwork glass bead and encircled it with woven wire - the result, when I had finished embellishing it reminded me of the Cirque du Soleil - a trapeze act! - I'm not sure I was aiming for that effect when I started out - but the bead is so colourful and fun, I should have known it straight away - perhaps even when I bought the bead at the Newmarket bead fair. The Cirque du Soleil is a contemporary artistic spectacular circus, conceived in Montreal. The music, costumes and atmosphere are fantastical, and the best part, for me, is the absence of animals. The Big Top is almost out of a child's dream, well heated and comfortable - and the whole experience resembles an evening at the theatre. Once I had this fun and fantastical piece ready, I couldn't decide whether I should just call it a day and put it on a ribbon as a pendant, but in the end, decided to go all the way (is there any other??) and make an exuberant necklace to go with it. I made some large hollow beads in polymer clay and covered them in circus bright colours and stripes. The tutorial was from Orly Fuchs Galen, and pretty easy to follow. Here they are in the making..... Once they'd been buffed to a high shine, it was time to put them into this fantastical necklace which until then, existed as a tiny speck in the deepest darkest recesses of my mind - and, exuberant it is! More fun than a barrel of monkeys! I think it is fabulous as a daytime necklace with jeans and a jacket, but will be equally nice in the neckline of a simple neutral coloured dress. The Balinese DancerMike bought me a few tutorials for Christmas - he knows I love my wire work, but this one looked so complicated, I almost didn't know where to start, or even whether I should! One dark cold evening, I decided to get on with it - and my instincts weren't wrong - though the tutorial was easy to follow, the bracelet was hard work - it took well over three evenings to make, and my fingers were sore, my knuckles grazed and bleeding (Ok, no more self pity!) - but, I think you will agree that the bracelet is stunning. The tutorial came from Indonesia, and I called the piece the Balinese dancer. I must have overplayed the whingeing 'oh me, oh my poor hands' bit, because someone on Facebook asked me if the wooden hands I used as a display aid were my own, after I had made the bracelet! In actual fact, after the last couple of wire pieces I made, my hands do look as rough as a bear's bottom. They need some pampering - a manicure is definitely in order, and I am going to exactly the right place for one! There, Iv'e gone and done it now - a week before I was planning to travel, my friend from school, OT, said I ought to have an exhibition - one that I had been planning previously, fell through for unforeseeable reasons, and I had resigned myself to a quiet holiday - however, OT sent me a list of venues, and was so positive about it, I went online, found a venue and set the ball rolling. My friend Neelam Modi of Look in The Bag used to be the Art Director of an advertising agency, and she made this one up for me, off the top of her head - isn't she clever?? - I'd shop with Caprilicious Jewellery if this dropped through my postbox!!
Anyway readers, keep everything crossed for me - I have packed a lot of my jewellery, and will of course share my experiences and photographs with you - I have to get to India, with all my jewellery intact first! The next time you hear from me, I shall be in a warm place, typing away on my android. That's all for this week folks, catch you next week with an update, same time, same place xx Happy New Year to you, and I wish you all the very best for 2014. Our New Years celebration was tinged with sadness, as we lost Harold, our furry friend to old age - he was eighteen, and lived a very happy and long life - so, here's to you Harold, we will miss you. We invited a few folks round for a late Christmas meal - I am happy to report that our house Djinn is still at it - one of the dinner forks - just one, out of a canteen of eight has vanished, perhaps never to be seen again. The house Djinn is very good at this sort of thing, and I have come to realise that there is no use stressing about it - the fork will either turn up - or it wont! Circlet of Stars For my first piece of 2014, I decided to make a wire necklace - very ambitiously, I wove together three pieces of wire, each one three feet long, with fine wire, and then wound the finished article around another thicker piece of wire, shaped into a torque - does this sound like torture?? - my fingers certainly thought so, and were groaning in agony by the time I had finished. And just when they thought it was over, I set them weaving yet another strand of wire into the whole thing. Once the piece was done, I set it aside overnight, to lull my fingers into a false sense of security. Imagine the groans when I picked up the piece again the next evening, and set to winding more wire and crystals onto the necklace - I thought my fingers were going to call in the Unions and go on strike. Placated by the promise of a pampering session once the necklace was done, they made short work of the task at hand, and here is the result ..... Circlet of Stars - named for the little crystals and fire polished beads that twinkle like stars. Love on the Rocks I came across this picture recently - a depiction of the uncontrollable fury of nature with the waves crashing onto the rocks. I'm not sure that most people would think of a piece of jewellery on looking at it - but silvery quartz needles jumped into my mind - I wanted to try and recreate a scene like this in a piece of jewellery. That's all I had time for this week folks, stay warm and have a great week, catch you next week, same time, same place
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