Good day readers, I trust you are well today. I have some exciting news to tell you this week. Over the last year I've been trying to get Caprilicious into a bricks and mortar venue in the UK, rather than being exclusively available online. This has proved to be a lot more difficult than it sounds. For one thing, I do not live in London where I imagine all the action is, and secondly, I have a full time day job which precludes me from spending large amounts of time contacting people and visiting prospective outlets. Despite this, I have tried my best, phoning people nearby and emailing boutiques and galleries within easy driving distance of Warwickshire without much luck. And then one day, Mike was out and about as is his wont, and met a lady who was the manager of an art gallery in Warwick. He got talking to her and told her all about my jewellery. Although they don't usually stock jewellery at the gallery, she gave him her card (either he impressed her with his impassioned plea on behalf of Caprilicious, or she was trying to get rid of him before a casual chat turned into The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). I didn't really think anything would come of it, but left it till after Christmas to shoot her an email with a photo of one of my pieces. OMG, you could have knocked me down with a feather, she mailed back saying she loved my work! After a couple of phone calls, we drove down to Warwick with a selection of my nicest necklaces. Toni Ballard, the manager of the Mitchell Gallery is a painter herself and has had a number of successful exhibitions. She and her partner Tom Mitchell, also an artist, run the gallery with a great deal of enthusiasm. Being creatives themselves rather than simply business orientated, they understand the need to create beautiful things and the pride I take in what I produce. We arrived dragging a suitcase behind us, like a pair of gypsies selling pegs from door to door and Toni must have wondered if we were planning to move in. I had all the necklaces boxed up and that necessitated the suitcase, although I did feel a bit awkward, turning up with it in tow. She got me to open the case up in the front room of the gallery and settled herself on the floor on a kilim, rooting through the contents. Tom hovered over us, obviously uncomfortable that his front room had turned into a souk, but she was unrepentant, picking one, and then putting it back and picking another, with a great deal of excitement and pleasure. She was gratifyingly enthusiastic about the jewellery and picked ten of the best necklaces. I'm sure we will do well together, her enthusiasm has to rub off on people and I know she will do her best by Caprilicious, because she loves the jewellery I make. GrappaI had these luscious fluorite teardrops in my stash for about four years, as well as the hand carved pumpkin shaped beads. I had no idea what I was going to do with either strand until it came to me one night to combine the two with a lacy Moroccan bead. When the necklace came together, it looked like a bunch of ripening grapes and I called it Grappa after the sweet liqueur served as a dessert wine in italy. This one never made it to the website, I took it in to the gallery and Toni pounced on it almost immediately. As I was putting this edition of the blog together, I had an email from Toni. She has already put the necklaces out and sent me photographs of the display. I love her enthusiasm! That's me for this week, folks. I have a couple of days left before I fly out to India. I will of course catch up with the blog while I am there, but it might be a couple of days late.
Have a lovely week and I'll catch you sometime next weekend Until then, xx
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Hello lovely readers, how are you today?? I hope you are fighting fit this winter and keeping snug as bugs in rugs this winter. I suddenly find that my trip to India is fast approaching and I have nothing sorted out, with loads of loose ends to tie up at the day job. However, I've still found time to pursue my passion - playing with beads and baubles. This week has all been about rivers and flat beads, but the two pieces that were born are as different from each other as chalk and cheese. Both focal beads have been in my stash for a couple of years. I tend to do that - pick them up when they catch my eye and leave them lying in the drawer until I suddenly get a flash of inspiration or they call out to me with a game plan. ZambeziThe huge orange yellow focal bead has sat in my stash for almost three years and I had no clue what I was going to do with it. Inspiration struck over the weekend. I rolled out some polymer clay and cut out loads of flat beads from a sheet of clay. Cured, and strung with a couple of faux spindle whorls that I made earlier, and a few agate beads at the back of the necklace, the necklace is what Mike called 'a brave piece'. He almost didn't believe that anyone could wear it until I wore it to work on Monday morning! I think it looks just fine and it is so light for such an impactful piece that it is a pleasure to wear. Test Drive successful!! The 'brave piece' needed an equally brave name and with it's African and tribal overtones, I called it Zambezi after the mightiest river in the world. And just so people weren't anxious about how to wear this piece, I threw in some styling suggestions when I posted it on this website. As you can see, I wore it with a simple black dress. KarnaliThe Karnali is Nepals longest river, originating on the Tibetan Plateau near Lake Mansarovar. It joins the Sharada in India and they form the Ghaghra River, a major left bank tributary of the Ganges. I bought the two focal beads for an arm and a leg (well, they were relatively expensive for two small beads) from a lady who sells artisan made Nepalese beads. They are so pretty I almost didn't begrudge her the price. Sat in the drawer for a couple of years, they saw a string of turquoise heishi beads that arrived in the post and jumped up and down to get my attention. 'Me,me,me', they cried. 'Oh, ok', said I, and put them in a necklace with a few exorbitantly expensive lapis lazuli heishis that arrived in the post on the same day. I must start to get my clothes sorted and set out for the marathon packing session I have to go through next week. Have a great week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello readers, how's tricks? It has gone all chilly and cold out here in the UK with gale force winds and flurries of snow set to hit us over the weekend. As if that's not enough, I'm working again all weekend, so I'm not looking forward to the next few days. Right, before that happens, let's get this blog on the road - let's have some music to keep us company! I feel like some tango music tonight and if you watch the clip you might make the connection between the drama of the dance and that of the necklace further on in this post. Last weekend, I got down to the serious task of recreating a fantasy hibiscus - if you have followed the saga, you'll know what happened to the last one - if not, here's the sorry tale. I was depressed beyond belief after that debacle, but swore that I wouldn't let it beat me. The problem with bronze clay is that there are three stages at least with the making of a piece. The first part involves making the wet components, drying them and putting them together like pieces of a puzzle. The piece has to be handled like a snowflake and there are many opportunities for it to fall apart in your hands as the puzzle is fitted together. Then comes the first firing where the binder is burned off on a stainless steel mesh. Once fired the piece is then transferred to a pan where it is covered over with charcoal granules and fired again. Transferring the piece from the mesh to the pan is another opportunity that is fraught with danger. The last time, my hibiscus fell apart as I tried to settle it on a bed of charcoal - I must have been a bit rough with it inadvertently and one of the petals broke off. And then, the second firing - the kiln gods have to be propitiated, the blood of a freshly slaughtered calf and a virgin sacrifice is required to ensure success. The heat in the kiln is 800 degrees Centigrade, and the clay shrinks, so any micro fractures that might happen while making the piece in the wet stage become yawning chasms when the piece sinters and slumps a bit. As virgins (and calves) are in short supply around here, I sometimes end up with a piece that has a little crack, and I have to refill and refire it - it just depends on the whims of the kiln god. However once the repair is effected, the piece usually comes good. CloverWhile making the hibiscus, I made a few more petals and came up with this one. To tell you the truth ( and let's keep it between us) I was afraid to put the hibiscus in the kiln. A second debacle would tip me over into acopia and that would be the end of my adventures with metal clay. A little handmade clasp and a polymer clay and resin butterfly dangle finished it off to my satisfaction. I taught myself to set little cubic zirconia into the flowers and even had success with a square one. Eventually however, the time to go back to the hibiscus arrived only too soon. And here it is, all made up into a necklace with quartz needles electroplated with titanium. AlohaWhen Mike saw the necklace in all it's splendour, I saw him gulp! He said 'it's a brave necklace, babe'! I don't think he believes anyone would be brave enough to wear it, so I set up some styling suggestions. What do you think? How would you wear it? I have a few more bronze clay petals left and some more pendants will likely show up on these pages in the next couple of weeks. I am on a countdown to my holiday in India and am busy tying up loose ends in my day job. My show in Raintree stands cancelled unfortunately, due to the monetisation situation in India. I will of course have a small show at home for people I know who might be interested in seeing what I have on offer. I feel ever so sorry about my no-show, as I loved the hurly burly of setting up and meeting a load of people but, hey, them's the breaks, and hopefully I'll be able to do it next year. That's me for this week, folks. Have a lovely week, and catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello readers, happy 2017 to you in this my first post in January. I hope you are all ready for what promises to be a challenging year. New Year's Eve for Mike and I was a long weekend in Rome, eating lentils at the stroke of midnight to bring us good luck and loadsa money while watching the fireworks. Seeing a country through the eyes of the locals is a completely different experience from being a tourist and is so much more fun. We went to the supermarket, coffee shops and trattorias, a garden centre and wandered around the shops in EUR. We went to a few places which are off the beaten track in Rome and bombed around in a white knuckle ride with our friend driving with a manic cackle, shaking her fist, papping her horn and cheerfully swearing at the truck drivers in colourful Italian. CoppedeFifteen minutes away from the centre of Rome is the Quartiere Coppede - I'd seen pictures of it and asked if we could go there. Gino Coppede, a Florentian architect built extensively there - his motto certainly must have been 'more is more'. This area is also known as the Art Nouveau district and it begins where a massive arch connects two apartment buildings with an iron chandelier hanging from the middle of it. Other unusual ornaments on the apartment buildings were giant bees, lions' heads and standing figures perched above windows and under balconies. Fading frescoes and Latin inscriptions added to the abundant decoration in a combination of Byzantine, medieval and classical styles, with a dash of Art Deco and a flourish of the ornamental Floreale style, from the 19th-century Liberty period. Mosaic-tiled archways, intricate brickwork, turrets, towers and loggias were juxtaposed on buildings three to six stories high. Even the chimneys were decorated and embellished to within an inch of their lives and I went berserk with my camera, clicking away happily. And then on to Trastevere for a cappucino and a bite to eat. Of course we did the Centro Storica and Mike had the obligatory photograph on the Spanish Steps and by the Fontana Trevi. I went to Beny, a shoe shop I discovered during my last trip and checked out all their fabulous shoes. Shoes, glorious shoes!It would be rude not to, wouldn't it? It was soon time to pack up and come back home - Monarch lost our suitcase and I'm still waiting for news of it four days down the line! I got home and went straight to my kiln where there was a little flower I made before I left home, waiting patiently for me to dig it out of the carbon I had fired it in. I cleaned it up and as I had no bags to unpack or clothes to sort out or put away, I had the time to make a little necklace with my flower which resembled a hollyhock while I caught up with the TV programmes recorded on the TIVO box. HollyhocksAren't the vapour coated druzy beads beautiful? I made the copper clasp using a design by Nicole Hanna, and the little butterfly wing dangle from polymer clay and resin. I do love making as many of my components as possible. When I got back home, I found an email telling me that I had a tutorial published in Artisan Jewellery Times, an online digital magazine based in the USA. That was such a nice beginning to my year! 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 |
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