Hello readers, nice to see you here again. Ive had the strangest weekend - I was all ready and prepared for a fair which was postponed at the last minute. It was just as well it was cancelled, I cannot imagine that there would have been too many people out and about in such awful weather. But it was weird to be faced with an empty weekend, where I had no plans and nothing to do. One of my regular customers saw Clarice and asked if I would make her another piece, this time with a bracelet to match and I decided to use the 'empty weekend' to make these pieces. I didn't have too many of the leaves I used in the original 'Clarice' but I did have a couple in my stash that were a close colour match. I made the larger leaves last year and the two resulting pieces I made with them couldn't have been more different from each other. Clarice (2)I made a few smaller leaves for the cuff bracelet and covered the with resin I mixed for another project. I love the sheen resin gives to a piece of polymer, but one has to be careful, as it is a very tetchy medium - one little mistake and it will refuse to set, or get air bubbles and misbehave to the extent that it seems simpler to throw away the piece and to start afresh. Also, patience is not my strong suit and I have a tendency to test whether the piece is dry by putting fingerprints all over wet resin (I also drove my parents mad in the car on long journeys). The new owner just received her jewellery as I write this, and here is the lovely message she sent me Hi Neena, it arrived today, gorgeous as always!! Its so nice to have the set, bracelet fits perfectly and is beautifully made. Thanks so much, again ! x When I send a piece of jewellery out, I worry - firstly that it gets to the recipient, and second that she likes it - it is lovely to hear that all is well, and I can relax. Here's the original Clarice - just so you can compare the two. I think they are both lovely in their own way. AfterglowI had never really noticed the afterglow, growing up in India - twilight is but short, the closer you get to the equator, and as it occurred early on in the evening when I was usually busy getting home or studying, or engaged in another such mundane activity it never entered my consciousness. In fact it was when I met Mike and he pointed it out to me, that I began to appreciate the colours of the sky after the sun sets below the horizon. The clay beads in this necklace reminded me of the orange of the sky, they are touched here and there with a silvery grey, and shimmer with a pale pearlescence. I added lapis beads and a couple of ceramic triangular beads to make this pretty daytime necklace that will go with a lot of summer gear, and can be worn well into the autumn. MariposaThe butterfly in this piece is made using a technique called polymer clay embroidery and was inspired by a polymer clay and wire butterfly made by Daniela D'Uva of Alkhymeia. Made in bright primary colours, it reminds me of Hungarian Magyar embroidery. A strange technique which requires the precise placement of tiny pieces of polymer clay on an uncured, soft base, it is not really my cup of tea (once again the patience factor is my downfall), but once I'd got used to it, I had a lot of fun embellishing the pieces that went into the butterfly. And finally, as if that wasn't enough wirework for one week, I made these two pairs of earrings from a design by Lisa Barth. The labradorite is hand carved with butterflies on the front of the stone - I think someone with short hair, or hair that is put up to allow light to play on these earrings to bring out the beautiful flashes of labradorescence would love these and of course, turquoise and copper are a beautiful combination that would look good on anyone. That's as much as I had time for this week folks. The weekend promises to be sunny and we have plans to go to the Upton on Severn Jazz Festival on Saturday. The garden is looking good and we made our annual pilgrimage to the garden centre to open our wallets and allow them to take our cash with impunity - if we didn't make this trip each year, the garden spirits would frown on us and bare patches would grow and spread in the garden rather than flowers and greenery, and that wouldn't do at all - Oh no, it wouldn't. The cats were most unimpressed - they quite like the bare patches in the flower beds, where they can sit and wait to ambush unwary mice and frogs that happen by. Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
0 Comments
Hello readers, thanks for joining me. Reading the title of the post today, you must wonder who died and made me the Emily Post of the whimsical world, but bear with me and all will be revealed. It is of course the fault of my crazy muse, as for some reason she turned Caprilicious towards whimsy this week. Dragonflies, butterflies, ladybirds, flowers, leaves and romantic vines crept into my work. I think it was all because Ms Muse and I happened upon Anna Brandford and her delightful books for children. I was an imaginative child and an avid reader as I was growing up - I would have loved her books. This article in particular caught my interest. And from reading this passage, the idea for a piece of jewellery grew and grew until I simply had to sit down and make it. "Because fairies are quite shy of being seen by most humans, they are very good at turning themselves into dragonflies the moment we look at them. This is a very clever trick of theirs but there is a good way of checking whether what you are seeing is a real dragonfly or an actual fairy-in-disguise. If you catch me squinting at dragonflies this summer, that is what I'm doing - just following Anna Brandford's advice. One rainy afternoon, Mike and I sat down with a load of Jack Lemmon movies and some wire and this is what came out on the other side! If you, or your children have an interest in fairies and want to know what to do if you should meet one, I refer you to The Fairy Flute, Rose Fyleman's excellent treatise on the matter. It was written in 1921 and tells you all you need to know on the subject. Here's an excerpt from The Fairy Flute telling you exactly what to do should you meet a fairy.
The week has been crazy busy at work, and I had started to get things together for the fair. I was most disappointed when it was cancelled at short notice - I may or may not have secured a table at a replacement date some time in July - I will know more next week.
It's not surprising then, that The Dragonfly Fairy was my magnum opus for the week. I have the weekend unexpectedly free to do with as I wish, perhaps inspiration will strike me as I do a bit of gardening, if the weather is any good. Have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same place, same time xx Hello readers, thanks for coming back to join me. This week, I have been fighting off the jet lag and making bits and bobs to take to the fair next weekend. While I was doing this, I put together a couple of necklaces and as I wove the repetitive weave that went into the torque necklace I shall show you a bit later, I went into a mild trance like state where I thought about the reasons why a girl absolutely needs her statement jewellery.
Imagine waking up to Fiesta of a morning - I know the statement jewellery virgins out there are having a collective shudder, as they read this. 'OMG, OMG - who on earth would dare to wear that,' you're thinking. Go on, admit it. But, as your ague becomes more pronounced, remember that you wouldn't be reading this blog if you didn't secretly envy women who can carry it off and wish you could too (or, you're one of these women who likes to spook themselves silly on horror movies, one eye shut with the other one fixed on the telly - well, all you have to do is switch channels - now!). I made this necklace using beads from a load of old canes - they were very labour intensive as I extruded tubes from scrap clay and covered them with a colourful veneer. I then cut them up into manageable lengths and added bead caps in contrasting colours. I made a small bowlful of beads and got two necklaces out of them. With the first one, Fiesta, I used triangular connectors that I salvaged from a vintage Banjara necklace, the second one had simple rectangular connectors and it was named Fiesta Too. These necklaces are wearable all year round. They are long and will add colour to the drabness of winter, and are bright enough to celebrate the beauty of summer with. A crisp white shirt or a Tee, Fiesta, a touch of lippie and a spray of perfume - who's going to know that you woke up only ten minutes ago and threw yourself into the car? You might even get away with the bedroom eyes and windswept hair, but a word of caution, don't forget to brush your teeth, that's a dead give-away, and damned bad form. But here's the next point...
FlorisI made this piece to keep my hands busy as I got over the jet lag. I wove one flower at a time - one a day, until I was compos mentis enough to weave the torque necklace and attach them to it. Gratifyingly, it was picked up within hours of posting it on my Facebook page and is on it's way to it's new owner as I type. So, to get back to the eleventeen reasons to wear statement jewellery :-
Signature jewellery gives you an identity as a 'cool' dresser and the confidence boost is instantaneous. We all have days when we feel less than 100% - a piece of jewellery added to your ensemble will give you the necessary Oomph to carry off almost anything - let the mice around you beware! Look at the picture - both of them are cute, but which one would you want to be when you went to an interview, or a meeting, or lunch with the 'Mwah Mwah' sisterhood? Your choice, but I'd get that jewellery on, quick smart (and I'd wear lippie too, just for belt and braces certainty)! There you are, I've given you eleventeen reasons why you should be a convert, if you aren't already. I haven't photographed the earrings and stuff I made for the fair - I will post them on the website once the event is all done and dusted. That's it for this week folks. I'll leave you with a picture of my cat Charlie - he allowed me to take a full frontal head shot of him, but once I'd clicked it, he squeaked and shot off in a minor panic - it's only later I realised I must have looked like Darth Vader to him, behind the telescopic lens of the camera, breathing heavily while I attempted to get the controls right to capture his image. Poor Charlie! Isn't he cute, though? Catch you next week, same time, same place, have a lovely week
xx Hello folks, thanks for joining me today. I've just got back from the US of A early this morning after a hectic week, visiting with friends and attending a wedding. We used the wedding of the daughter of a class fellow from medical school as an excuse to have a mini reunion and around ten of us got together with as many partners as would brave the occasion. I took the opportunity to visit with an old friend who lives in Boston and take a look around the area. An Indian wedding is a crazy affair, full of colour and chaos, bright silks, and intricate jewellery. The wedding happens in a large hall under a covered structure with pillars, and the main protagonists, their parents and the priest concern themselves with the business at hand. Rites and rituals, the chanting of Vedic mantras and the marriage ceremony happens while the rest of the people at the wedding carry on regardless, chatting, preening, taking pictures and meeting up with friends. Children run around playing tag, mothers sit back and relax, in the knowledge that the kids are otherwise engaged, food and drink is served all day and general mayhem ensues. The coming together of two people in marriage is equally matched in importance by the unifying of the two families involved – and Indian families are rather big and everyone wants to be involved. The poor photographer at this wedding was an American chap who simply had no understanding of what he had taken on when he agreed to photograph an Indian wedding. He kept being run over by tides of humanity - I heard him muttering under his breath 'Oh dear, oh dear' he said, 'what confusion', over and over, like a personal mantra. I couldn't help feeling sorry for him, his plight compounded by the fact that we all fancied ourselves as photographers and there were hundreds of flashes going off and people darting in front of him to get a good click while he was trying to get a decent picture of a moving target. Here I have a few pictures for you - this is what Indian women wear to weddings. Baubles on Christmas trees would have a hard job to win a contest with us! A couple of days were spent exploring Boston, Harvard common and taking a look at Harvard Medical School where my friend is now on the faculty. I had a photograph taken on the steps - which is as far as I will ever get to Harvard Medical School. As my friend is a faculty member, she persuaded the security bloke to allow me to walk around inside for a short while, but he was so uncomfortable, I decided to put him out of his misery and left soon after - Oh well, one can but try! ClariceI made this necklace before I went on holiday but didn't have the time to post it. It is made of polymer clay leaves and flowers from canes I made in brilliant blues and greens on a wire frame, decorated with crystal butterflies. I decided to name the necklace after Clarice Cliff, the much-celebrated artist who painted for Wedgwood in the early 1900's. Her ceramic pieces are brightly coloured, one of a kind, and fetch a pretty penny when sold at auction today. I love the colours she used in her pottery - this necklace is dedicated to her in the fond hope that Caprilicious will one day follow in her footsteps. The necklace is open at the front and so fully adjustable. Before I go, I have to show you the latest addition to my garden - I saw it standing outside a florist one weekend when I went in to work and had to have it - after all my favourite bird is the peacock. Thanks for joining me - I shall sign off now, have a fabulous week and I shall be back here next Friday, see you then
xx Hello, readers, this is a quick catch up all the way from the USA where I am gearing up to attend a Big Fat Indian Wedding. I am really looking forward to dressing up and meeting old friends. Between the last installment of the blog and my departure on Wednesday, I had time to put a few pieces of jewellery together. I feel bereft these days if I do not have beads or wire to play with as I sit in front of the TV of an evening. Perhaps Mike and I ought to get out more, but as we are so active all day it is a pleasure to allow ourselves to sit down and relax with some music or the television in the background and a spool of wire to play with. It is a great stress buster and if I have something to show for it at the end of the day, why complain?? Trade WIndsI love sea sediment jasper and found these two strands online and knew at once that I had to have them. When they arrived, I decided to take the lazy option - instead of looking for two completely different designs, I made the same design in two colourways, and named the pieces after two Trade Winds - the red one is called Scirocco, after the hot, dry desert air over Northern Africa, flowing into the southern Mediterranean basin, and the blue one is called Mistral, after the strong, cold wind that blows from southern France to the northern Mediterranean. The Garden at MidnightI am very proud of this particular necklace. I love the Bargello technique taught to us by the polymer clay artist Jana Roberts Benzon - I love it so much, that every so often I pull out the hand- out that she gave to the class and practice the technique with some left-over clay, lest I forget how to do it. Then, of course, I have to make something with the 'thing' I have produced and that's how this lovely bead came about. I made it about six months ago - that reminds me, I need to play with the hand-out again as it's been a while. This bead sat in my tray for ages, I simply couldn't think what to do with it - and then a lightbulb moment! The lapis lazuli beads arrived in the post and I could just see the blue and green with tiny peridot beads to match and the necklace created itself. A lapis and peridot combination could have been conceptualised and made by almost anyone with an eye for colour, but the addition of the bead makes it a one-of-a-kind piece, made only at Caprilicious! Old Canes Never DieI made these canes so that could make faux trade beads - the idea came out of Marie Segal's blog Art from my Heart. The beads went into a lot of necklaces with pendants from Afghanistan giving them a rustic beauty, yet keeping them light and one of a kind ( see, there's a theme to my madness, the words 'one-of-a-kind' are very important to me!!). The only problem with this is that the canes were made in September 2013 - Marie's canes all use approximately 10 ounces of clay each - AND THATS A LOT OF CANE! I have made everything I can think of with them, and I still have loads more left. I would eat my eyeballs before I threw them away or used them as scrap, though - they were the first canes I ever made and to my untrained hand, the equivalent of hell on legs, but I made them and they're my babies. A totem on Craftartedu caught my eye and I decided to make a totem pendant - using my canes and a load of colour. I shall call these my Jungle Book series. I also made a load of little beads, but will only get time to string them into a necklace once I get back from my holiday - if my idea works out, it will be a fandabidozi piece of jewellery. But, I still have loads of cane left, sigh! My totem pendants are pretty and will probably go to the craft fair in Worcester with me. They are basically long 'trade beads' as taught by Marie with a bead cap on each end. I might even give them a test drive in the USA myself - they are certainly my kind of jewellery. That's it for this week, I'm posting this a bit early as we fly out to the wedding first thing in the morning. I have been on a day tour around Boston and need to wind down before I repack my suitcase with all my wedding bling -have a lovely week, and I will catch up with you next Friday, same place, same time
xx |
Follow
|