Hello folks, how are you? I haven't been able to keep up with my regular weekly blog posts for a while now, and I apologise for that. I've taken on extra responsibilities at the day job and am working harder than ever before - however, making jewellery brings me so much peace and joy that I try to do as much as I can, when I can. I've also begun to make more complex pieces, the making and engineering of which can be quite tricky and requires meticulous planning. I don't want to end up just stringing beads together - while that is instantly satisfying, I love a challenge - making my own beads, bead embroidery, and creating something totally different is the Caprilicious way and I intend to stick to it. When I string beads together, I want the focal piece to be something that came from my imagination, not someone elses design. This isn't always possible, of course, and I get lazy too - but I do try, I do! Over the last couple of weeks, I've been making a hand woven sunflower - the petals are made from little Czech seed beads that surround a dark crystal centre, there are little green sepals at the back and the whole piece was finished and ready at the back end of last week. All of this week was spent watching tutorials on how to make leaves - I finally found one that suited my requirements and made a pair of Russian leaves in a stitch called diagonal peyote - learning and perfecting a new technique gives me so much joy, but equally takes a lot of time, with much muttering and swearing - all the minor irritations of the day fade away in comparison to a little leaf that just doesn't want to sit right because of a stupid error I made with the number of beads, and I have to undo the whole thing and start again. Sweet Sunflower SmileI attached the sunflower to a five strand choker with tiny invisible stitches, close to the neck, just slightly off centre, and the leaves were attached to the next strand under the sunflower, so that when worn, the whole thing looks like it was made together. This one has been a lot of hard work, lots of new learning, and lots of fun. I hope it brings a smile to the wearer too! That's me for this week, folks. I'm going to spend the rest of the day cutting up the mangled remains of the 'failed leaves' I made and salvage the beads - those emerald green hex cut beads are so pretty, I wouldn't want to lose any more of them - some of them have already disappeared into the no-man's land that is the settee, and even more into the forever hell that is the floor, only to resurface when hubby decides to walk barefoot to bring up something from the kitchen! I will give it a rest for another week, I think - I have plenty to do at the day job, what with the junior doctor's strike looming tomorrow.
Take care, and I'll be back shortly, Until then xx
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Hello everyone, it's nice to catch up with you again. The high(low)light of this week was my cat, Wilfred bumping into a tray of seed beads, and they rolled everywhere. I had beads all over the floor and decided that come what may, I was going to pick up every last one. Oh, if I didn't love him so much, he would have been dead meat! The air around me was blue as I swore and muttered under my breath. Fortunately it was just the one colour and size - I didn't have to sit and sort them out into separate piles. Poor Wilf realised that he'd done wrong and went and hid inside a cardboard box that had arrived with jewellery boxes in it and had to be tempted out with morsels of food by hubby. The rest of the week was occupied by putting those very same beads to use and I made a sunflower out of them. This is the first time I've made an entire flower using herringbone stitch and it was a bit of a daunting task. However, at the end of seven days, I've made a credible flower - whether it looks like a sunflower or not! For some reason, the beads in this tube were two distinct shades of yellow. Perhaps I bought a mixed lot, I can't remember how that came about. I separated them as I sewed and tried to make the petals with the paler shade at the tip and the brighter colour at the back. I hoped the second colour would be all but invisible, but I'm sure if you look carefully at the flower, the two colours will become immediately apparent. The next task is to teach myself how to make Russian leaves so I can give this flower here some company on the necklace I intend to make. It looks quite a difficult task, so if I fail, the 'sunflower' is on its own with no apologies from me - at least I tried. I'm off to watch that video now, so wish me luck. That's me for now, have a wonderful week and keep warm, whatever you do. It sounds like it is going to be really cold in the UK.
Catch you next week, hopefully with a finished piece of jewellery with the flower, plus/minus a leaf or two! Until then, xx Hello my friends, how are you? It's been a lovely day and the sun is still shining at seven o'clock in the evening as I type this in readiness to put out first thing tomorrow as I go in to work. I'm working all weekend, and hoping for a quiet one so that I will be fresh and ready for the week to come. The garden is beginning to wake up and the Canterbury bells in the rockery are flowering - they come back year on year and last for ages, so they are a good investment in any garden. I started the piece I'm about to show you in December of last year. It has taken me ages to get it to a stage where it is wearable - part of the reason was that I ran out of beads and had to send away for more and then I had to decide how to finish it off and send out again for the grosgrain ribbon which makes a beautiful contrast to the haematite beads. The other reason was that sewing shiny black beads with a tiny needle and a fine black thread takes a lot out of the eyes. Added to that, I only had the time to make jewellery at night when already tired from the day job. I only managed to weave about an inch at a time before the eye strain told on me. However, I think it was entirely worth it - the facets on the haematite beads shimmer and gleam in the light and the necklace has a pleasing weight. I have left the ends of the ribbon loose, so that it can be worn at any length chosen, but I'm happy to set up a clasp if that's what is required. AnastasiaThe beads are woven together using a rot proof, fray proof, monofilament nylon thread using a technique called the Cellini Peyote stitch, and I've ended the ribbon with a fray proof paint so that it doesn't fall apart. I think I'm very happy with this one. Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra. Along with her parents and young siblings, Anastasia was captured and executed during the Bolshevik Revolution. She is well-known for the mystery that surrounded her death for decades. In the years following the execution of the Romanov family, conspiracy theories began to emerge. Beginning in 1920, numerous women came forward and claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia. There is something Russian , dark and mysterious about this necklace, which is why I named it after the doomed Grand Duchess. That's all I have time for this week, folks. have a wonderful weekend and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello all, hope everyone is well and happy. I certainly feel the joys of spring with the sun shining and the air warming up. If only we could lose the slightly chill wind that is coming down from the North, we'd be laughing. I've been spending time on an old unfinished project- I was making this beautiful beaded woven necklace using faceted haematite. I ran sort of a couple of strings of beads and sent out for more. Now the necklace is almost finished. It has a pleasing weight due to the gemstone beads and I think I'm going to finish it off by running a grosgrain ribbon through the centre and a large bow at the back. Have a look at some pictures of the piece as I've gone along. I've also beaded around a few cabochons - I will use them in an ensemble piece when I've finished my haematite spiral necklace. I like to have something on the go at all times when I'm in front of the telly of an evening catching up on a film on Netflix. This necklace was designed by a Caprilicious lady who liked a pendant I sourced, but had her own ideas about how it should be worn. I have one on the Caprilicious books, on a very different necklace - they are both delightful, perhaps you will make your own mind up which one you like - have a look at both of them. And here's the one I put together for her this week. I've been busy this week, haven't I? I shall take a well earned rest this Bank Holiday weekend - apart from Sunday when I'm due to work at the day job.
Have a fabulous Bank holiday my friends, and I'll catch up with you next week, same time, same place. Until then xx Hello my friends, I hope you are all well and safe. Everywhere you turn, it's Omicron, Omicron, Omicron, and I for one am totally fed up to the back teeth. Having dodged the bullet for this long, I'm hoping that my care and attention to detail is going to help me and my loved ones dodge this one. However, the media coverage of the pandemic has begun to shriek again so relentlessly, that it isn't possible to be totally calm, all of the time. In the meantime, paranoia prevails. Retail therapy is called for, methinks! I shall certainly be doing some, this weekend. Sand Dollar NecklaceWhile waiting for the new Covid scare to subside, I've been doing what gives me the best relaxation, making jewellery. This week I finished off a bead woven collar I made using a pattern called the Cellini spiral. This is a much more colourful piece than I showed you in last week's blog and it is made of a multitude of seed beads in various sizes. I made up the necklace, which is both colourful and textural, and happened to be fishing through a box of what I call 'stuff' for want of a better word, and these sand dollar coins leapt out at me, asking to be used, so I thought I'd oblige. FleurFleur is a design I've made in the past - these are little pebbles of gemstone with freshwater potato pearls and crystals between them. There are nuggets of aquamarine, aventurine, citrine and jade in ten luxurious strands all held together by a floral mother of pearl clasp which can be worn to one side. How are you faring? What are you doing to keep your spirits alive? Whatever it is, I wish you success with mental peace and of course, dodging the virus. I have a bit of a challenge coming this weekend which I will tell you about next week, stay tuned for that. In the meantime, have a good week and I'll catch you again next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello people, how's tricks? I'm panicking a bit as I am totally unprepared for Christmas and I haven't a single gift wrapped or card written. Cards are an outdated institution, in my opinion - they get thrown away after a couple of weeks, making it a colossal waste of paper at the time when everyone is talking about climate change. There you are, I feel better already, I've successfully talked myself out of writing any cards again, this year. I shall put some money away and give it to charity later on in 2022. A win win situation. GranadaThe pomegranate is visible all over the city, of Granada in Spain, replicated in wood, metal, stone and fabric. This is no surprise as Granada in Spanish means pomegranate. The Catholic Monarchs took the fruit as a symbol of their final victory over the Moors of Al-Andalous and it remains part of the Spanish flag even today. In Greek Mythology, this ancient symbol carries the weight of life and re-birth. Its origins hark back to Iran and Afghanistan and it remains as the symbol of Armenia signifying fertility, abundance and marriage. It is mentioned in Holy Scriptures on several occasions. Some think that even the “Forbidden Fruit” of the creation story might have been a pomegranate. I finally received the little clasp I was waiting for and could finish off the necklace I made for my beautiful pomegranate pendant. It is set with garnets and an amethyst and the back is as pretty as the front. The necklace has been woven with shiny garnet coloured Japanese Miyuki seed beads with a spiral stripe of silver seed beads on one side of the necklace and gold on the other to match the dual tone metal elements. Once I had it finished with it's dainty clasp, edged with tiny micro pave set diamante I realised that it was long enough to slip over my head, but the little clasp just finished it off perfectly. When I first saw the pendant it reminded me of a pocket watch - which in turn always reminds me of The White Rabbit in Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Once that image was in my head I couldn't get rid of it - hence the long wait for the perfect clasp. My oldest friend who lives in Boston picked up this necklace from Caprilicious and wore it as soon as it got to her - I posted the picture she sent me on Instagram and got a request for another soon after. I thought it would be a while to source the beads, but I had some in my stash. I shall now go and wrap my presents - I have junior doctors and secretaries to thank for working so hard all year long. Have a good week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello everyone, and how are you today? It's been the mildest November, ever, and I'm just hoping that the rest of the year remains as wonderful. Thank you everyone who picked up pieces of jewellery during the birthday sale - they have all gone out and should be with you in the next couple of days. I spent some time making earrings last week - as well as the beginnings of another necklace which I will have to hold on to for another time as it isn't quite finished yet. I'm on the Earrings Show again in December and feel the need to put together a few new pieces for the ladies who browse the show. We went for a little drive last week and fetched up in a quaint little courtyard outside an outfitters for bikers called The Idle Torque - there was a little cafe, and an organic butcher, a vegetable shop, a blacksmith and a schoolhouse. We sat in the courtyard on a crisp autumn morning and had a cup of tea from the cafe, when a little cat joined us - he was so friendly, I was quite envious. We've ended up with a very standoffish cat at home who only comes to us when he wants to and when his tummy tells him that it's running on empty. What we would have loved was a friendly lap cat that draped itself over us like a mink stole, but alas! it was not to be. There were some fierce looking hombres standing around in leathers, ponytails, piercings, hobnailed boots, and strange hairstyles and beards - they looked a bit intimidating to say the least, and I thought we ought to leave, but when Mike said hello they ambled over with gap toothed grins and waggly beards, and were friendly enough. I followed my first beading pattern this week - the first time I've ever followed any sort of pattern. I fell in love with a picture on Pinterest and it led me to DragonflyDesigns UK on Etsy. The colours in the earrings were so attractive I bought the pattern - after all how hard could it be? Well, I started the earrings and cut them up a few times, and then the whole lot skulked in a corner waiting for me, until I decided not to be such a coward and allow a beading pattern to win. The earrings are called Tequila Sunrise and are actually quite complicated to make for a beginner, but with perseverance, they turned out to be very pretty. Tequila SunriseThe Real Tequila Sunrise!
A Tequila Sunset has the same ingredients as the original Tequila Sunrise, but with a splash of soda water mixed with grenadine to give the drink a red hue at the top instead of the bottom. Here's the Caprilicious version for you. Tequila SunsetI also made a pair of South Western style earrings using turquoise and a lavish fringe with Czech dagger beads - they are light and ever so pretty, and the movement - OMG! I am blown away! They are lined with leather and they are worthy of any cowgirl princess. 37 days to go to Christmas - have you ordered your turkey yet? What about your presents? Don't forget that Caprilicious is happy to wrap your gifts and send them out to your friends - all you have to do is mention it on PayPal and it will be sorted out for you. That's me for now, folks. Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello people, how are you today? I've been so busy this week with one thing and another that I haven't had a moment to catch my breath. And it hasn't ended yet - I'm working all weekend and am sitting in front of a computer at work, trying to catch up with you during a lull in the proceedings - hopefully not the one at the eye of a storm, but a harbinger of the rest of the next couple of days. I've had time to make a little pendant during the evenings - I made it to go with a necklace that I have - the plan was to make a beaded bail and thread it onto the necklace. Unfortunately I made a boo-boo and the bail is too narrow to fit the end caps of the necklace - however, if I had made the bail any taller, it would have been disproportionately large and unbalanced. C'est la vie and the best laid plans, etc, etc. So now I was left with a pendant and no necklace to hang it from. What a pain in the proverbial! I decided that I was going to make a necklace myself - I've always wanted to try this stitch, and I decided that now was as good a time as any to take the plunge. Like most people, I have to push myself to leave my comfort zone and it takes circumstances to click into place for me to decide that I should get on with it. However, I didn't have the time to finish the whole necklace, so have to show you pictures of half finished work, taken with my iphone.
Last weekend, I was rummaging through my stash of beads and found a string of 'Desert Rose' beads that I had picked up a little while ago. At the time, I just needed to have them in my stash because they are so pretty and so different from anything I have ever seen. I've been wracking my brains since I bought them for a way to make something with them and I decided I would mix them up with something dark, and super shiny. Whatever I used would also have to be light, as these beads are pretty heavy. I couldn't come to a decision at the time, and the beads went into my bead box. As I couldn't find anything in my stash to match the description of what I detailed earlier, I decided to make them myself. I looked to a tutorial by Debbie Crothers, an Australian polymer clay artist and designer, who specialises in surface techniques to embellish polymer clay. She makes some really interesting 'grungy' artefacts and I love her style. The beads were made with Ultra Light polymer clay, and then coated with liquid clay and foils, with a final cure using a wallpaper stripper type heat gun. That's me for this week, folks, have a good week, and I'll catch you next Friday, all being well, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello, good people, how's tricks today? Once again, it's lovely to touch base with you and I hope over the years that I've earned the compliment you pay me when you come back to look at the Caprilicious Blog. This week we are going to have a short post as I have been working on stuff, but it is as yet unfinished. An enquiry came in about 'Woodland Fantasy', from a young lady who said she'd been eyeing it up for a while but in the end couldn't bring herself to make the final gesture of purchasing it because she had a dislike of lizards. Lizards, by far get a really bad press - I myself am not particularly a fan, but they have an incredibly sinuous shape and are beautiful to create with - the ones in this necklace, I thought were pretty cute. Unfortunately I couldn't just whip them off the piece, which would have been an instant win win situation for both of us - I'm not able to add or subtract elements once the necklace is given its backing, so I did the next best thing - I agreed to take on a commissioned piece, sans lizards. The lady said she was into saving bees - so I sent away for a couple of pretty cloisonné bees and started the piece off with a labradorite cabochon I brought back from Jaipur. This piece of Labradorite is particularly beautiful - I've shown you three pictures taken from three different angles and the flash of blue is clearly visible when the light shines on the cabochon - it looks like sheet lightening to me. Labradorite can display an iridescent optical effect (or schiller) known as labradorescence. Thanks to the parallel formation of mineral inter-growths within the structure of the stone, light bounces back-and-forth, which creates its distinctive shimmery, ethereal effect. Not only is this visual appearance extremely attractive, but it also represents the energy of the Labradorite crystal healing properties. By guiding you toward the light and out of the darkness, Labradorite is meant to open your eyes to the magic and possibilities that surround you. Labradorite was first found in Labrador, Canada. According to native Canadian lore, Labradorite is said to contain the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis. It is believed that the lights were “set free” by one of their ancestors who broke through the rocks with his spear. According to the legend, the lights that remained were set into stone, and thus Labradorite was born. Deposits have also been found in Madagascar, China and the USA, Finland, Russia and the Ukraine. Herpetophobia is a fear of reptiles - lizards and snakes. I'm not a fan of creepy crawlies myself, and I totally understand this. When I trained to be a clinical hypnotherapist, we were taught to cure arachnophobia or a fear of spiders with NLP - to get the person to imagine they held a spider in the palm of their hands and the spider was wearing red lipstick and false eyelashes and fluttering it's eyes and smiling at the person whose hand it was sitting on. A more disgusting image I cannot imagine! I would've told the instructor straight away that that thought wouldn't have cured me at all and he'd need to tailor a different strategy for me, if I was a sufferer. I've heard of kissing frogs to find your prince, but this might just be taking it a bit too far. I also found myself some Zen time by making a pair of stud earrings - I dangled a silvery grey baroque pearl from the lower edge of each stud. Simple, but effective, I think. That's me for this week, folks. At close of play on Friday I have a week off to play with beads or whatever else I fancy. Google tells me that at this time last year I was in India, having myself a fabulous old time. It saddens me that I cannot be with my mother who, at 93 cannot last forever - I know that that particular clock is ticking, but there's not much I can do about it. We make do with video calls at the weekend, but obviously, it's not the same.
Have a wonderful week, friends, and I'll catch you next Friday, same tie, same place. Until then, xx Hello, how are you doing, good people? I am happy to be back here again, and of course, it goes without saying that it's lovely to see you too. Fourteen days to Christmas - where has 2020 gone? My regular annual trip to India has been put on hold unfortunately, although hopefully the vaccine will make some inroad into this situation. I find myself in that awful place where there are loads of ideas bouncing around in my head, but as yet, there is nothing concrete. My muse has gone into a sulk and I've been left stranded, but my hands still want to play at the end of every working day, they have got used to it. Oh well, I thought, I shall amuse myself by practicing my beadwork, perhaps learning new things, maybe even learn how to read a beading pattern. Following a pattern is my particular bugbear - I've never been able to do this even when I played with knitting as a teenager, and beading patterns seem much more complicated. Recently, I had a friend visit me with a bag full of unfinished projects and she was emphatic that it was all so easy - her work is beautiful, although unfinished. I don't believe in leaving anything unfinished, it would drive me crazy, and I worry that the complexity of working to a pattern will make me produce unfinished projects of my own. I decided that I would try to make three-dimensional geometric shapes. Let me show you some of my efforts - I spent a couple of evenings making these fugly objects, and I cut them up as I went along, as there's no use wasting beads in rubbish that even the bin would shudder at. I made up a necklace for one of my customers - she bought a pair of earrings a while ago and requested a matching necklace to be made to her design. It took ages to get the necklace made - my suppliers sent me the wrong connectors and we went back and forth trying to get them to understand what was wrong. and then the post took ages to bring the second lot to me. But it is finally made and is winging its way to her as I write. That's me for this week, folks. Before I go, with Christmas upon us I’m offering you some help with your presents - if you haven’t seen the pop up yet, you can pick up a gift certificate with a 25% discount for a friend- just message me on jewellerybycaprilicious@gmail.com with your friends’ name and email id and I can send out a gift certificate for them to use for the full amount in your name - with lockdown and the inability to travel and poor delivery services we’re experiencing, I think this will make a great gift and with 25% off, you’ll be able to afford that much more as well.
Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next weekend, same time, same place. I hope Ms. Muse is back from her travels, wherever she is. Until then xx |
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