Hello folks, it is nice to catch up with you again. The week just gone by has been filled with frustration - two steps forward and one step back in a bizarre dance. I blame the house gremlin who has been making mischief again! It has pinched my beautiful micro gouges that I used to carve metal clay with the last time I made a bronze clay clasp. Of course I only found that out after I had started on another piece and had it all ready to carve into. I spent hours looking for the gouges, and then gave up in disgust. The tools are expensive but I had no alternative but to go out and order another set. Then, I decided to make a necklace with a set of blue agate hand carved leaves I brought back from a trip to India, only to find that I couldn't lay my hands on the very beads I wanted. I knew that I had put them carefully to one side only a few weeks ago. Hmm! At least my craft supplies got tidied away and the house cleaned as I turned it upside down looking for these two items, and was eventually rewarded by the appearance of the leaves in a package of other blue beads - I still maintain that it wasn't me who put them there! The gouges remain lost. An Attempt at AlchemyAnd then, there was the failed attempt to make bismuth crystals. In my enthusiasm to make handmade with handmade, which is the Caprilicious motto as far as I can take it, I decided to try and make bismuth crystals myself so that I could wire wrap them. Everybody on You Tube seemed to be doing it, and it seemed like such an easy process. Having watched loads of videos on the technique, I found a source for 100 gms of the raw bismuth and was most excited when the lump arrived in the post. Of course the videos are not precise and do not tell one exactly how much to buy and I had no idea how heavy the metal was or how big a chunk I was likely to get. I pinched my husband's aluminium egg poacher, put my glasses on for safety and asked him to stay home while I played with molten metal - just in case of problems.
While I turned the house over obsessively looking for my agate beads and gouges, Diwali arrived, as did Halloween. I found a couple of ceramic ghouls, which the house gremlin had hidden from me for about an year and decided to use them in a pair of Spooktacular earrings before they were misappropriated again. I also found little handmade glass chillies that I had intended to make into earrings for Diwali. The chilli peppers came from one of my intermittent internet trawls for unusual components. They reminded me of the strings of chillies and lemons that people hang in their doorways in India and I searched online for glass lemon beads which were eventually sourced on Etsy all the way from Riga, in Latvia. It turns out that the lemon/chilli string is meant to keep away Ahalakshmi who is the sister of Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of fortune and prosperity. This ugly sister unfortunately comes to the party bringing poverty and misery with her, unlike her nicer sibling, and she is most unwelcome. To keep her out of the house, before she can walk in and settle down on the couch, they serve up her favourite sour and hot food right at the door, so that she gets her fill and leaves without needing to come indoors - hmm, there's a thought! Of course the little glass chillies also look like the strings of fire crackers we used to play with as children - I'm not sure how we survived to tell the tale as Health and Safety was not something that was at the forefront of our minds. Mr Gremlin relents - Autumn BlissI found them - Oh, was I pleased! I had this necklace in my mind and when I couldn't find the leaves I simply couldn't think of anything else I wanted to make - a sort of creative constipation. My brain stubbornly clung to this one idea, even though I tried to coax it into thinking I shouldn't waste time searching for the leaves and I'd find them on another occasion, probably while I was looking for something else. I had already picked out the buttery yellow, waxy jasper needles and little frosted handmade glass beads to match and I think they look great together. Neither colour is bright, but together, they Zing! I saw some outfits that they would go perfectly with - what do you think?? I like my jewellery to contrast with, rather than match my clothes, but that's just me. That's it for this week folks. I'm glad the weekend is here and I hope that the gremlin goes to sleep for a while. I can't be doing anymore with a hunt for stuff that I know I have put away safely and cannot lay my hands on when I need them. Talking about hidden treasure, have you been one of those taking part in the Treasure Hunt? If not, do make your way to the 'Treasury of Statement Necklaces' and look for the code on one of the pages which will entitle you to a 15% discount. The Treasure Hunt is on till the 14th of November. The code is on a copy of this picture, and all you have to do is go and find it. Catch you next week, same time, same place,
Until then xx
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Hello, readers, it's nice to catch up with you again - I almost didn't make it this week, what with toothache and a root canal treatment (ouch!) and an outage of my internet all day yesterday. It was at midnight that I found the cable reconnected - Hooray! I thought I'd play a bit of music for us. There's nothing like a bit of sultry Norah Jones at midnight, although this piece of music really belongs to Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. I have decided to do a couple of craft fairs in the UK this year, the first one in Worcester in June, along with my friends from Look-In-The-Bag. I have decided that I will make a few pieces to take to the fair each week. Having never done this before, I'm not quite sure how Caprilicious will be received - will my jewellery be too difficult to sell at a craft fair? Well, there's only one way to find out, so I have decided to test the waters this year. I bought a tutorial to make faux Czech glass and antique Roman glass from Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree, and made some beads last weekend. I sent Ginger pictures of the necklaces I made up and she shared them on her Facebook page - I think she was quite pleased with the way the beads turned out. She said " Neena of Caprilicious Jewellery used my Faux Glass tutorial as a starting point for these orange beads and made them look like ancient trade beads. And the faux turquoise and lapis are made from Diva Designs, Inc.'s tutorials. What a well-conceived piece! If you like the ethnic look, you'll love Neena's work." I was now drowning in a sea of beads - so I decided to use some of them and deplete my stock. I had three Afghani pendants left in my collection - they must have come from the same necklace as they are all the same size and shape. I wanted to try and make the necklaces as different from each other as possible. Love AffairThis title comes from the run-of-the-mill Bollywood 'Boy meets Girl' movie. Boy, rich, Girl, poor or vice versa. They elope and Boy sets Girls' mind at rest (in common with all boys, this Boy too wants only one thing) by exchanging garlands at the conveniently located local temple. She promptly gets pregnant - completely ignoring the Indian government's exhortations to use contraception posted on every free wall and surface, at every turn. But she's married in the eyes of God - because she exchanged garlands with said Boy, didn't she? And then, the story goes on to tell us what happened next, to Boy, Girl and Baby. Cosmic MelaA Mela is a gathering or a fair - the largest one in India is the Kumbh Mela. It is said to be the largest peaceful gathering of people on the banks of one of four holy rivers, every three years - they estimated that a hundred million people attended it in 2013. I used Rudraksh beads, donated to the Caprilicious cause by my mother - these are worn by the sadhus who attend the Kumbh Mela and I have written about them before. Isn't the young sadhu in the picture cool?? He's gone for a less traditional way of wearing the Rudraksh beads. and is obviously aware of the camera and posing for it. Cosmic Mela is named after a swirly bead I made with some leftover offcuts of clay, some of which happened to contain specks of silver foil - it ended up looking cosmic - that's the best word I can find for it. Flower MelaCzech glass beads can be expensive- almost as expensive as gemstones. I welcomed the opportunity to replicate them in polymer clay. I used a bunch of flowery moulds I have collected over time, some of them had their first outing with this tutorial. That's it, I will make no more ethnic/ tribal jewellery for a little while. I quite enjoy making the kind of jewellery that can be worn with any sort of attire and do not necessarily wish to be pigeon-holed as an 'ethnic jewellery' maker. Preferring the internationalist's approach, I like to make stuff that is loosely applicable to everybody, indeed any sort of pigeon-hole is an anathema to me. SummertimeI fell in love with the whimsy of these millefiori glass pendants, flowers and ladybirds. Put together with dyed jade beads, I reckon these necklaces will be ideal to take to the craft fair. I continued the whimsical theme with a toggle clasp in the form of a dragon fly. Reach For the StarsI was beginning to develop withdrawal tremors from a lack of wire in my life. Just as I was really beginning to feel the pain, a couple of bismuth crystals arrived in the post. I have used them before and simply adore the beautiful colours and crystal formation. These two crystals seem to soar upwards, reaching for the stars. Bismuth said to relieve emotional and spiritual isolation, facilitating a state of oneness, connectedness and serenity. Useful when experiencing change, providing for calmness, vitality and orderliness. Bismuth facilitates the enjoyment of travel and stimulates group and relationship cohesiveness. That's it for Caprilicious this week folks, have a great week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place
xx Hello readers, how are you- I hope you've been enjoying the sunshine - we certainly have in the UK. Wirework and beads have been my friends this week - it has been difficult to tear myself away from the sunshine and go in to work, and I have spent whatever time I could spare sitting in the garden and playing with them. I saw some aerial pictures on Pinterest and I was inspired to recreate them in polymer clay, on the one rainy day we had at the weekend. Elysian Fields is a series of pendants inspired by these photographs which I then made up into necklaces. Elysian FieldsThe Elysian Fields are beautiful meadows in Greek mythology where the favored of Zeus enjoy perfect happiness and where they compose poetry, sing, dance, and tend to their chariots according to Homer - that's the best the ancients could think of when they imagined perfect happiness?!? The Parisians named the Avenue des Champs-Élysées after this mythical place ( more like Elysium, in my opinion and you can get more there than singing and mending chariots) - and anyone who has visited it will agree that it is truly one of the most beautiful avenues in the world - but you will need loads of money to find happiness there. Luxor
The turquoise blue of the scarab was offset by the grey and yellow of the wooden beads I found in India and the coral and turquoise beads I sourced from Nepal. Mayan StepsIncredibly, twice a year on the spring and autumn equinoxes, a shadow falls on the pyramid in the shape of a serpent. As the sun sets, this shadowy snake descends the steps to eventually join a stone serpent head at the base of the great staircase up the pyramid’s side.
The stepped structure of a bismuth crystal is the result of a higher growth rate around the outside edges which generates an electrical charge activating crystal growth to a higher degree than on the inside edges. It is the only element that has been successfully converted into gold by Nobel laureate Niels Seaborg of Berkeley University in California. It is diamagnetic - it repels both the North and South pole equally, and can levitate a magnet. It is the only metal that contracts on heating! But more, much more than this, it is beautiful and lends itself to wire wrapping. There aren't too many artisans making this type of jewellery - some attach a bail using glue, this is the only other way it can be suspended - it shatters like glass on drilling it. Sourcing some for Caprilicious became something of a quest/ treasure hunt - I got my crystals from a UK source for ease of delivery, and so I wouldn't have to pay exorbitant postage / customs duty, and couldn't wait to make them up into pendants. Swarovski Rivoli PendantsSwarovski makes these beautiful crystals, with a faceted top and a pointy back - they are fairly flat and are usually set in bezels that can be purchased in bead shops or handmade beaded girdles. Nicole Hanna decided to set a challenge to wire wrap these Rivolis - she issued half a tutorial and left us to finish the piece without too much addition or subtraction, even the tools were specified - all the contestants received the finished tutorial as a gift for participating. I had never set a Rivoli before, but am not averse to a challenge, so I gave it a go. The main engineering difficulty was to secure the crystal securely to the wire bezel without the use of glue, prongs or any such elements, while keeping the design interesting, of course. I made a few of these, and the last one with the tutorial, as envisaged by our host, Ms Hanna.
And that's all I had time for, folks - I hope you enjoyed your visit with Caprilicious and come back next week, same time, same place. Have a great week in the meantime
xx |
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