Hello folks, thanks for joining me once again. As always, it it lovely to have your company. I've had a couple of weeks off from work and it has been heavenly lazing around, lying abed till 11am, watching movies on Netflix into the wee small hours. I do feel guilty about not achieving anything but I've firmly squashed those thoughts - I reckon I deserve a break. After all, at this time of year I'm usually sunning myself in India, visiting with my mother and family. Both hubby and I have had our first dose of the vaccine with absolutely no problems. I went around the corner to Coventry, but when I tried to find a place for Mike, we were offered centers in Birmingham and Leicester. I had to keep logging onto the site morning and night for three days and finally got him a spot in Kenilworth which is easily accessible, although it is just over 12 miles away. We have a car and the ability to get there, I wonder how other people are managing. It seems crazy to me, as there are two vaccination centers where I live which we couldn't get into, but Public Health England - or whatever they call themselves now probably have some reason for the craziness.
Rhapsody in BlueA jazz composition written by George Gershwin in 1924, this piece of music was written for a solo piano and a jazz band, and synthesizes jazz with classical music. The opening bars are as well known around the world as Beethoven's Fifth, and it is an American classic. I hope I've done George Gershwin justice when I named my latest necklace after his beautiful piece of music. While the placement of the larger beads was fun, I have to accept that sewing in the 'greenery' in between was extremely tedious - the dark spaces of felt board between the larger beads needed to be obscured and it seemed to take forever and a day. However, once it was done, it was very pretty and the memory of the tediousness of the task seemed to vanish. The picture of a wildflower meadow is one I used for inspiration when I set out to make this necklace. That's me for this week, folks. I'm back at the grindstone on Monday and working all weekend. I'm afraid my muse has gone on holiday, so I shall content myself with making a few pairs of earrings in readiness for the Earrings show on the 28th. Have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx
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Hello folks, nice to find you here again. It's been a busy week for Caprilicious. Last Sunday I was on the Earrings show and seven pairs of earrings found a new home, as well as Surfers Haven. I was so busy at the day job that I wasn't able to post all of them out immediately - the last parcel went out to South Carolina on Thursday. People have obviously been procreating furiously during the lockdown period, we are up to our eyes in babies and consequently, I am exhausted. I still managed to put my Christmas tree up and decorate it and that was the extent of my creative endeavours this week. However, I did spend some time thinking about what I will make next, so at least next week will be more fulfilling. Costume jewellery, and women who wear it are of two kinds in my opinion - there are those who don't mind spending a whole load of money on lots and lots of inexpensive but showy, sometimes quite pretty and highly visible jewellery - usually made of plastic beads, acrylic 'gemstones', and base material that falls apart after being worn a few times - however, it looks effective when worn new, is inexpensive and fulfils the requirement for variety. In my experience, when one buys inexpensive goods, one doesn't tend to place any value on them and they get stored all higgledy piggledy in a basket or drawer. When they are next picked up, they may have lost stones, bits might have fallen off and the metal may be tarnished with a strange odour. And then there are those who would spend their money on a few select, more expensive pieces - handmade, beaded, individualistic, made to last pieces. I include silver jewellery and semi precious stones in this category. There is, of course the jewellery made of precious stones, gold and other precious metals bought for their resale value, to show the wearers wealth and status - this started in cultures that needed to liquidate their assets on and off, and when banking facilities were either untrustworthy or non existent. My mother always thought about the 'resale value' of any jewellery she bought, although I've never known her to sell a single piece, ever. I was always told that it was the round diamond that kept its resale value - so when I eventually picked an engagement ring, I chose a rectangular stone as I have no intention of ever selling it. I thought I'd show you a piece of jewellery from my personal collection and tell you a bit about its history. It came to me from Santa Fe, from an estate sale and I just love it - a vintage Squash Blossom Necklace. Squash blossom necklaces like the one in the adjacent picture were originally made by the Navajo people, and the name is due to the flared flower silver elements that closely resemble the trumpet shaped flowers of the squash plant. However, it is more likely that they represent pomegranates - the Spanish were thought to have brought this imagery to other parts of the world when they colonised it and the Indians copied the flower from the buttons of the Spanish soldiers' uniforms. The Squash Blossom is an art form made by many Native and non-Native artists throughout the Southwest and beyond. Metalsmithing came first to the Navajo tribes in the late 1800s when they began to make bridles and other ironmongery for their horses, and eventually came in useful when they began to wear their wealth on their bodies. The central semilunar or horseshoe shaped pendant is called a Naja and there are so many variations of this pendant. The Naja is a stylised crescent shape that might have been brought to Spain by the Moors, and from there to the Americas. The crescent shape is a classic Islamic talisman which the Moors used to affix to their horses bridles to ward off the evil eye, and it is thought that the Navajo may have seen it on the Spanish/Mexican army horses and adopted it. The floral elements in my necklace are made of Turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty Turquoise mines in Arizona. I have talked about this before on the blog - commercially available turquoise beads are mostly dyed howlite. The Sleeping beauty mines produce turquoise that is a clear robin's egg blue. Turquoise is very important to the Native Indian and has a very mystical and almost sentient quality. It is given as gifts and carried by hunters, warriors and tribesmen for protection, and used in offerings to the rain God and in water divining. The old medicine men of the Navajo prefer turquoise from the Kingman mines that have a matrix, dark markings, and spider webbing which they think brings them closer to the spirits. The turquoise elements in my necklace are held in hand carved spiky individual settings that resembles embroidery, and are called petit point settings. Zuni Petit point has been made since the early 1900s and is a unique form of turquoise jewellery created by the Zuni Indians. A Petit Point stone is a tiny stone hand cut by a Zuni Indian lapidarist. Petit Point is unique to them and not made anywhere else in the world. The little silver beads in between the turquoise are also handmade and are called Navajo pearls - they are hollow, seamed silver beads made by the Navajo people in multiple sizes, the smaller ones are generally used in Squash Blossom necklaces. My necklace has Petit Point settings and is reversible - it is set with coral on the back. Let me show you the piece we have been talking about in all its glory. I hope you've enjoyed a potted history of the Squash Blossom Necklace. Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next weekend, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello folks, nice to touch base with you again. I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and Santa was kind to you. We had a quiet one with a couple of friends and we consumed more calories than we normally do in a month. And soon it will be 2017 - hasn't this year just flown by? It seems to me that it was only a short time ago that I was in India and now I will be packing my cases all over again. I'm only playing this for you because I love the song, it is so catchy - in an act of genius Apple are using it in their latest ad for the MacBook Pro. Enjoy! With my belly full of food, snoozing like a replete python seemed to be the order of the day. I did play with clay for a while, but my heart wasn't truly in it. I tried to remake the hibiscus I broke last week, but fo some reason I couldn't bring myself to finish the flower, eventually running out of bronze clay and doing a bit of shopping online to replenish my stocks. I made a little flower pendant and because the petals were shorter than the hibiscus it was infinitely easier to put together. I fired it in the stainless steel pan adding carbon on top once the first firing was done, instead of firing it first on a steel mesh and then moving it to the pan. I didn't want it to meet the same fate as my hibiscus.
Colour Me BeautifulBecause I am addicted to colour, Caprilicious Jewellery is as a consequence colourful and highly visible. I take any opportunity to add a bit of vibrancy to my jewellery and soutache and seed beads have been a fabulous way of achieving this. Seed beads and braids are easily portable and I've been able to sit in front of the telly, sewing away all evening. I thought I'd make a couple of pendants strung on torque necklaces this week - little projects that weren't terribly time consuming and seemed ideal for a week of festivity. With the two I made this week, I now have three of these little pendants on non tarnish enamelled copper wire torque necklaces. I really like making the necklaces - they are very strong, thick wire, moulded and hammered into shape. The pendants can be slipped off and the torques used on their own, or with other danglers. That's me for this week, and this year, folks. See you again in 2017, same time, same place.
Happy New Year to you all, take care and stay safe xx Hello readers, thank you so much for joining me on the blog today. I have been ever so busy over the last couple of days packing away all the jewellery I intend to show at my exhibition - I'd rather do it now, when I have the time and am in a calm frame of mind, than at the last moment, as I did last time. However, to be fair to me, the decision to have the show last year was taken at the last moment, so I just threw everything into a suitcase and hoped for the best - not a good way to chillax while on holiday, I can assure you. Please consider yourselves invited to my exhibition, if you are in Bangalore on the 6th or 7th of February. Come up and talk to me - I would love to chat with you. Please tell your friends in Bangalore as well - Caprilicious could do with the support. If you are thinking of making a trip to Bangalore, why not kill two birds with one stone and make your trip at the time when I am around - I would love to see you. I've been so exhausted with all the packing that I haven't actually had time to make much in the way of jewellery this week. A friend of mine in Mumbai bought a necklace, but wanted it altered, and a bracelet and earrings made to go with it, so I remade the jewellery to her specifications. In my opinion, statement jewellery should really be worn singly - each piece stands alone quite easily, but hey, she's the customer - and the customer is always right! And then of course, I played with wire, which is my fall back/go to plaything of choice. I was watching my kittens play with a ball, and made what I thought was a reasonable facsimile of a stylised cat. When I showed it to Mike, he thought it was a chameleon!! I was shocked speechless - and that only happens once in a very long while, so he made the most of that phenomenon. I was so surprised by his lack of imagination that I didn't even name the piece -and ended up just calling it 'Cat Playing with a Ball' as if it were a painting by an old master. I still think it looks like a cat - what do you say?? AméthysteI had two strings of nuggets of Lodolite Quartz - this gemstone comes all the way from Brazil. A friend of mine was sorting through my bead stash when she came across them and went into raptures - apparently Lodolite quartz, also called Landscape or Garden quartz has inclusions of many colors and types, often having the look of gardens, landscapes, or underwater scenes. It is a stone associated with intense spirituality and meditation. It is thought to bring strong healing energies and is used mystically to increase ESP - and is also known as the 'Shaman's dream stone'. My friend took one of the strand's of Lodolite off me, and pleaded that I made up the other strand into a finished piece - to her mind it was nothing short of a criminal act to keep it locked away in my stash. Oh well, who am I to argue with someone who makes such an impassioned plea to release the spirituality bubbling out of the Shaman's Dream Stone? I put the lodolite with an amethyst geode, which itself is said to have many beneficial metaphysical attributes - but above all, is very beautiful. Now the necklace is ready to go out to someone who was meant all along to own and love it, and receive it's mystical powers. I wonder who that will be?? I spent my evenings slumped in front of the telly, exhausted from all the packing and a few pairs of earrings appeared from the lengths of wire I idly played with. I didn't bother to list them on my website - I thought I'd just put them towards the exhibition. Out of habit, I photographed them and when I showed them on Facebook, to my great surprise, two pairs were snapped up within the first ten minutes. The triangles were inspired by a design by Nicole Hanna, and the other two by a design by an Indonesian friend, Corinne. Mike has a birthday this week and we're off to stay at Coombe Abbey - someone kindly gave us a voucher for a night's stay and I've saved it up towards the birthday celebration. I'll tell you all about it next week.
That's it folks, that's all I had time for. Stay warm and dry, have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place xx Hello readers, and lovers of unusual statement jewellery everywhere, it is nice of you to drop by the Caprilicious blog. A couple of weekends ago, I played with bronze clay and made a few bits and bobs that I loved so much, I wanted to use them straight away. I've written about Precious Metal Clay before and I have to say it is great fun to play with when it turns out right - I've had a few hit and miss results, but this time it was most definitely a 'hit'. These are the pieces that came out of the kiln and were shined up in a rotary tumbler. They acquire a heat patina which goes from silvery to copper in the same piece which is quite lovely. The Spanish SistersI am so used to picking up a focal element and tailoring the piece of jewellery to it, that making a focal element seemed to be like designing the necklace backwards - for instance, how many holes did I want in each pendant? - would it be a pendant, or would I change my mind and regret putting in too many/too few connection holes? - I really found it hard to make a decision so early in the conception of a piece, but gave myself a brain ache and forced myself to make those decisions as I went along. The Spanish sisters, Bonita, Rosita and Jovita came out all shiny and bright eyed and went into little necklaces. The three girls look wide eyed and up for any kind of mischief, what with those flowers painted on their cheeks, and instinctively I put them into colourful pieces of jewellery. Now that the season for brown ( perhaps I should call it russet to make it sound better) is here, one needs to counteract the reduction in daylight hours, the cooler temperatures and rain/snow by wearing cheerful clothes and accessories - in my book, that's called making your own sunshine. A fourth Spanish sister awaits my attention, but she has to wait till later. Instead, I turned my mind to wire wrapping a little face cabochon I made from the last bit of clay in the packet - I cannot waste even the tiniest scrap, I'm just made that way. I quickly pressed it into a mould I made some time ago - I made a Sleeping Goddess last year inspired by a sculpture in Angkor Wat, but this time, I made a smaller piece inspired by a Carnival Queen. Since I had named the Spanish sisters, I didn't want her to feel unloved, so I called her Marina, the Carnival Queen. Hung on a leather necklace from a hidden bail, I am confident that Marina will be loved by her owner, she is rather pretty even though I say so myself. The other pieces of bronze also went into necklaces and a pair of earrings, and I daresay the rest will follow in a couple of weeks. AnatoliaAnatolia is the Asian part of Turkey, and was once called Asia Minor. The pendant from Afghanistan used in this necklace seemed to evoke the images of the belly dancers from Istanbul - the rustling bells in the fringe make a sound that is most definitely Eastern. The beads are made of polymer clay - the green ones were made to resemble Chevron Millefiori beads. The necklace would look great in the open neck of a white shirt, worn over blue jeans - a very stylish and effective though simple ensemble. Add hair gel, dark glasses and knee high boots and look like someone attending a film festival in Cannes! Equally wear it with an Eastern ensemble - this is definitely a piece of tribal fusion. I have a new page 'Gifts' on the website which over time, I intend to fill with fairly inexpensive but pretty items of jewellery specifically meant for gifting away (or for yourself, if you have been good and feel you should keep it). Of course, a lot of the stuff on the 'Mini Statement' pages are priced so that they too could be gifted away - don't forget to look into those pages.
And, don't forget, I will be happy to gift wrap them and send them on to an address your choice if you require that service - make it easy on yourself. Now that we can actually use the 'C' word, it is time to get ready for the holidays, and the most sensible thing to do, I find (in my rare moments of being sensible), is to spread out the buying of presents over a period of time so that the finances balance out. I'm certainly always broke come Christmas, and it is a real pain because I want to go to the sales on Boxing Day and bend that poor credit card entirely out of shape. Every year, I say I will be good and every year, I do it again - no more resolutions, I say, this time around. I shall work on the Bling! section of the web over the next week or so, in time for the office parties. That's it for the week folks, catch you next Friday, same time, same place, have a lovely week in the meantime xx Hello readers and lovers of statement jewellery everywhere, it is nice of you to drop by the Caprilicious blog. This week I've had time to put together a few multistrand necklaces - getting ready for Bling season in the main - there are only 89 days to Christmas and it will soon be the time of year for pretty things and gifts. I hope that some of you will be sufficiently enthused by what you are looking at to pick up your gifts from Caprilicious. I am happy to gift wrap and send the parcel to an address of your choice with a little card from you, all you have to do is ask. The Shaman's Necklace'Shaman are spiritual guides and practitioners, not of the divine, but of the very elements. Unlike some other mystics, shaman commune with forces that are not strictly benevolent. The elements are chaotic, and left to their own devices, they rage against one another in unending primal fury. It is the call of the shaman to bring balance to this chaos.' Labradorite is a Feldspar with a rich play of colours called Labradorescence, first discovered in Labrador, Canada. The North American Indians call it the Stone of Shamans - it is meant to aid clarity of thought, protect against negativity and from misfortune, thus bringing balance to chaos. I love it because it shines so beautifully when moved in the light -at one angle it is a boring grey stone, but move it a bit and Wow! it flashes with such brilliant colour one is simply carried away by its beauty. Combined with rare and beautiful grossular green garnets and a copper wire surround, the labradorite is superb. IsabellaInspired by Isabella Rossellini's shirt necklace in Death Becomes Her, this is my first 'Bling' necklace of the year. Ms Rossellini would look beautiful in a sack, but when she rose out of the water and glided over to her robe purring like a little panther, I just knew that one day I would make a necklace like hers. With plenty of crystals and hammered gold tone links, it shines beautifully, and although I haven't gone overboard, it is still pretty opulent. RougeCoral, freshwater pearls and an ornate clasp - my muse was in seventh heaven. A pair of earrings complete the parure which is going to be worn with a black and cream lace dress and a little black net fascinator at a wedding. Daytime Bling - MonetThis painting of water lilies by Monet has so many beautiful colours, and I have been collecting pictures of them to use as inspiration for a piece of jewellery for the longest time - here is the picture, and the necklace - You like?? I love... MoonlightThis necklace was made for a moonlit walk along the edge of the sea, the breeze blowing in your hair, scarf and skirt billowing - dancing in the moonlight. The pearls and blue jade are ethereal, lending themselves to romance on a moonlit night. If I knew the lady in the picture, I would offer her this necklace. La PrincipessaStarThese two pairs of earrings are so organic, they almost made themselves - I just took the wire where it seemed to want to go and after a while, the earrings appeared as if by magic - they both started with the same material in the same quantities, but ended up being so different. The difficulty with organic designs is to know when to stop with the curls and squiggles and say "The End" ! That's it for this week folks. I have to report that my kittens are pretty useless at being helpers - they sleep most of the day and when awake fight with one another or eat me out of home and hearth - I sound like my mother complaining about her 'helpers' !! I go to my third Polydays in the Cotswolds this week and am sure to bring back some fabulous ideas to Caprilicious. See you next week, same time, same place xx Hello readers, how nice of you to drop by - autumn will soon be here and the colours of my new statement jewellery collection are reflecting this. No, they are not brown and grey - they are bigger and brighter than ever, to zhush up the autumnal hues of rust, must and dust that most dress designers pick as being suitable for us during this season. I will let you in on an open secret - I am a very shy person - and when I tell people this, they laugh at me disbelievingly. I am even intimidated by hairdressers because I cannot relate to them, and small talk with a stranger is a no go area for me - I usually come out looking like someone else's mop - they seem to have a pack instinct when they see me coming - there's no 'Hello moddom, would you like a coffee?' - it's all snip, snip, snip - and when they've finished, they make me look like the person they perceive - a raggedy Orphan Annie type on a bad hair day - and that's cos she's exactly who they see when I slink in, looking apologetic for breathing the same air! At the age of - well, older than many of you - I am now qualified to tell you how I overcame this using my passion for jewellery, and perhaps you will find you can do it too. 1) Spark A Conversation - EffortlesslyThis is where Caprilicious comes in - wear one of your pieces of statement jewellery and you will find people coming up to you and complimenting you on what you are wearing. It doesn't have to be a massive piece of jewellery and you don't have to be blinged up to the eyeballs. Take Glamour Puss - one of the pieces I made this week - all it is is a piece of pink and black agate - but it is presented on a pink stainless steel torque, wire wrapped, with an extremely shiny Swarovski crystal square wrapped onto it - a definite conversational opening gambit if ever there was one. Glamour PussObviously, no one can guarantee that people are going to walk up to you - you may have to do the walking - find someone in a nice ensemble and tell them you like it - instant spark! they will compliment you back ( people love a compliment and usually reciprocate - I'm sure you've noticed that) and Bob's your uncle! 2) Have Something to Say PreparedWhen someone compliments your jewellery, don't just mumble your thanks or go the 'this old thing??....' routine- smile widely, tell them a little story about it - perhaps even how clever you were to find it - if it's a piece by Caprilicious and you have read the blog, there's a backstory all ready for you to tell. At Caprilicious, I attempt to make jewellery that is interesting and different - I have the occasional daytime, everyday piece - but even that is usually different from the norm - you have plenty to talk about. These little lampwork beads were turned into daytime earrings, but they are so pretty, I'm sure you will be noticed when you wear them. I turned the leftover beads into bracelets with braided leather, so you can have a whole ensemble if you want one. They are made to resemble the spinning top I had as a child - I was only allowed to play with it if I promised to be very, very careful (?), and eventually it was used by both my siblings, probably with the same proviso, and in turn, by their children. It still exists in my mother's cupboard - waiting for her great grandchildren, I guess! Unfortunately, their toys of choice are likely to be an internet enabled mobile phone, so mum has wasted her efforts to save what has now become an antique heirloom - perhaps it will be worth something one of these days. Spinning Tops3) Ms. Attention - To - DetailBe Little Miss Attention-To-Detail - wear the right piece for your neckline, to coordinate with your outfit - and if you are in Caprilicious Woman mode, dare to wear jewellery in a completely contrasting colour to your outfit - after all, an orange necklace with the outfit in the picture would be drowned out by the colour of the vest - the blue necklace is definitely the better fit. 4) Get Up Close and PersonalOnce you have complimented someone about their jewellery, and received one in return, you have chatted about your sources for said jewellery and smiled at each other, you are fast becoming friends - after all you have found something in common - your love for pretty jewellery! Introduce her to someone you know, she reciprocates - and before you know it, you have a networking session going on right there, under your very shy nose - did you know that was going to happen?? I did! There are a few more tips on Reggie Darling's fabulous blog - Reggie's Advice For the Tongue-Tied Guest at Table Amongst Strangers, and I recommend this post to you. And of course, you must never get so carried away by your success by turning into a Conversation Hog! Click on the link to find out how not to do it. 5) Be Different - and Revel in ItWhen I was younger, all I wanted to do was to be like everyone else, to merge seamlessly into the background - I blame my mother for this (as I type I can hear her grumbling in the background 'you blame your mother for everything') - I was expected to be a Little Miss Muffet - but I was also expected to go out and fight my corner in the world of modern medicine when I grew up! And then I ended up in Britain, and have found that a lot of the time I stick out like a sore thumb, and there is no Marks & Spencer camouflage that works. It took a bit of getting used to, but I'm over the worst. I'm happy to be me and revel in being different. I wear Caprilicious all the time, and that helps me walk tall ( I'm only 5'2") and people come up to me and talk about my jewellery. I like to take the stuff I make on test runs, but sometimes they get sold before I get a chance - here's one of the pieces I made last week that lasted fifteen minutes on my pages... FreyaIt is most definitely evening wear, and I didn't have an occasion to wear it before someone from work snapped it up. A statement jewelry piece by Caprilicious will give you confidence, help you stand out in the crowd of 'samey people', and allow you to start a natural conversation - the death knell to shyness. The end result is a helpful, natural connection. The best part? It’s a great excuse to start shopping!
That's it for this week folks. Have a good weekend and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place xx Hello all you Caprilicious women out there, I hope you are all relaxed and ready for the weekend, ready to go partying in your statement jewellery. I have some exciting news this week - Caprilicious is due to have a second exhibition in January 2015. I am negotiating with the good people of Raintree, where I had my first exhibition, to find us a suitable weekend at the end of January when I am due to be in Bangalore visiting with my mother. Lipstick on your CollarThat's right, I've made this necklace before - last time, I used the jasper I acquired from my friend BN with a coral pink howlite - I happened to have some pale, blush pink howlite lying around and a few black veined jasper beads left over from last time and they just seemed to cry out to be put together. I am by no stretch of imagination a 'pink' person, but I just love the combination of pink and grey/black - very cool and sophisticated. You wouldn't catch me in a pink outfit though - one has to draw the line somewhere! There are plenty of greys, blacks and whites in my wardrobe that could be accesorised beautifully by this necklace when I take it out for it's test run. ParadisoFor the longest time, I thought seahorses were mythical creatures, like unicorns, phoenix', dragons, dinosaurs and pixies - only kidding, honest. I love the little critters, they are the cutest and I am always on the look out for them. I found an aventurine carved into a seahorse, so smooth and shiny - an instant love affair. With a little wire bail, and the addition of agates and glass beads as well as pearls, it was transformed into a cruisers necklace - or for someone going on a holiday to an island paradise. I used the colours in this photograph to make this necklace. SalomeDo you know the story of Salome?? It is from the New Testament - Salome, who by all accounts was a raving beauty and a femme fatale, who is hailed as the embodiment of female seductiveness and an icon of sensuality , did the Dance of the Seven Veils at her step fathers birthday bash - he offered her anything her little heart desired, and Salome, being as thick as two short planks, looked to her mom for an answer. Her mom had dumped her first husband, and married his brother - she was extremely put out that John The Baptist had denounced her marriage as unlawful; and he didn't just say it once - he raved and ranted and denounced her from the rooftops, unfortunately prophets just don't seem to know when to stop - to silence him she decided to get her daughter to demand that John be beheaded. Salome could have asked for anything - gold, diamonds, pearls - but being a bit sweet and unworldly, she said 'what shall I ask for mommy??' and chose to obey her mother. The king had no choice but to behead the hapless John and present her with his head on a plate. But on Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and for them that sat with him at table, he commanded it to be given. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. My necklace is named Salome - I'm sure it wouldn't have looked out of place during the Dance of the Seven Veils - men will lose their heads over the wearer - but hopefully in a nicer way than poor old John. I've tried to put nuances of sensuality and fiery desire into this magnificent necklace and the haematite gleams brightly in contrast to the hand carved black jade and the paisley howlite beads in the second strand of this piece. Warrior PrincessHer face is hand carved of ox bone, she wears a sterling silver and marcasite helmet, her helmet straps are fastened and she looks calm, yet resigned, as if off to do battle for a cause she believes in, wearing her regalia. A beautiful faceted citrine teardrop dangles below her chin - she is The Warrior Princess. I teamed her with citrine and carnelian freeform nuggets, pearls and blue goldstone beads to make this piece. Now that I've decided that there will be an exhibition, a bit of anxiety has started to creep up on me - yes, I know I'm being silly, and that I have five months to go - but I'm just a ' have everything ready ahead of time' type . So, I made some earrings - they will go on the website, and eventually make their way to the exhibition, or not, as the case may be - but at least I will have them ready in time. These are sweet, and helped me watch one of my favourite movies 'The English Patient' for the n'th time as my pliers moved rhythmically along with the soundtrack. And then, with mental calm restored, now that I have enough earrings, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the truly righteous. Now all I have to do is to remember to carry them along - one time I did a jewellery party at my friend Gerry's house, and I left all my earrings and other little bits behind in the cupboard at home. That's all for this week, folks, I hope you have enjoyed looking at my bits and bobs - if you have, do leave me a message - I'm beginning to think I'm talking to myself. One of my kittens, Wilfred has found a spool of wire and is chasing it around the room, whilst Charlie has bumped into a wall and got a huge bruise on his nose - £50 to the vet and a clutch of tablets later ( I'm so in the wrong profession), he looks like a rugby player after a particularly violent scrum. Thankfully he is a kitten and not a child, or they would have had me up for non accidental injuries! Catch you next Friday, same time, same place xx Hello readers, thanks for stopping by to read about the statement jewellery made at Caprilicious this week. It was my privilege to provide a piece of jewellery to the Children's Unit at the hospital as a raffle prize - the manager who requested it of me was very complimentary about the piece I handed in - I was quietly pleased with it myself, and the reaction on the Facebook page was heartening when I posted some pictures there. The carved jade flower had been lying around in my stash, just waiting to be used and this is a very worthy cause, very close to my heart. If you're wondering what the mention of statement jewellery in the opening line was all about - I've been reading blogging guides - and the theory is that a googlebot, which in my imagination looks like the picture above, worms it's way into a website and if the raison d'être of the blog is mentioned in the first few sentences, the botworm gets the message - and when people look for 'Handmade Statement Jewellery', the Caprilicious Jewellery website comes up in a Google search - having done this for a few weeks, I was quite gratified to find that I haven't been misguided by the bloggers guide. However, I don't know any woman who goes to Google when she wants to look for handmade statement jewellery! I certainly wouldn't do a Google search to look for jewellery, would you?? What beats me is that knowing this fact doesn't make me chase the botworm any less frantically - just shows how competitive I really am, I suppose, and also that I like to test a theory before I accept it as common wisdom. AnatevkaAnatevka was a fictional shtetl in Imperial Russia where the musical Fiddler on the Roof was set. We went to the Eutin Festival in Germany, where they had this musical on, inspiring me to create this necklace. I acquired a necklace of hand knotted shell pearls in beautiful colours of bronze/ cream, peach and shades of grey - the pearls are large and very beautiful, and though I normally would have cut up the necklace to restring the pearls, this one was so well made, I couldn't bring myself to wantonly destroy someones painstaking work - in fact, I had to agree that I couldn't have done it better ( a rare admission for me ). I decided to make a pendant for it, and string it onto the necklace directly. An agate druzy cabochon, surrounded by wire lace, with pearls and crystals thrown in just grew and grew until two days later, my muse declared it finished. Although wire lace looks pretty, it is hard work on the finger tips which resembled Shreddies by the time I was done - but hey! I love the way it looks, so won't complain. The pendant is very baroque in appearance, and suits the necklace - and the name! If you want to know what shell pearls are, here's a link to a very well written article I found during my research - I couldn't have put it better myself. And with this, I decided to put my Lacemania aside for a while - and my fingertips heaved a huge sigh of relief!! I've had two new helpers this week - Charlie and Wilfred have moved in with us - they must have been techies in a previous life, they are fascinated by the moving cursor on my laptop screen, and keep trying to help me type this blog and won't take no for an answer. They are also interior decorators of sorts, and are helping me to remodel my house and change the decor, by systematically destroying anything they dislike - Mike's 40 year old German oil lamp (he's had it 40 years, but it was an antique when he first bought it) is something they have taken a dislike to - only he refuses to part with it - the boys are most annoyed that it is now out of reach! Silver MonsoonWith my fingertips sore and out of commission, I decided to give them a rest. I have these peacock feather pendants in from Indonesia - the ends have been fringed, much like a Rastafarians dreadlocks, with beads, and I love the effect. I used shards of electroplated quartz needles in the necklace, strung with spacers of crackle quartz in a deep peacock blue and a couple of enamelled beads from India. The quartz needles remind me of the silver rain that sheets down during a monsoon - the rain in the UK though persistent, is usually gentler. DurgaDurga is a wrathful form of Parvati, otherwise known as Mrs Shiva, and the mother of Ganesh the elephant God. Kali is an even more angry form - women of all ages, at different times of their cycles have fleeting resemblances to one or another avatar of this multipurpose Goddess. According to legend, Parvathi was peed off at something- or someone (possibly, but not necessarily hubby), and she knitted her brows together in a frown - a third eye originated there ( watch out - the gaze from that third eye when provoked into opening can burn you into a frazzle). When someone else peed the already irritated Durga off, she went wild, hair unbound, arms akimbo - and she didn't stop until she killed the annoyance, hung his head around her neck and drank his blood. She laughed and laughed, and did a dance that a whirling dervish would have envied, until suddenly to her horror, she found that she was trampling on her poor husband Shiva - Oops! she said and stuck her tongue out - and an ancient photographer took her picture (or maybe the wind changed and her facial expression stuck), so she is doomed to being immortalised as the crazy one with her tongue stuck out, hair wild, with strings of demon's heads hung about her person. This story, I am sure will resonate with my female readers - we've all been there, pootling along, minding our own, when along comes this nuisance - whether we turn into Durga or Kali depends on the irritant! Anyway, I digress - this necklace is made of a pendant from the Banjara tribe in India, with two paisa coins from 1962. I put them on a rope, which can be tied so that the pendant sits where you would like it to and can be worn with all sorts of necklines. It looks like something Durga might like to wear - well, she's most definitely a Caprilicious woman.................... That's it for this week folks. Charlie has destroyed a bunch of silk flowers I had prettifying a dull corner of the house, and the two brothers are now flicking the flowers around the house like crazed confetti - I'd better go and rescue what's left of those poor flowers. Have a fab weekend, and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place
xx Hello folks, it's hot outside - and I love it. Statement jewellery has had to be put aside for a short while to extract every ounce of pleasure from the sun while we can get it. We spent a long weekend in Germany, by the Baltic Sea - and anyone would have thought it was the Caribbean, it was so warm. My friend Margrit loved the little cubist inspired brooch I made for her, as I hoped she would, and found an outfit to wear it with almost immediately. She has a lovely, airy, Scandinavian-style country cottage, and the most beautiful garden, full of the most fabulous and lush flowers, bigger and better than anything I have seen in England. Equally, the slugs and snails (Schnecke - pronounced shnake as if spoken by Sean Connery) in her garden are bigger and eat more than any English slug I have met - she goes out every night with a torch to catch them in flagrante and drown them in a bucket of soap suds, and the deer (she calls them Bambi - aah! ) come in after she retires indoors for the night and chomp their way through anything the slugs haven't had yet - so it's a running battle to keep the garden going. Margrit needs to be vigilant indeed to keep her garden looking as lush as it does - I love my garden very much, but cannot imagine working quite so hard to keep it. And the pièce de résistance.................drumroll................ I said to Margrit, I don't need a tan, I'm brown already - and, in an aside, thinking I was being humorous I added 'and, I have no white bits', to which she replied, quick as a flash, 'neither have I' - sure enough, I looked around and there were loads of people in various states of undress, sunning themselves into a 'no white bits' situation. All except Amelie, Margrit's young granddaughter, who stayed determinedly pale as a little starfish, and was even more overdressed than I was, which is saying something! So that's all I did all week long, folks, roast myself gently on the sands along the Baltic coast. I had no time to make anything, and I've shown you the reason why.
I trust you are all enjoying the summer too, and I will have something for you next week - I've had a few ideas whilst on my travels. Catch you next week, same time, same place xx |
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