Good day folks, thanks for coming back to Caprilicious for a look at my week. The weather has been vile, with two named storms hitting us back to back bringing gale force winds strong enough to kill a woman sleeping peacefully in her caravan, by flipping it over a cliff. Fortunately that was a rare occurrence, but the wind was wild and wooly, and scary. This week was extremely hectic, my mother was unwell and I almost flew back to India - I had actually booked tickets to fly out for a couple of weeks, causing all sorts of disruption at work, only to be told that she was OK and that I wasn't needed. I cancelled my tickets, and went back to my colleagues sheepishly, announcing the reversal of my decision. Oh well, couldn't be helped. The minute I knew I wasn't flying back into a SH1T storm, I heaved a sigh of relief and picked up some beads. Samudra (Ocean)I've had a couple of strings of ammonites for ages, and used them sparingly putting them into my soutache pieces in dribs and drabs. I love them because they are so ancient - it feels great to use an ancient item, that was once a live creature into my jewellery. They have shiny shells, that are translucent, with a beautiful shimmer in their depths. Ammonites were marine animals belonging to the phylum Mollusca and the class Cephalopoda. They had a coiled external shell similar to that of the modern nautilus. They are beautiful when cut in half, and the shiny part of their outer shells form Ammolite which is almost opal like in its iridescence. Early works of natural history compared the coiled form of the ammonite with that of a serpent, and ammonites became widely known as snakestone. They take their name from the Egyptian god Amun, known to the Greeks as Zeus Ammon.This god is depicted on Cyrean coins and in sculpture by a head with curling ram's horns. Many genera of ammonites have names ending in -ceras from the Greek word 'keras' meaning horn.
I am totally in awe of their age and think it's an honour to be able to wear them in jewellery, apart from their obvious beauty. I'm sorry that the YouTube film I've added is a bit simplistic, but I thought it showed exactly what happens to the ammonites to turn them into fossils in a very simple way. AfrikaThe pendant is so very tribal, and so are the arrowheads, and I put them with spikes of dyed blue howlite. This was a sort of random selection during a routine rummage, an 'I'll add this, and what about these, and Oh! this might do as well' sort of a collection of beads and baubles, and I was totally surprised by the outcome. I love it, it turned out to be really pretty. That's me for this week folks, the parental situation has exhausted me somewhat and depleted my energies. It is strange to suddenly realise that you're all grown up and have to assume responsibility for another person (never having had children, I know nothing of this) and in fact you're the grownup! Hmm, better late than never, I s'pose. I intend to catch up on my sleep, and pamper my poor arthritic knees all weekend.
Have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx
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Hello readers and lovers of statement jewellery, how nice to meet up with you here again. 'Rio?' I hear you ask,'why Rio?' Well, why not Rio, it's just as good a place as any to draw inspiration from. I watched this movie last week as a form of escapism from the sad dreariness of the atrocities being reported with such depressing regularity on the news, and was simply blown away by the imagery and colours. What a fabulous riot of colour! Stars and SpikesIt was Thanksgiving and imagery of the Stars and Stripes were everywhere. Perhaps influenced by that, came Stars and Spikes. I love unusual shaped beads, adding to the drama of the piece. The howlite beads in this necklace have been dyed a deep orange and to contrast with them, I used blue mother of pearl stars. The leaf spacers were left over from a previous necklace, and seemed to fit snugly into the side of each star. The central bead is an acrylic bead, made to look like turquoise and although it doesn't quite succeed in its mission, it is a pretty and worthy centrepiece to this bold and bright necklace. RioTo my mind the ultimate travel destination, the Rio carnival has something to do with the colours on this page. I took delivery of two strands of graduated howlite spikes this week and converted them into three necklaces with the addition of other beads. Highly colourful, these necklaces would not look out of place at a carnival, but will look just as nice in the unfussy neckline of a plain dress or T shirt. That's this week in a nutshell folks. I hope you liked my instant-cheer-in-a-necklace effort, and that there is a smile on your face at the end of this blog post - goodness knows we need it.
Have a good week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place xx |
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