Hello people, how are you? Lovely to find you here again, and I hope you enjoy your little glimpse into life at Caprilicious. Last week it was storm Arwen, this week it is Storm Barra - a different name with the same result, driving rain, tumultuous winds and bone chilling cold weather. We are now besieged by the Omicron variant of the Covid virus and have to wear a mask everywhere - not that I ever stopped, as it is mandatory in the hospital and I wear one anyway in shops and the supermarket as a matter of course. I've had my vaccine pass for ages and now it has become mandatory for everyone. Through all this my fingers have been busy, producing the gifts that I require for the festive season and getting ready for the Caprilicious showcase on the Earrings Show on Facebook on Saturday evening and all day on Sunday. The Mandala NecklaceCarl Jung described a mandala as “a representation of the unconscious self”. A mandala, which means a “circle” in Sanskrit is a geometric design that holds a great deal of symbolism in Hindu and Buddhist cultures. In their most basic form, mandalas are circles contained within a square and arranged into sections that are all organized around a single, central point. Kelly Dietrich says, on her blog devoted to Mandalas (and I had no idea that there was that much to say about them!) that 'there are five components to a mandala - symmetry, geometry, colour, number and intent' and that they are used for meditation and yogic practices. Philistine that I am, I picked this one because it was pretty. However, what redeems me is that apparently you ought to pick a mandala that appeals to you - it is your subconscious mind doing the work for you, so I managed to get it right, after all. I hope you like it too. I teamed it with discs of turquoise dyed howlite, with little electroplated, faceted haematite beads sparkling between them and a couple of Bali beads as an accent. A couple more pairs of earrings for the Earrings Show were put together during the week - one is a symphony in pink and the other in green. I've named the pink ones The Pink Panther earrings - anyone who's a fan of the Pink Panther movies will know that it was actually a jewel, targeted by the cat burglar played by David Niven. This will be my last appearance on the Earrings Show this year and if you have a moment, do come over and join me - there's still time to get your orders in for Christmas. Click on this link to take you straight to the show - Caprilicious is on from 2030hrs on 10/12/21 to 2030hrs the next day. Our tree was up and trimmed this week. I stood in the cold and rain to get this picture through the glass of the porch to share it with you on the blog (can you hear those violins?). That's me for today, folks. Do join me on the Earrings Show if you can on Friday night and Saturday , it's lovely to see a familiar face. I'll catch you next Friday here on the blog, same time, same place. Until then xx
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Hello good people, it's lovely to be back here with you again this week. I enjoy reaching out to the wider world, I've met so many lovely people through the blogosphere and Caprilicious already; and I look forward to more such encounters. This week has been hard, with the news of a looming second wave of the dreaded virus, inefficient governments and no end in sight - as yet. And of course, it is the 'as yet' that keeps human nature going, we hope one day that there will be a breakthrough and things will get better. Until then, friends, we have to get on with it as best we can. I've just been watching Dr Zhivago, again, after ages and ages. The triumph of love, with a beautiful tapestry of a love story sewn against the background of a country in great turmoil, with some of the most beautiful actors in the world, Dr Zhivago is a firm favourite of mine that oddly I haven't revisited in a long time. I just finished this week's necklace as I watched it and it turned out all romantic and fuzzy - it is called Lara. With pale green jade, diamante elements, prehnite teardrops from Jaipur, and baroque pearls, I think it is suitably romantic enough to be associated with the name. LaraTo continue the romantic theme of the week, I made a couple of pairs of earrings with beautiful diamante components and baroque pearls - the pearls are dyed a rainbow grey - like an oil slick on water and are simply to die for. I am very fond of the contemporary sterling silver ear wires I used - they are very different and give the earrings a fun look. There was also a pair that took two weeks to make in a stop start manner - I sewed seed beads and dyed jade beads around malachite and hung them on kidney ear wires. The passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week was painful too. She was an inspiration to women everywhere and a voice for equality and women's rights in the USA. I know that we will miss her presence in the world, and I couldn't end this weeks blog post without giving her a mention. This Milagro was made by Lorena Angulo, a metal clay artist I admire - here's her Instagram link. That's me for this now, folks. The working week has been hard at the salt mines and I will need all of the weekend to recover. Have a good week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Hello folks, how are you today? I've loved the sunshine we've had and have spent a lot of time outdoors, digging the garden and pulling up weeds. It is now beginning to look fit for purpose and I can relax. The red hot poker is the first flower to come out every year in late spring/ early summer, and the first one is out, with loads of buds yet to bloom. When it is lovely and sunny, I seem to always make a floral necklace and the colours I use are bright and cheerful - I don't choose this path, it chooses me! I would love to make beautiful abstract geometric shapes, I really admire jewellery makers who can do this and glorify negative space, but what comes out of my hands? Flowers!! Never mind, at least flowers are pretty and everyone loves them, not just me. Blue MangroveThe early part of the week was a bit cold and damp, and this is the piece of jewellery I was inspired to produce. I made my first ever wire Tree of Life anchored around a slab of agate druzy that has been electroplated with titanium. I had recently taken delivery of quartz nuggets, also plated with titanium and they seemed to fit together beautifully. When I finished the 'tree' it reminded me of mangrove trees growing in the Sunderbans in West Bengal. Mangrove swamps are found in tropical tidal areas including estuaries and marine shorelines. High tide brings in salt water, and when the tide recedes, evaporation of the seawater in the soil leads to increases in salinity. At low tide, the roots are alternately exposed to increases in temperature and drying out from the sun, and cooling and flooding by the tide. For a plant to survive in this environment, it must tolerate broad ranges of salinity, temperature, and moisture, and only a few species have evolved ecologically to make up the mangrove tree community. Mangrove swamps protect coastal areas from erosion, storm surges, and tsunamis. The massive root systems are efficient at dissipating wave energy, and they slow down tidal water enough so its sediment is deposited as the tide comes in, leaving all except fine particles when the tide recedes. And then the weather picked up, the sun came out to play and all was well with the world - followed closely by the flowers that came out of my imagination! Showtime!I wrapped flowers made of bright colour enhanced jade beads on a branch of tiny leaves that I had coated with cold enamel ages ago. Jade flowers and leaves of Czech glass were wrapped on this frame and hung on a necklace of lapis lazuli rough nuggets with yet more dyed jade. The flowers and berries are luscious and I added a tassel to give the piece a playful look. The necklace is pretty close to the neck, so that the pendant dangles over the decolletage - this necklace is probably best suited to a simple dress with a close neckline. I bought a new iPhone and the camera is quite fabulous. I've been using the camera to take pictures in portrait mode and it works on selfies too. I've mentioned that I will be at the Pump Rooms in Leamington Spa from the 27th to the 30th of June and I made some beads to display there at an event called Warwickshire Open Studios. I made the beads up into necklaces and wore them to work - here are some pictures taken using my new iPhone XR I made some more beads in scarlet and gold, they're yet to be finished and strung. Next week, perhaps. Don't they look almost edible? Like apples, or even ripe tomatoes, perhaps? That's all I had time for, people. Have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello folks, how are you. Brrr, it's freezing cold outside and as you find this blog in your inboxes, I will be driving up to Birmingham, to the Etsy fair at the Custard Factory where I will be all day till 8pm. If you live nearby, do come and visit the stall. There are plenty of handmade offerings for Christmas and I will probably be doing a lot of my Christmas shopping there myself. I'm told it will not be warm in the market hall - especially for us traders, so I've got my thermals and UGG boots on - as the sun sets and the temperature drops, I will probably bring out hats and scarves and mittens, until you might not even be able to tell it's me under all those layers. I hope the Michelin woman look won't put people off, but I'm afraid I shall have to value comfort more. Mike is going to drop me off, and then pick me up when I'm done, and we might even be able to sample some of the street food that will be available in and around the Custard Factory as it is the First Friday of the month. I shall have loads of pictures for you next week. PiscesI make jewellery because I like to, becauses it relaxes me and is a stress buster and so much fun, not as preparation for a fair or show - so I always have stock in plenty and can probably do a show anytime I'm asked, without too much panic or anxiety. I haven't made many new items for the show, but I made this necklace with some of the beads that came with a large consignment containing the shiny crystals from last weeks post and a pendant I made earlier. The pendant is made from dark green, almost black jade, carved into a pair of fish. I put a wirework fish under the pendant and surrounded it with a frame - I originally strung it on leather, but re-thought the design and made a necklace with green turquoise pumpkin beads and coral - very Christmassy, but it will be great all year round too. I love the turquoise pumpkins - they are so pretty. The second necklace I am going to show you, I've had for a while. I talked about the making of the clasp on this blog, I'm sure I did, and then I made the necklace and forgot to show it to anybody. The poor thing was sitting all forlorn and unloved in a corner of my jewellery case - and that would never do! So here we are, here's Blue Hibiscus!! Blue HibiscusThe blue hibiscus is not blue, it is a dark purple, and it isn't a hibiscus - it is a mallow. Nevertheless, it is pretty and well worth a second look. I have some in my garden and took some photographs earlier on in the year when it was in full bloom. I made the clasp in bronze from a design by Barbara Becker Simon who is a top instructor in anything metal clay. I do love the hibiscus flower - it seems so exotic to me now that I live in Britain. When I lived in India, we had bushes that grew in profusion in our backyard and flowered all year round, yielding offerings for my grand mother's prayers - she would place the hibiscus flowers reverentially at the feet of the idols of her favourite gods - the lesser ones got a couple of jasmine, and least favoured of them all probably got a leaf if she could spare one. As you probably know, Indians have a whole lot of Gods, one for every purpose, much like the ancient Greeks and each household has its deity - grandmas household deity got the largest share of the flowers and prayers, and all the others had to catch as catch can, and be happy with their lot. It's a wonder that there were any flowers left on any of the plants in the garden - perhaps this is why they grew so tall (not because of the sun and the climate, of course) to escape my grandma's pilfering. If she couldn't get at them, though, she would use the crook of grandpa's walking stick and do her best to pull them down - she didn't care about the plants missing their offspring, her Gods had to be propitiated, or else! Enough reminiscing, I'd better get my a** into gear as this won't get the baby washed - I need to be in that car in about ten minutes time if I want to get into Birmingham and set up before the hordes ( Oh please, let there be hordes!) arrive.
I'll catch you next Friday, have a fabulous week in the meantime. Until then xx A worker may be the hammer's master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea. Hello readers, nice to catch up with you again. There are now about two and a half weeks to go till the Handmade Fair at Ragley Hall, and I approach it with mixed feelings. Excitement and a frenzy of preparation is combined with dread and anxiety. I think it is every makers secret fear that nobody will come, nobody will like their creations and that it will all be for nothing - indeed, less than nothing as there's been a load of cash spent on this venture. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained! Let's go for broke, and all those other cliche's with which I have been fortifying myself. I've found a fabulous helper to see me through the setting up of the stall - Gabby Armstrong is the daughter of one of the midwives at work. She has a degree in visual merchandising and works in retail for a clothing store in Coventry, arranging their displays. She dropped by to take a look at the jewellery, and is going to do me a visual story board. She has been to the show at Hampton Court on previous occasions and knows how it works, so that's an added bonus. Gabby was quite enthusiastic about my jewellery, and had a whole load of ideas to share. And bless her cotton socks, she has volunteered to meet us at Ragley Hall and help me set up - amazing luck that I happened to have a conversation with her mother and she mentioned what her daughter did for a living!! I thought I'd show you some of my arsenal of tools - if you've seen them before or even used them, I apologise if you find this bit boring- just scroll down a bit further to get to the jewellery. This one is called a Chain Sta' - I saw in a brochure from the USA, and found it so quirky, I sent off for it. The two arms come off and it lays flat (this is important for storage) - each arm has a clamp at the top, and a chain link bracelet or necklace becomes ever so easy to make. The horizontal bridge at the bottom has a ruler and ensures that beads can be added at regular intervals. I make my beetle wing necklaces using this tool, without which the chain would twist and the jump rings attaching each wing to the chain would be all over the place. I'm sure one of these can be rigged up using an aubergine, two soda cans and a spear of asparagus, but hey, I like my tools and love ones that work even more. The next one - a pair of ceramic tipped precision tweezers - it makes it easy to pick up and set little cubic zirconia into metal clay with these babies. If they were a bit longer they could have been used to stabilise solder when using a flame as the ceramic tips would be fine at high temperatures. And finally this weeks purchase, the bracelet bender tool. I have been making bracelets with soutache and beadwork in leather, lined with ultrasuede. Between the leather and suede is a layer of aluminium to hold the shape of the cuff without adding any weight to the piece. The last load of aluminium blanks were imported already curved into cuffs from the USA and worked out to be very expensive. I've recently found a vendor in the UK who is prepared to cut sheets of aluminium to my specification which is so much cheaper, but the aluminium strips are sent out flat. I got this tool to bend the metal over and voila! a cuff bracelet blank. What a fun tool!! These are some of the pieces I made this week - I have'nt put them on the website, but will do so if they remain unsold after the Handmade Fair. Tabriz Branches of bamboo coral and Moroccan silver beads - simple, but very exotic. I'm reading a book about Rumi the poet, and Shams of Tabriz, who by all accounts was a very charismatic man. I went on line to read a bit more about Tabriz and what an exotic place it sounds like. The Bazaar of Tabriz, an UNESCO site in particular, sounds fabulous - I thought the Kapali Carsi in Istanbul was beautiful, but this one sounds like it would be a closely run race. A charismatic necklace, for a charismatic woman, methinks. YinYin is the Chinese female principle of the universe, characterized as sustaining and associated with earth, shade, and coolness. I made this necklace with some of the beads I bought in the Chinese quarter in Kuala Lumpur. The beads are huge, about 3cms across and carved by hand. I teamed them with Greek beads from a holiday in Santorini - they are ceramic and heavily electroplated with gold and lustre, and strung them on a piece of Brazilian leather. I tied knots between the beads as spacers, but it looked wrong, so I undid the necklace and remade it without the knots. I added a handmade chain and clasp with an extension on the back so that the necklace can be worn fairly long if necessary. WingsI wanted to show off my new jewellery beetle wings, and do something very different with them - when combined with gaily dyed marabou feathers echoing the colours of the wings, they look very 'carnival'. Here's the soutache and leather cuff for which I needed the aluminium insert mentioned earlier . Begonia I spent all weekend making this flower from bronze clay and then wrought a clasp for the necklace, from a design by Kristine Schroeder. When I looked in my stash, this string of amethyst beads called to me and I accented them with a couple of carnelian beads and a pyrite bead. So, as you see,I have been working hard this last couple of weeks to have enough stock for three days at a fair full of handmade enthusiasts. It is Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK and it will probably rain. Have a lovely week people, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello dear readers, how nice of you to stop by this week to take a peek into the goings on at Caprilicious. We've been hanging on to the lazy, crazy hazy days of summer by our fingernails as it is still warm enough to wear our summer clothes, and pretend that autumn is not just around the corner. We peer at the long term forecast worriedly, muttering to ourselves, and this year have been lucky to have fairly decent weather in September. I've even got the most beautiful double begonias flowering in a pot, providing a brilliant splash of colour in an otherwise dull corner of the garden. However, I know this isn't going to last very much longer and our jumpers and cardigans will have to come out of the closet sooner or later. This must have been deeply ingrained on my subconscious as all my jewellery had a floral theme this week. I am preparing a few simple, inexpensive necklaces to go into a couple of stalls I have agreed to set up at charitable events in October and November. They aren't on the website and will only go on should they remain unsold at the end of November.
Daisy Daisy, a necklace with four pretty jade flowers and black glazed terracotta beads, was born as I rummaged around in my stash. A pair of jade and onyx earrings with pyrite teardrops dangling from them add a fabulous finishing touch. Daisy MaeThis is my last turquoise clasp - I've been hoarding it for three years and finally decided to let it go. The pearls are cultured in fresh water and once I started on the necklace, the tiny daisies jumped out of my findings basket onto my work surface and demanded to be used. So, here we have a very sophisticated pearl necklace, with a whimsical touch - I love it!! So there we have it folks - my subconscious is obviously desperate to hold on to the last vestiges of summer, and has pushed Ms Muse in the direction of florals all week. That's me done for now, have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place
Until then xx Good morning folks, I hope you are all getting ready for the weekend and in good fettle. Life has been hectic at Chez Caprilicious - I've no clue how the week has vanished in a flash. I've had guests at home all last weekend and had a friend round to help with the left overs during the week. Time has flown by in a haze of steam from the dishwasher as I loaded and unloaded the machine that has worked valiantly overtime without complaint. Hubby's old back injury has played him up which meant I am chief cook and bottle washer - sometimes it is good to touch down and realise just how much he does around the house, allowing me to flit from bead to bead like a demented butterfly. I hope he'll be better next week and I can get back to my usual routine. He's getting a load of TLC from your's truly, and I can tell you that it is quite draining - I am beginning to get 'compassion fatigue', in common with a lot of medics who have to deal with illness in the home after a day of being compassionate at work. One of my friends at the weekend said she was going to a wedding and picked out some jade beads and ordered a necklace to go with an outfit she intended to wear. She likes her jewellery simple and though she picks up quite a few pieces from Caprilicious, they are usually for gifts. This one was for her and I showed her some of my silver from Jaipur and we settled on a design for her necklace. The jade is from China, silver from Jaipur and the little silver spacer beads are 99% silver from Bali. This girl likes to wear matching jewellery and asked for a simple pair of earrings. I made the simplest soutache design I could with a 6 mm freshwater pearl and seven jade beads, throwing in a few tiny seed beads for embellishment. I sent these pictures off to my friend and there was radio silence for a couple of days - Oh Ohh! that usually means trouble, I thought! Sure enough, I got a call a few days later - she wondered whether the earrings were too elaborate and could I possibly make her something simpler please? Personally, I think the earrings are very pretty and as they are smaller than a 10 pence piece, will be perfect - but of course, the customer is always right, and that has always been my motto. I persuaded her to take a look at the earrings in person before she dismissed them outright. I can just as easily make another pair - a little silver flower frame in wire with jade beads stitched onto it will be an hours work if she hates these, but of course, I'm banking on her falling in love with them! Interpreting another persons ideas and dreams can be difficult at the best of times - it is so much easier to work to a drawing - especially when the person who places the order has a very firm idea in their mind, but does not verbalise it for one reason or another. The remit was 'something simple' - and most Caprilicious women who wear my jewellery will recognise that these earrings are my idea of 'simple'. However, now that I am looking at them again through my friend's eyes they are anything but! I am sorely tempted to make another pair - the flowers I talked about earlier and send them out instead but perhaps she will try these on and fall in love with them! Perhaps, deep down I'm hoping for a Capriliciousification and to have a new convert to the cause - who knows what's in my subconscious? Where is Freud when you need him?? What do you think folks? Do leave me your thoughts and I will follow your advice. My friend has gone on holiday so I have a couple of days to sort this out. Last week the editor of Bead and Jewellery magazine sent out the proofs of my next tutorial - this one is for the necklace above made of polymer clay faux textile petals called Midnight Tango. I think the issue comes out next month, and I am most excited. The original necklace lives in Bangalore, India with my friend Sheela, and I took her permission before submitting the project to B & J. That's me for this week, good people. Have a lovely weekend - I shall be working and hopefully all will be quiet at the OK Corral. Catch you next week, same time, same place,
Until then xx P.S. please, please leave me a comment about the soutache earrings and what I should do with my little dilemma, thanks, N xx Hello readers, welcome back to the story of my week - this week was dominated by metal clay - I put my big girls pants on and strode out into a brave new world. Well, it wasn't quite that easy, being the cowering timorous beastie that I am - but almost. Why is it that when I am in a class, everything seems to be so easy? It all flows like clockwork and bish, bash, bosh, I'm looking at a lovely piece of jewellery. Once I get home, however, everything that can go wrong, does, and I am pulling my hair out in large chunks - I just hate this part of the learning curve and need to force myself to get on the ladder. Anyway, there I was, a-shaking and a-quaking, but determined to do it. I mentally hitched my pants up high and dove into a new packet of silver clay, having drawn a little design onto a piece of paper. This gave me hives, right at the very start as I cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, but I carried on and eventually after a few false starts, I made what I thought would be a couple of pendants, but changed my mind halfway and turned them into asymmetrical earrings. I have wanted to try out this design format for a while and had a lot of fun playing with it. Eventually, on Sunday night they were almost done, but I was exhausted and didn't put them in the kiln for fear of making an error due to tiredness. SeafoamI learned the Bargello technique from Jana Roberts Benzon a couple of years ago and made this bead using the last pieces of material I made at the class. I simply put the bead away until I could make up my mind what I wanted to do with it. Put together with hand carved jade in a pale green, black engraved onyx with Chinese lettering and dragons picked out in gold, and a few African Baule lost wax beads, my Bargello bead assumed its rightful place in a beautiful fusion necklace. Unisex Jewellery for Eco WarriorsI've always been fascinated by arrowheads, one of the most primitive implements made by man - the ones I acquired are a bit more contemporary, and chiselled from agate in shades of cream, beige and grey. I wrapped the arrowheads in copper wire which I then antiqued and polished and hung on a leather thong. I think they are suitable to be worn by both men and women and from these humble beginnings, I have a small range of unisex jewellery. This Maori warrior face is hand carved bone, and came all the way from Indonesia from Indounik. I have had him for ages, and think he looks rather splendid wrapped in square copper wire which I twisted with a pin vise to give an interesting curly-haired look. And finally, the metal clay pieces I crafted so carefully were ready to go into the kiln. I held my breath, put my big girls pants on and waited with bated breath till the kiln beeped at me - 'come and have a look, don't be such a scaredy cat', it said - and I did, and it was fine - phew! I thought, as long as I still had those pants on, I might as well try out a bit of soldering, and that worked as well - OMG! I will tumble and polish the earrings and have them on the website at the weekend, and on this page next week. I shall go now and rest my weary head. The stresses and strains of the week have almost done me in, but I shall carry on with clay, now that I've been bitten well and truly by the bug. That's it for the week folks, have a fab weekend, and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place xx Good day, good folk, and welcome to the Caprilicious Jewellery blog for lovers of interesting jewellery. I've decided that I should try and eschew the words 'statement jewellery' - after all, everything you wear says something about you and states who you are and from which direction the wind is filling your sails. Procrastination, that's been my middle name this week. Ever since I came back from the workshop in Wareham, I've been meaning to work with silver clay. I sat down at my crafting table - and that's as far as I got - everything I touched turned to rubbish and I finally gave up in disgust. I decided that the reason that nothing worked for me was because I didn't have this tool, or that one, and I spent a fortune kitting myself out with everything I could possibly need - I've even bought a small food dehydrator, for cryin' out loud! And now, I've run out of excuses - absolutely and completely. I'm going to have to buckle down and get on with it this weekend. It is certainly difficult to get out of the old comfort zone, but it has to be done. Working with a kiln can be difficult, and when you work really hard to craft a piece of artware, it goes into the kiln and comes out a complete mess, it can be heart breaking! However, I need to get away from the anxiety of failure and work to face my fears - and I need to keep telling myself that, or my hands seem to find other work which mysteriously becomes so interesting and overwhelmingly important that I cannot stop and go to the clay. While I procrastinated, I made these pieces - you can see that they are mostly wirework, subconsciously chosen to keep me away from the kiln for ever longer. CirqueThe two beautiful black and white druzy agates, with shimmering crystals at their centres reminded me of a glacier - Cirque glaciers are bowl-shaped depressions on the side of or near mountains. Snow and ice accumulation in cirque glaciers often occurs as the result of avalanches from higher surrounding slopes. I have previously made a necklace from blue quartz called Glacial Fantasy inspired by a picture of a glacier, but I thought these two would benefit from simple wirework to set the stone off to it's best advantage. As you can imagine, although these torques are 'less is more', minimalistic pieces they took a while to weave - a good excuse to keep me away from the kiln for the first half of the week. Rolls of wire kept shoving themselves under my nose and doing a 'play with me, pleeease' dance. Pliers jumped off the shelf and landed on my toes demanding attention - what could I do but pick them up, although it meant another two days away from the kiln. and for my next trick........ Dawn The woman in this art nouveau brass stamping which came from Colorado, USA, looks as if she is looking out of a window at the sunrise, yawning delicately, clutching her bedclothes to her to cover her nudity. The window is surrounded by greenery with coloured crystals, gemstones and Czech glass leaves. Equally, she might just be saying 'oops, I did it again', ruefully watching her married lover leave the premises, rushing to get back home before he is missed. She is pretty, isn't she? I put her on a pretty blue and cream necklace and I think she likes where she is. Cookies and CreamI very rarely design in browns and creams - these dyed jade beads arrived in a wholesale lot and I wondered what I was going to do with them - I briefly considered swapping them for other, brighter beads with ladies on a bead swap forum. And then, all of a sudden, Ms Muse came up with this three stranded necklace with one of my beautiful diamante clasps and some pewter flowers I'd been hoarding for a while. It turned out to be a sophisticated necklace in sober colours, and would suit an occasion of that ilk - perhaps a lunch with the girlfriends or an evening function in the neckline of a simple sheath dress. And that was another evening gone, by the time I figured out the best combination of beads, how I wanted the clasp placed, and decided to add the flowers time flew by. Ms Muse was no help - she just wanted to string three different colours on the three separate strands of the necklace in a sort of ombre piece. I did as she instructed to be left with a very weird looking piece of jewellery. Mike, who was watching this go bad ways suggested I mix the beads up asymmetrically - and Cookies and Cream appeared in my hands - thank you Mike! Paisley HoopsI sat in front of the telly one evening with a spool of sterling silver wire and made these earrings. Each earring is made with two lengths of wire, and another length of fine wire to bind the jade and amethyst beads onto the main structure. They were fun to make and will be even more fun to wear - hoops are very 'in', this year. During this time, I had last minute tweaks to apply to my paperwork for my appraisal at the day job, spent a couple of days in London shopping and going to the theatre with one of my dearest friends who came here all the way from Boston, and even addressed a public meeting about incontinence and bladder problems in women (that, I'm afraid is my day job).
If any of you in the UK get the chance, Gypsy at the Savoy theatre is absolutely fantastic - Imelda Staunton is magnificent and deserved the standing ovation she got at the end of the performance. I hope I will hit the kiln running this weekend, and have something to show you next week. In the meantime, have a fabulous week; catch you next week, same time, same place. Hello readers, lovely to see you here again. This week, I've been reading a really interesting blog by women who aren't afraid to communicate their ideas, position, or mood through their apparel and accessories. They call themselves The Idiosyncratic Fashionistas, Valerie and Jean, and their blog is just so much fun - I just hope I age as irreverently and with as much zest for life! If you have a moment to spare, I urge you to take a look. My mother brought us girls up to be quiet shy types, to be obedient wives and sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam while we ate our strawberries and cream (or was it curds and whey?), like the Mother Goose character. She got a bit confused along the way though, and gave us a good education and the ability to use our brains. Unfortunately for her, as we grew older and escaped from mum's sphere of influence both my sister and I turned out to be more and more like Longfellow's little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead than Curly Locks or Miss Muffet - " When she was good she was very, very good, And when she was bad she was horrid." Unfortunately we revert to type on occasion, but that is happening less and less these days. On Making a Statement and Having a BlastWhat does it mean - to make a statement? - all statements claim something or make a point. According to the OED, one of the definitions of a statement is "the communication of an idea, position, mood, or the like through something other than words". What sort of statement do you think these two ladies are making? Relaxed, fun, irreverent, devil - may - care, idiosyncratic, all of the above? Any more thoughts? Put them in the comments section, why don't you? I am so going to be like them as I grow older - Miss Muffet be damned; sorry mum! I have been busy tying up loose ends in preparation for our end-of-summer holiday. Having had a very indifferent summer, I am not looking forward to the rigours of winter, but Heigh Ho! one just has to plod on. By the time you read this, I shall be on a flight to Nice towards the sun, sea and pebbles - I'll be sure to send you a postcard! Butterscotch and CaramelWhat's the difference, I hear you ask - well, apparently butterscotch and caramel are very different things. Caramel is made with granulated white sugar, milk and/or cream, and butter. Butterscotch on the other hand is made with brown sugar and butter. Toffee is butterscotch that has been cooked to the hard-crack stage - and all of them are yummy and very bad for you and your teeth, as is usually the case with anything tasty! These carnelian lentil shaped beads reminded me so much of those toffees I often longed for as a child and pestered my grandfather for, until he gave in and bought them for me. I added bronze lost wax cast beads from Kenya, and some blue magnesite paisley shaped beads for contrast. Basket Weave EarringsTwelve tiny pieces of copper wire were wired together, their ends hammered into little paddles to form hoop earrings. Although they look easy to make, they were actually difficult - try holding twelve 2" long pieces of copper wire in a row flat enough to wire together and you will understand why I invented some swear words that day. Until I found this tool, lurking at the back of my tool kit. It is a ring clamp, and is meant to hold a ring steady while it is being worked on. It has two movable ends on a hinge, padded out with suede leather to give a good grip and a removable wedge that is inserted into either end to hold the ring securely. Hooray, I found a use for another one of my tools, bought long ago with a project in mind, lying unused and forlorn in a cupboard until now! Hoops are in fashion just now and I think these are simple (OK, they look simple), light and interesting. I wanted to add some dangly bits which is why I created a wiggly border in the first place, but it just didn't look right and I gave up after a couple of attempts. SmittenRomantic and pretty - that is the statement that will be made by the wearer of this necklace - pale apple green jade and whisper pink rose quartz leaf shaped beads, interspersed with freshwater pearls, carrying a cottonwood leaf. The bail has gemstones in pinks and greens as well as an amethyst nugget dangling from it on a 'S' shaped squiggle that was formed and hammered into shape from a length of no tarnish silver plated wire. The cottonwood leaf skeleton was electroplated with copper and coated with silver in the USA and I bought it there at my last visit in May. I envisage it worn by a woman in a flowing gown with a deep neckline, perhaps even a bride, a romantic hairstyle with curls escaping from it, long slim arms with tinkling bracelets - is that you I can see in my mind's eye?? Right folks, I have to go wash my hair and paint my nails now in readiness for my holiday. Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next weekend, a bit later than usual at the Caprilicious Jewellery Blog
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