Hello folks, I hope you're enjoying the weather this weekend. I don't want to rain on anyone's chips, but if a couple of minutes in the sunshine are very possibly the best we're going to get to smile about this year, we'd best enjoy it before it's all gone. I've been rooting through old albums from holidays long past - nostalgia for what was, and what might never be again. This is going to be a quick post as the garden beckons - the sun is shining and i'm off to sit under a parasol and sip a Becks Blue shandy with hubby and Wilfred. The bees are buzzing around and I caught an opportunistic picture of one rampaging through the sweet peas with pollen smeared all over it's bottom. Last week I was playing with a moonstone from my Jaipur stash and had just finished attaching it to a necklace blank with a beaded bezel - I had no real idea where I was going with it until I saw this picture of the Keukenhof gardens, just outside Amsterdam that I visited many years ago - possibly in 1984! It was my first trip into Europe on a tour bus and the Keukenhof gardens were impossibly beautiful. I'd love to go there again, but it is just open to the public for about eight weeks in the Tulip season between the end of March and mid May. It's still a bit chilly at that time and although I plan to go back, every time we think about booking a pre summer holiday, it seems too much of a chore to pack all our winter gear and stout walking shoes/wellies (there are 32 hectares of garden so even a short walk is very long) to go on holiday when we can be as warm as a piece of pie, right here at home. I decided that I would sew colour blocks of 'flowers' around the central moonstone which would represent the body of water in the picture above. There are plenty of water features in the Keukenhof with lakes and ponds and canals galore and although the gardens are shut at night, I imagined what they must look like on a moonlit night. Here's the necklace right up to where I stopped last night. That's all I have for you this week, good people. Have a lovely weekend, wear your masks when you meet people, and stay safe. It isn't over yet, not by a long chalk. See you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx
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Hello folks, thanks for dropping by, it's always a pleasure to be with you. After I finished Woodland Fantasy I felt as if I would never have another idea again in my life, and that I had poured all my creativity, every last ounce of it, into that beauty. I know better than to push it, though and I played it cool, whiling away the hiatus by making little earrings until something came to me - and I'm happy to report that this week, I've had a germ of an idea. I opened the box of stuff I bought in Jaipur a couple of years ago and a moonstone seemed to jump out at me. 'Use me, use me,' it cried. How could I be rude and leave that sliver of moonglow behind? I covered a piece of Lacy's Stiff Stuff with dark velvet and attached the cabochon to it with a silvery beaded bezel, and that's as far as I got this week. I've got the vaguest of ideas about how I will proceed, but Paisley figures high on the list. I'm still enthralled by Japanese Beading, and I guess I shall be using those techniques as well. Other than that, I haven't a clue what's going to happen and that's half the fun of it, watching a piece evolve as if by magic. I was asked last week after I made a bug in response to Nicole Hanna's Finish It Challenge what her piece looked like - well, I feel quite embarrassed to show you Nicole's piece, but Hey! She's a master at the art and I spent two evenings on a highly masochistic exercise just to get the tutorial, so I will show it to you. Feel free to have a good laugh! I saw this ad and decided to investigate as Adrian Hall, the chap who curates the exhibits was asking for local artists to display their pieces at the Temperance Cafe. I sent in a picture of Woodland Fantasy and was gratified when he accepted it almost immediately. I dropped it off in Leamington Spa today after work and it goes on show with the other exhibits tomorrow. I'm always on the lookout for ways to showcase Caprilicious and this works well for me. The Cafe opens tomorrow with this exhibition and a number of artists were dropping their pieces off as well. There is going to be a friends and family showing on Sunday from 3pm and if I'm not doing anything else, I might go to it. The Temperance Cafe is a community cafe, art gallery and event space in the heart of the old town of Leamington Spa. It was built in the early nineteenth century and has been restored into a cosy place where they serve food from local suppliers during the day and have jazz evenings, show films and live performances from the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Opera House and Royal Ballet. They have regular poetry, story-telling, theatre and comedy nights. At least twice a week, they have live music from local and visiting musicians. All this in such a tiny space. Oh, I mustn't forget the art gallery and vintage items they sell. Altogether a little gem of a place, and the reviews on Trip Advisor are excellent. The cafe is not too far away from the centre of town and Mike found it last year when I was showing at the Museum and Art Gallery. While I waited for inspiration to strike like a thunderbolt my fingers couldn't sit still. I wove a little strip using seed beads and attached freshwater pearls to it. Hung from a leather cord with pearls knotted into it, this one isn't going to excite your grandmothers, but it sure is different. Pearls and leather aren't meant to go together, but somehow they do in a very edgy manner. Very biker chic, and lots of fun. It's only a little square pendant, about and inch and a half wide, but it packs a visual punch. My garden is looking pretty, and all the flowers have come out to smile at us having benefited from the time spent on them during the pandemic. At least someone's happy! Fortunately the weather hasn't been half bad so we've been able to enjoy the fruits of our labours. That's me for this week, folks. Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx Don't Blame it on the Moonshine, by Caprilicious Jewellery (with apologies to the Jacksons)10/5/2019 Hello folks how's tricks? I hope life is treating you well, wherever you are. I've begun the countdown to my little pre summer break and although it is still a little way away, I am now raring to go. In the meantime, I played with my beads as usual. MoonshineMoonshine is any kind of alcohol, usually whisky or rum, that is made in secret to avoid high taxes or outright bans on alcoholic drinks. The term "moonshine" comes from Britain, where it originally was a verb, "moonshining," that referred to any job or activity late at night. Whisky is aged in casks until it becomes a clear amber liquid, but moonshine is cloudy because it is not clarified and is drunk as soon as it is distilled. Moonshiners distilled the stuff where there was a ban on alcohol and bootleggers sold it, while rum runners were smugglers who moved the alcohol around on boats. Did you know that moonshining was responsible for the start of car racing? Bootleggers in the 1930s, '40s and '50s took to driving cars packed with moonshine through the night to avoid local police. Their mechanical skills developed as they learned to drastically increase the horsepower of their vehicles to outrun the authorities and eventually these vehicles were used in motor car racing! There, another interesting but useless fact for you! And all because I named a necklace after a cloudy intoxicating liquid! One of my long term clients was talking about a peach coloured dress she was going to wear at a wedding and wondered if i had any piece of jewellery that might go with it. I didn't, but it got me searching for beads (any excuse!) and I fell in love with a strand of moonstones, cut into what are called tyre or wheel shaped beads. The strand comes in three colours, in the usual white, a pale grey that resembles labradorite and peach. I bought a half strand as the stuff is eye wateringly expensive, and when it arrived, made this piece, adding a little cabochon of peach coloured druzy and loads of tiny vintage gold tone seed beads. The baroque pearl came from Bangkok, where I bought a strand of these pearls, each one is about 1 cm long. I didn't have any peachy beads to hang the pendant so used more baroque pearls with tiny peach seed pearls in between. The clasp is pretty special, too. Lucy's Bead Soup NecklaceLucy sent me two bracelets of colourful gemstone chip beads and asked me to create 'something'. It took me ages and ages to actually put a necklace together - every time I made something else, I found little beads that could possibly go into a piece and popped them into a box. When the box was full, I rummaged in my stash of polymer clay beads and found a pendant, created long ago by following a tutorial from Iris Mishly that comes all the way from Israel. I never told her I was sending it to her early on this week. I haven't heard from her and I'm hoping that it is because she's on holiday and not because she hates it and will never speak to me again for ruining her bracelets! The Penannular NecklaceThe word 'penannular' literally means a circle with a break in it, and the pendant I used is a penannular brooch or fibula from Morocco, enamelled in vibrant colours, I hung it on a necklace of oval lapis lazuli, each bead appears to be twisted on itself, they are really cut beautifully by the lapidary, whoever he/she was. I added tiny drum shaped coral beads to increase the colour quotient and three huge Nepalese beads that are beautifully textured. The fibula had to be wired so that the pointy bit (that isn't terribly pointy anyway as it is probably meant for a shawl or as a hair ornament) sits at the top, tucked away into a bead cap. Shiny Shibori EarringsMy inner magpie was very pleased with these. They are little inverted triangles filled with shiny clear crystals and little bows of pale green and pink Shibori ribbon. I edged it in a vibrant pink/purple as it was little too pale for my liking - I'm afraid I don't agree with the phrase 'pale and interesting'. That's me for this week folks, I haven't anything else to show you. I hope you've enjoyed your read and will come back for more.
Have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then, xx Hello folks, how are you? We've had a very cold week here and even a bit of snow, although not a lot. The thermal underwear was out in earnest and the Michelin woman look was de rigeur - someone even called me Nanouk of the North, they way I'd bundled up to walk a few yards from one building to the next at work, and it hasn't even got cold in earnest yet! As you know, last week the IDEAS team held their Christmas show and I was there on Friday with Caprilicious. The Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham, has what they euphemistically call a 'Market Hall' - a large, underheated (read cold), draughty hall where the show was held. There was plenty of space to set up when my freezing fingers and chattering teeth allowed me to - Mike had to drop me off at the rear entrance and leave, as there was absolutely nowhere to park and the traffic wardens in that area pinch you as soon as look at you. I was on my own and set up in a sort of frozen trance. I asked one of the ladies who had finished setting her stall up to help me hang my banner, and I was ready. The organisers had brought in a huge tea urn and I must have visited it at least ten times during the day in an effort to keep warm which didn't really work, but it kept me moving. This of course meant going to the loo a number of times, but although there was no heating at all in the toilets, there was running hot water and a fabulous, warm hand drier! Is there a saying about warm hands and cold bottoms?? I can't remember, but if there is, this would be a perfect time to use it. I don't think Caprilicious was the right fit for that show unfortunately, as people were mainly looking for little Christmas presents, and stalls with hand written cards, framed inspirational quotes, bunting, little pieces of jewellery and small ceramic items seemed to do better than the others. The publicity for the show wasn't that wonderful, and some of the vendors complained that there didn't seem to be too many signs outside, pointing people in our direction. However, to my surprise, a couple of people who had taken my card contacted me and even bought a few pieces a couple of days later. I took some pictures of the stalls that were colourful and attracted my eye. This sculpture of the Green Man by Toin Adams stands in a cramped space in the Custard Factory in Birmingham. The site was once the home to Alfred Bird & Sons Ltd, manufacturers of the famed Bird’s Custard Powder, and is now an office/retail location. This post-industrial area of the city is an unlikely spot for a personification of nature and the life force. The phrase itself was coined in the 1930s to refer to heads or masks sprouting and disgorging vegetation which can be found in so many English churches. The living statue features fossils, a waterfall and live flames and will change its shape over the seasons as organic materials rot and the plants that cover it grow. Shine OnI hunted down these crystals for a friend - they came in a bag of five colours and I made simple necklaces with them - they shine most amazingly! The Keeper of The Secret Pendants in sterling silver arrived from Indonesia, and one of them was a mystical face carved in a piece of turquoise, set in a silver head dress with iolite earrings. The turquoise comes from the Sleeping Beauty mines in Arizona, and the face is serene and mysterious. I'd recently bought the moonstone nuggets, which are just as fascinating, with their inner fire and flashes of light emanating from deep within a pale, cool exterior. I thought they were fabulous, together with a scattering of turquoise, iolite, pearls and Bali silver beads. I made suncatchers as presents for people at the hospital - I have about 15 - 18 presents to find for junior doctors, secretaries and others, and I thought these pretty crystals would look beautiful - one of the midwives bought four of them and started a roll, and I am now down to about half the original number left. They are very pretty though, and I can see why they would be attractive as presents. Every year I offer to pack and post your gifts out if you wish to avail of this free service, and this applies to 2017 as well. I will even throw in a Christmas Card from you. That's me for this week, folks. I am going to have a very relaxed weekend, doing very little after all the hard work I've put in over the last few weeks. Have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello again, readers, how are you all today? Britain is in a frenzy of anticipation - Team GB is not doing so badly at the Olympics in Rio and people are glued to their television sets. We are not that into sport and have taken advantage of the sunshine to relax in the garden and I made a few pieces of jewellery. I was watching reruns of Series 3 of Absolutely Fabulous. Jennifer Saunders wore a beautiful necklace through most of the show and I fell in love with it - it is bright, bold and colourful, and big! So very Caprilicious! I decided to have a go at trying to make it out of polymer clay. I looked for a still picture of the necklace but could find nothing that was remotely of any use, it was as if the bloody woman moved on purpose just to keep me from getting a good look at it - I had to watch the recorded show over and over, making drawings to help me - my lack of drawing skills are legendary and even the simplest shapes elude me. I eventually decided to make it from memory in colours that caught my eye and when I went to hang it, I found a Nepalese thread work necklace that seemed perfect! An international effort, if ever there was one. I asked Lorena Angulo, a Mexican artisan jeweller from San Antonio in Texas, whether she knew if the cascade of hearts signified anything and she replied that it looked very much like a Milagro heart - Milagros are religious folk charms that are traditionally used for healing purposes and as votive offerings in Mexico, southern Spain and in other Latin American countries. They are frequently attached to altars, shrines, and sacred objects found in places of worship, and they are often purchased in churches and cathedrals, or from street vendors. Milagros come in a variety of shapes and dimensions and are fabricated from many different materials, depending on local customs. A lot of Lorena's work is influenced by her origins and she often makes these Milagros (or would that be Milagra?? who knows??), beautifully carved from precious metal clay. I'm playing this on the blog today - just because..... It's a fabulous song and I love Alison Moyet, enjoy! The Little Miss CollectionI bought these silver pendants with the most beautiful semi precious stones in Jaipur during my last holiday in India. I had no idea what I wanted to do with them, so they just sat in a box until one day, suddenly, Ms Muse remembered them and seemed to know how exactly how to string them. I used the three butterflies to make pretty necklaces which would be ideal for young ladies, and of course older ladies who are young at heart! The gemstones in these pendants are really pretty a Little Miss would look lovely in her first piece of heirloom jewellery. Roger Hargreaves was an English author and illustrator of children's books, best remembered for the Mr. Men and Little Miss series, intended for very young readers. The simple and humorous stories, with brightly coloured, boldly drawn illustrations, have been part of popular culture since 1971. The stories are set in a fictional universe called "Misterland", which is inhabited by the Mr. Men and Little Misses themselves, as well as some ordinary human characters such as shopkeepers, doctors and postmen. There are also various animals and Walter the Worm appears frequently. The characters are human in their behaviours and attributes. After Roger's death, his son wrote a few more books in the series and in April 2004, his widow Christine sold the rights to the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters to UK entertainment group Chorion for a reported £28 million. Little Miss SunshineAmetrine pebbles carry the butterfly pendant which has the most beautiful topaz and citrine gemstones and a few left over ametrines went into earrings to match. Little Miss FabulousThe butterfly is made in two colours of topaz and an amethyst. I strung it simply on a silver chain, and added little dangles in peridot, apatite, jade and amethyst on either side of the pendant. A little pink jade butterfly finishes the pendant, dangling from the extension chain at the back. Little Miss MoonlightThere isn't really a Little Miss Moonlight in Hargreaves's series, but who knows, they might just make her up after this. This butterfly has iridescent moonstones as well as amethyst and turquoise and is strung on a necklace of square labradorite beads, with tiny pale pink seed pearls between the labradorites. I even made some earrings to go with the necklace. The box clasp, enhanced by a little moonstone also came from Jaipur and is very, very pretty. I see these worn to a prom, or at a first dance, gifted to a bridesmaid or even worn by the bride. It is nice for young girls to develop an appreciation of fine things that they need to take care of and cherish, and a simple piece of heirloom jewellery may be one of the best ways to start. That's me for this week folks. Have a fabulous weekend and I shall catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then
xx Hiya folks, thanks for coming by to have a look at the goings on at Caprilicious. This week, I've been stretching myself and moving waaaay out of my comfort zone. As a teenager, my mother taught me some embroidery skills and I decided then that this was definitely not something I would pursue. The needles seem to spring to life in my hands, attacking me and biting me deep enough to draw blood and stain the cloth I was working on and the threads turned into snakes that moved with a will of their own and got tangled and knotted. The air used to be blue around me and I invented a few really interesting swear words. And of course, I'd never beaded - beading work in India is done by the finest artisans and I would never have thought of ever attempting to compete with them. It surprised me then, when for no particular reason my eyes were drawn to soutache jewellery and bead weaving. Perhaps it was the beauty of the stones I brought back from Jaipur or just the need to do something different. I'm not sure what the impetus was for this new direction I am taking, but here it is!! I want to tell you a bit about Soutache jewellery. Soutache, also known as Russian braid is a tightly woven flat braid, used mainly on the uniforms of the soldiers in France and Eastern European countries from the 1800's. The braids were used to conceal seams, create embellishments and indicate rank on military uniforms. A textile designer from Israel, Dori Csengri was playing around with pieces of the braid one day in the mid eighties, and in an Eureka! moment she designed a piece of soutache jewellery. How amazing is that! Since then the best proponents of soutache appear to come from Eastern Europe. Soutache jewellery can be very colourful and that idea, as always, excites me as the possibilities are endless. The technique is painstaking and slow. The braids have to be lined up so that the weaves are all lying in the same direction, tiny stitches to be inserted invisibly into the ridge between the two sides of the braid, tension maintained, beads added, and the whole piece backed with ultrasuede - and I, Ms. Needle Hater, was dismayed. However the call of the colours in this particular form of jewellery could not be ignored. Of course being me, I couldn't possibly do anything simple and easy, could I? I decided that I had to learn basic bead weaving to embellish the cabochons as well. The stones can be attached to the backing with glue and surrounded with soutache braids, but the wire worker in me scorns the use of glue to hold a stone in place in perpetuity. I wanted to use tiny seed beads to weave a setting around the cabochon (there goes my eyesight!) and having made a few practice pieces, I decided to take a class to consolidate my knowledge of the technique and pick up a few extra pointers along the way. The class was in London and I booked it well in advance and organised time off from the day job. I took the train to London nice and early, at the ungodly hour of 7am ( well, as far as I am concerned 7am is an ungodly hour), took a tube to Whitechapel and then found that I had arrived a day too early!. Oh No! I went back home and did it all again the next day, there was nothing else for it. I even met the same Punxsutawney Phil's on the train, they were obviously commuters who go up to London on the train every day. It takes an hour and six minutes to get in to Euston, and of course, it is much cheaper to live in Warwickshire, even with the train fares. I sat in the sunshine and had a coffee at the same Turkish cafe - it really was a Groundhog Day moment. I made a couple of little pieces at the class. They provided us with ugly acrylic cabochons, cheap cotton thread with Bengali writing on the packaging that snapped as soon as I looked at it and plastic pearls and I couldn't bring myself to waste my energy on making anything that resembled jewellery with that lot - I know, I am such a snob! I can't understand why they would stint on supplies as the prices they charged were steep enough for them to have provided us with halfway decent stuff. Anyway, I learned the how to's and how not to's and was happy with that. And then the fun part - SHOPPING! I sent off for braid and seed beads, needles and strong thread, researching the best supplies and designs as I went along and adding to another Pinterest board - I really don't know what I did before Pinterest. Presently I had enough supplies to make my first piece. To my pleasant surprise the Fireline thread I bought is very strong, fishing line covered by silk and it doesn't get tangled easily - it is just hell on legs to thread the needle with it as the beading needles are tiny. CopacabanaThe colours of the solar quartz in this necklace look so much like the waters of Copacabana Beach and the swirls of braid are joyous. I started out with a vague idea in mind, and ended up with this piece... The blue quartz needles go so well with the pendant, would you agree?? Here are some pictures of another piece I started this week, my eyes and fingers needed a bit of a rest and I had to wait for the green beads to arrive. This time I kept a pictorial diary in Instagram - have you looked at the Caprilicious Instagram account?? It is called caprilicious_by_neena_shilvock, and I post updates as I go along if I remember to bring my mobile phone to my seat in front of the telly. There's a way to go yet and I may not be finished by the time this blog comes out - I'm calling this one The Girl From Ipanema! I see a definite Art Deco face here and I also have an idea of how to string it. My next piece will be from a cabochon of Bumble Bee Jasper - I love the blacks and yellows in the stone that give it it's name. That's me for this week, folks. I hope you've enjoyed the read. Do come back next week, see you on Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx |
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