Hello folks, how are you this cloudy, rainy morning? Of course, it may not be raining where you are, but here cats and dogs are falling from the skies with sickening regularity. At least the gardens are looking green and lush as there is no shortage of water. I've been away from home for a lot of the week, so had to make what time I had productive. At the weekend, I had a client from London come up to spend a couple of days with us. Caprilicious has brought many interesting and fun people into my orbit, and this girl is certainly in that category. We've met up a few times in London, and she came up to me, bringing beads to be strung and many changes of clothes so that we could do a little photoshoot. She looks so fabulous in so many of these pictures, I am sure to be using them for a while yet. It surprises me that she has never done any modelling before as she took to it like a duck to water, posing away for the camera willingly, changing clothes and lipstick colour ever so often, uncomplainingly and to great effect. I've been making beads using an ultralight form of polymer clay and salting away simple necklaces made with these beads - the necklaces are bright, pretty and light, and have the usual asymmetrical Caprilicious vibe. There will be a couple more of them made by the end of the week so that there is a fair sized stash of simple, inexpensive pieces on show, as well as the more complex ones. The Oil Slick NecklaceThis necklace has caught the imagination of a number of my customers and a lady who lives in Texas commissioned one for herself. She wanted the beads to be larger, the necklace to be longer and for the spacers to be of a particular type and I was happy to oblige. As the necklace was already designed, it was an easy matter to string the beads to her specification. I also made a couple more necklaces for her at her request. She likes her necklaces long, with a medallion like pendant and she had three necklaces made and shipped out to Texas, along with a few others that I have been reserving for her over the last couple of months. MaryamNamed for the Hamsa or Hand of Fatima/Maryam pendant hung on a necklace of citrine nuggets. Queen of the NightThe large amulet came from Afghanistan via Lahore and is strung with coral chunks and golden obsidian beads. The obsidian is really beautiful - at first sight it looks like just another black bead, but when one gets closer, it appears as if a golden liquid is suspended within. That's as much as I had time for this week, folks. I am working all weekend and hopefully it is a quiet time at the coalface. Have a lovely week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place,
Until then xx
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Hello readers, and lovers of unusual handmade statement jewellery, it is nice of you to drop by the Caprilicious blog this week. All of last week I was blinging up my shelves in preparation for the party season and this week I decided to make the last one for a while - overdosing on bling isn't good for the eyes! TyrianTyrian was a purple dye used to colour the robes of kings in Phoenician times - it was extremely expensive as rather than fading with time and weathering, it got brighter and deeper. The dye came from the secretions of a sea snail and was extracted by milking the snail (how does one milk a snail?? - the mind boggles!) only tiny amounts were collected by this method, which was probably another reason why Tyrian was so expensive. By the time I put this necklace together, I began to feel as if my eyes were dropping out of my head - I had overdosed on bling. My reels of wire were getting really annoyed at the inattention they were subjected to - and I was getting withdrawal symptoms due to the prolonged break from wire. Mellow YellowI was looking through the website, and I saw a picture of a blood stone cabochon I had photographed for the magical components page about three years ago. When I bought it, I thought it had a masculine vibe and wrote that I planned to put it together with copper and possibly coral. I forgot all about it until I found it by accident the other day when looking for something else on the website and had an 'Aha!' moment. Mellow Yellow is a colour very close to the colour of the citrine beads I used in this necklace (there is also an 'unmellow yellow - don't believe me?? - then go on and google it ) and the title of a song by Donovan in the 60's. According to legend, Mellow Yellow was about the feeling one gets when one smokes dried banana skins - I am not sure whether that is the case or not - and am not about to test that theory. BeijingColourful oriental components went into this necklace - porcelain beads , cinnabar, coral and black agate - I just love the vibrancy of it. Old cinnabar beads had hundreds of layers of lacquer which contained a sulfate of mercury applied to them, which were then carved into beautiful shapes. Today, the toxic mercury/cinnabar is replaced by combining layers and layers of colored polymer lacquer, which are then hand-carved (or in some cases, machine carved) into intricate patterns. Casbah Caprilicious is doing a globe trotting act this week - we haven't been on a holiday for a while and I am doing it through my jewellery - a bit like leafing through travel brochures or Trip Advisor! I've been saving these beads (Ok, hoarding, really - I just love shiny, pretty things) and I thought this was as good a time as any to use them. Faceted smoky quartz - faceted beads are my favourite, the extra shine appeals to the magpie in me - and a beautiful Moroccan bead went into this simple and sophisticated necklace. I bought three of these beads a while ago - the first couple were made up into a bright and exciting necklace called Berber Sunrise, and this one is smoky and sophisticated in a completely different style - which one do you like? Or will you be a Caprilicious Woman and match each of them to a different mood? Jazz in The ParkThese buttons were made a while ago and I sanded and buffed them as and when I had the time. Buttons are the simplest and least expensive way to embellish a garment, and these are vibrant enough to brighten up a dull outfit. They were cut from a polymer clay cane I made using a technique pioneered by Alice Stroppel. I used my fabulous cane slicer to cut even slices of the cane, and was well pleased with the result. The Boho Babe - back to MoroccoAnother Moroccan bead - this time a large one, teamed with green and black agate nuggets. I wanted the piece to be long and the bauble sized bead to sit low on the chest to avoid looking like a cow bell. I strung the beads on cream coloured genuine leather, with knots between each bead and macrame knots all the way to the clasp. I am not a fan of large nuggets and beads sitting high in the neckline - perhaps you feel differently - do tell... Stygian BeautyThe beads in this necklace came to me in the post only the other day and I had to find some way of using them immediately, they were too beautiful to put away in a drawer. Golden Obsidian is formed from cooled lava - the silica inclusions deep within the rock and patterns formed by gas bubbles lined up within the molten lava give it a golden sheen. The same post brought me a book by Lisa Barth, and in it I found a design, which when modified to suit the shape of a black and white agate pendant stone, would make a perfect focal point. I hung it on the obsidian necklace with Chinese black quartz embossed with dragons in gold, as accents - a beauty straight from the Stygian depths of the earth. The Ancient and the ModernA prayer box, Gau (also spelled Ghau or Gao), is a Tibetan Buddhist amulet container made of metal and worn as jewellery. They incorporate a small container used to hold and carry powerful amuletic objects such as chunks of coral, turquoise and a written prayer, or sacred mantras such as the Kalachakra. I love the secret compartment and have made a few necklaces using Ghau boxes over the years. I have made them with simple necklaces, and sometimes with outrageous wirework that none but the boldest woman would wear. The two that I have here are both inlaid with turquoise and coral - the one has been put into a simple necklace with turquoise and the second, into a necklace made of multi coloured shell beads. HoliMandalaYou can see I have been busy all this week - but now, I have to call it a day - that's as much as I had time for - catch you next week, same time, same place
xx |
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