Tribal Espirit

Hello readers, thanks for joining me this week. Caprilicious went tribal - bold and bright seemed to be the order of the day - every time I reached into my stash, my hands came out full of components for tribal jewellery.
 Pendants from Afghanistan are the basis of this collection - they are vintage, and a bit battered and bruised, but looking all the better for it. I replaced some of the crystals that had fallen out and cleaned them up a bit, but no more - the patina of age is what makes them special. Combined with brand new polymer clay beads made at Caprilicious, they evolved into one of a kind pieces of jewellery.

Banjara

Banjara was made using faux turquoise and lapis lazuli beads from Lynda Moseley's tutorial, and the faux ancient glass was made from a tutorial by Ginger Davis Allman. Both these techniques were great fun to use and produced credible results.
The Banjaras are Indian gypsies found all over India today, known for their colourful dress, ornaments and bangles. There is talk that they originated from Afghanistan, which explains why some Banjara jewellery is similar to that obtained from there.

Deeksha

Deeksha is the initiation into a monastic order, or preparation for a religious ceremony by the guru handing his disciple a mantra, and teaching him the art of meditation. I used faux Tibetan mala beads made at Caprilicious using polymer clay - the beads are strung into malas of 108 beads and used much like a rosary by Tibetan monks.

Rathi

Rathi is the Hindu goddess of love, lust, passion and sexual pleasure. She was married to Kama, the Indian equivalent of Cupid.  She is often portrayed holding a bow made of sugar cane - perhaps she was carrying it for hubby as she was his assistant - in those days, Indian women didn't mind doing the fetching and carrying for their partners, even if they were goddesses. Today's woman might have something to say about that! As befits a goddess of carnal love, she was very beautiful and sexy. Curiously, she is depicted in more than one drawing I have seen, riding a composite bird-like creature made of semi-naked women. Whether this has some sexual significance given Rathi's day job, I have not been able to ascertain - but I would imagine it does - perhaps she was holding onto them for hubby, along with the bow - who knows?
The necklace was made of tiny lapis lazuli and golden quartz nuggets, interspersed with coins that are embellished with glass.

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 Red Hot Chili Peppers

This is a fun necklace in two strands, made of African vinyl trade beads, carrying a pendant from Afghanistan. Folklore had it that vinyl beads were made from old records, but they are actually made from an early rubber product called Vulcanite. Vulcanite is a hard, moldable rubber that has been formed by “vulcanizing” natural rubber through a curing process that involves high heat and the addition of sulfur. The 'chili peppers' are little polymer clay beads made at Caprilicious over a year ago, waiting patiently for just this moment! The fastener is a box clasp given to me by my friend BN - she received a bunch of these from China with Mabe pearls all set awry - I dismantled them, threw away the Mabe pearls and filled the space with polymer clay, and I think this one is rather pretty, don't you?

By this time, I was all Triballed out and felt the need to make something from another genre - just to prove to myself that I could!
I had made this next piece a while ago but didn't really like it. I realised that what I disliked was a couple of large shell beads I had used in the centre of the necklace - I whipped them out, and Hey! Presto, I loved it.

Caldera

The beautiful blue agate druzy set in sterling silver with blue topaz reminded me of the caldera in Santorini - a caldera is a crater-like depression in the land caused by its collapse following a volcanic eruption. 
The centre of the stone has the typical druzy crystals that glitter like sugar in the light. I added blue topaz, pearls, pyrite and lilac crystals to the pendant - all the colours of spring.

That's me for this week folks, have a fabulous weekend and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place
xx