Menu
Caprilicious Jewellery
  • About Me
  • Necklaces
    • All Necklaces
    • Beadwork and Soutache Necklaces
    • Gemstone & Wire Necklaces
    • Bling! Party Wear Necklaces
    • Silver Seduction Necklaces
    • Mixed Media Daywear Necklaces
    • Lagenlook Necklaces
    • Ethnic Inspired Necklaces
      • Out of Africa Necklaces
      • Oriental Inspiration Necklaces
      • Eastern Promise Necklaces
    • Leafy Glade Necklaces
  • Earrings
    • All Earrings
    • Silver Earrings
    • Mixed Metal Earrings
    • Diamante Party Earrings
    • Beadwork Earrings
  • Bracelets
    • All Bracelets
    • Copper Arthritis Bracelets
  • Pendants & Hair Accessories
    • Silver Pendants
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Necklaces
    • All Necklaces
    • Beadwork and Soutache Necklaces
    • Gemstone & Wire Necklaces
    • Bling! Party Wear Necklaces
    • Silver Seduction Necklaces
    • Mixed Media Daywear Necklaces
    • Lagenlook Necklaces
    • Ethnic Inspired Necklaces
      • Out of Africa Necklaces
      • Oriental Inspiration Necklaces
      • Eastern Promise Necklaces
    • Leafy Glade Necklaces
  • Earrings
    • All Earrings
    • Silver Earrings
    • Mixed Metal Earrings
    • Diamante Party Earrings
    • Beadwork Earrings
  • Bracelets
    • All Bracelets
    • Copper Arthritis Bracelets
  • Pendants & Hair Accessories
    • Silver Pendants
  • Blog

The Caprilicious Jewellery Blog

Beautiful Handmade Statement Necklaces and other Fabulousness from Neena Shilvock - Inspirations and Designs From the Week Gone by

All Tooled Up

26/4/2017

2 Comments

 
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.
Milan Kundera

 
The Handmade Fair, Ragley Hall,Warwickshire, 12 - 14th May 2017
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.
Chain bracelet making tool by Caprilicious 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.

The Chain Sta - making beetle wing necklaces easier
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.

Ceramic tipped forceps/ tweezers
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.

Bracelet bending tool to make a cuff blank out of aluminium sheet by Caprilicious Jewellery
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.
Tabriz - a necklace of coral branches and Moroccan silver beads by Caprilicious Jewellery
Tabriz - a necklace of coral branches and Moroccan silver beads by Caprilicious Jewellery
Tabriz - a necklace of coral branches and Moroccan silver beads by Caprilicious Jewellery
Tabriz - a necklace of coral branches and Moroccan silver beads by Caprilicious Jewellery

Yin

Yin 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.
Yin - handcarved jade beads and ceramic gold plated beads by Caprilicious Jewellery
Yin - handcarved jade beads and ceramic gold plated beads by Caprilicious Jewellery
Yin - handcarved jade beads and ceramic gold plated beads by Caprilicious Jewellery

Wings

I 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'.
Jewellery beetle wings and marabou feathers - Wings, by Caprilicious Jewellery
Jewellery beetle wings and marabou feathers - Wings, by Caprilicious Jewellery
Jewellery beetle wings and marabou feathers - Wings, by Caprilicious Jewellery
Here's the soutache and leather cuff for which I needed the aluminium insert mentioned earlier .
Soutache and leather cuff with an ammonite fossil by Caprilicious Jewellery
Soutache and leather cuff with an ammonite fossil by Caprilicious Jewellery

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.
Bronze clay flower with cubic zirconium, on an amethyst necklace with carnelian and pyrite accents and andmade clasp by Caprilicious Jewellery
PictBronze clay flower with cubic zirconium, on an amethyst necklace with carnelian and pyrite accents and andmade clasp by Caprilicious Jewelleryure
Bronze clay flower with cubic zirconium, on an amethyst necklace with carnelian and pyrite accents and andmade clasp by Caprilicious Jewellery
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
Follow
2 Comments
Divya link
28/4/2017 05:48:31 pm

every week I am amazed by your consistency in making pieces, photographing and editing them and then writing about them. I am sure that all this effort will pay off at the fair

Reply
Neena Shilvock link
29/4/2017 02:17:00 pm

I love what I do Divya - and am having so much fun. I do hope it pays off, it is such a joy to meet people who are as enthusiastic about Caprilicious as I am. Anyway, if I don't do well it won't be for lack of trying :)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Follow
    The Caprilicious Jewellery Blog 


    Picture

    Author

     I'm Neena Shilvock,  and I'm crazily addicted to jewellery.

    I've been designing and making quirky and interesting statement necklaces for over ten years and my passion hasn't cooled off one little bit - in fact it has got worse, such that I  even dream jewellery.

    I'd love to get to know kindred spirits like you, so drop me a line and I'll get back to you, and who knows, this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

    ​Write to me at jewellerybycaprilicious(at)gmail.com

    Find me on Instagram

    Find me on Pinterest  

    Contact me

     I would love to hear from you - please leave a comment on the blog or send an email  to jewellerybycaprilicious(at)gmail.com
    Picture
    In Berlin with my sweet better half, Mike

    Free Mini Tutorials

Caprilicious Jewellery

​Designed and Handmade in Warwickshire, UK

Free UK Delivery for orders of £100 and over. International postage available to most countries.
​Layaway plans available, please message me.
About Me
Blog
Tutorials
Press | Publications
Testimonials
​Terms & Conditions
​Jewellery Care