Angels

Good morning people, and welcome once again, to the Caprilicious Jewellery Blog. Bonfire night went by on the 5th of November, the clocks went back for us in the UK and suddenly we are plunged into winter. The world is going to hell in a handbasket all of a sudden and although this is not a political blog and I don't tend to comment about recent events, this one's a doozy and will affect all of us, so I had to say something! To hope that four years pass by without mishap is a bit much, I think - one can only wish the world the best of luck.

Angels

 Linda Jones of The Wire Worker's Guild posted a little tutorial for Christmas angels on her blog and I decided to try it out - It was freeform enough for me to make it any which way I liked and I mainly played with the shapes of the angels wings. I used up a collection of acrylic beads I had - they have a luminous core and are called miracle beads, they shine beautifully in reflected light. If ever there was a time to need our guardian angels this is it! These will look great hanging from the tree.

With the light shining on them

I spent a lot of the week making a bronze clay clasp using a tutorial by Barbara Becker Simon - I've made one of these before and my Slimming World consultant has the necklace in her collection now. This time, I had a gremlin attack, but as I was determined to forge on, I bought another wood gouge to carve the design in the clay. Of course, as soon as it arrived in the post, the gremlin tossed the  other two back onto my table, so now I have  three of them.

​The last time I made the clasp, I funked it at the very last moment and made it single stranded for fear of attaching a piece to the back of the clasp. This time, I forged ahead with making it suitable for three strands of beads and held my breath while it was in the kiln. The kiln gods were kind to me - I took pictures along the way, and here are a few from the final stages.

At the greenware stage, all sanded and kiln ready

A good scrub with a brass bristle brush

Just out of the kiln

After a couple of hours in the tumbler with steel shot and liquid soap

A final polish with Wenol and it is fit for purpose

Copper Bracelet

I know a lot of arthritis sufferers and some of them wear copper bracelets which they claim helps them tremendously in their fight against the disease. I think it is such a shame  that no one caters to these ladies - just because the bracelet has a medicinal function, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be pretty. So, I have a little page with copper bracelets on the go just for them, and replenish it at regular intervals as the previous ones get sold. I sold the last one a couple of weeks ago, so this is the replacement, made from a design by Lisa Barth. It is one of the most difficult in the book - eighteen strands of wire are bound together with six feet of fine binding wire in a criss cross pattern. It was a lot of fun to make and I hope it affords the lady who finally wears it a lot of pleasure as well as relief from pain.

That's it for this week folks, thanks for dropping by.  To those of you who played the Caprilicious Treasure Hunt, I hope you love your jewellery, and those of you who still want to play, it is open till the 14th. I've enjoyed the game, and the lady at the post office now knows Mike well from all the parcels he drops off at her counter. 
Take care, and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place,
Until then
xx