“Create your own style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.” –Anna Wintour Hello folks, how have you been? It is as always nice to see you again, and thank you for reading the Caprilicious blog. If you're a new reader, do follow the blog using the Bloglovin' link in the sidebar and drop me a line in the comments, it's always lovely to speak to people. A woman with attitude rules the world. She has a certain sultry attractiveness, a mindset that takes no sh*t and a stubbornness that can only be loved; it is safe to say that women like this hold great power. Not for her the fluttering eyelashes and coy dropping of the handkerchief, waiting for some poor sap to came along and pick it up. That sort of a fool wouldn't be attractive to her anyway. Strong colours and a lack of fear of exuding a style of her very own - that's a woman with attitude, and she rocks! I am fortunate to have met a number of such women since I set up Caprilicious Jewellery and they have become part of the Caprilicious family. I read a blogpost by Joanna Meriwether called "Are you a Woman with Attitude?" and her thoughts so resonate with mine. An Arabian Nights DreamThis week I reminded myself how much fun it is to knot a pearl necklace, rather than threaded on beading wire. The only problem with this method is that the necklace cannot be resized. I tried this out because I acquired a bunch of detachable bails so a pendant can be hung on a necklace when required. This gives the necklace a degree of versatility as it can be worn both during the day and night. I picked up some diamante bead caps at the same time, so I made an asymmetrical tassel with crystals and amethyst beads to hang on the silvery baroque pearl necklace. Of course, the tassel pendant can easily be used with another necklace if desired. Sweet SerenityNuggets of raw green aventurine and shiny black agate beads provide texture, contrast and colour in this simple yet effective piece. The nuggets are in a very soothing shade of green. SymphonyAs anyone who reads my blog regularly knows, I need a regular wire fix to keep me happy. This week, I made a little pendant out of tarnish resistant coated copper wire, intending to hang it on a necklace of bone beads. I ended up adding a load of crystal beads and turning the pendant so shiny and evening worthy, that the bone beads did not look right at all with it. One look at the bone and the pendant screamed in outrage and demanded something shiny to go with. A quick change of plan and I put it with quartz needles and tiny clear crystals - I think it looks very pretty now. I've found a supplier in Vietnam, of all places, who sells the most beautiful little box clasps and one of these with a blue topaz was added to this necklace. I have booked tickets to India early in the New Year and already people are booking the pieces they would like me to carry back for them. Added to that it is soon the festive season and I have a few pieces booked into a boutique and some more at an exhibition at the end of November. I'm also booked to be in London for work for a few days in November. All in all, it promises to be an exciting and busy time of year - and of course there are only 81 days left to Christmas!!
That's me for now folks, have a great week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then, xx
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-Dear friends, thanks for joining me again, as always it is fabulous to speak to you each week. If you enjoy reading this half as much as I do writing it, we're both in a win-win situation. The summer has been particularly kind to us this year with sunshine - I'd better not say any more or I might jinx it! Last week, Mike rescued a magpie chick that was almost on its last legs and so exhausted it couldn't fly, although nothing was really wrong with its wings. It was a plump little bird, crouched at the bottom of the tree on the front of our house and I named it 'Toast' apropos of what was most likely to happen when Wilfred the cat caught up with it. Mike tried putting it in the bushes, but it just came back over the road to the same spot. Eventually, we put it in the cat cage overnight, fed it bread and milk and replaced it in the tree from which its sibling fell from the nest and perished a couple of days earlier. I'm happy to report that Toast survives, and flutters past our house cocking a snook at Wilfred every time he goes past. Happy ending, then - for now! SerenityThese two necklaces were made on the back of the coral necklace I made to order a couple of weeks ago. I pick beads and gemstones that chime with my spirit - they need to have a certain 'something' about them - their shape, or their colouring, marking, or texture - I very rarely picked simple round beads and if I do, I like to team them with an interesting clasp or component that makes me jump up and down with pleasure. A few beads with a clasp on the end do not a piece of great jewellery make, and I do my best to put things together that chime with my joie de vivre. Sometimes I buy gemstones just because I like the look of them and then have to sit on them for ages before I can decide what to make with them. The beads in these necklaces were purchased around two years ago and they sat in my stash serenely, occasionally popping up when I rummaged around looking for the perfect components for my next piece. Suddenly, I had a lightbulb moment and these two necklaces came to life. Adding an interesting clasp and a few tiny beads in total simplicity elevated these two from being strings of beautifully marked beads to two exquisite necklaces. Even so, I wasn't prepared for the sudden mini rush of orders. I hunted out the vendor praying that they still had them, and bought some more strings of amethyst. The citrine necklace will take a bit more time to move on as yellow is not everyones cup of tea. They are a lovely warm molasses colour, though, and I know some redheads and brunettes that they would suit to a T - I'll let them come across the necklace in their own time. The Social ButterflyI showed you the beginnings of The Social Butterfly last week. I pressed on with it all of this week and once I'd embellished the edges of the butterfly, I had to decide how I was going to string it. I found an image on Pinterest and decided a faux lariat style necklace would be the way to go. Unfortunately I cannot credit the owner of the image as it isn't mentioned on Pinterest. I had already decided that this was going to be a confection in pale pink and green so I used beautifully marked, faceted green agate beads. A social butterfly is a slang term for a person who is socially dynamic, networking, charismatic, and personally gregarious and I found this amusing article on a website called Lifehacks - "20 Things You Should Know Before Dating A Social Butterfly". Everyone likes to be thought of as charismatic and gregarious even if they are not, so a bit of help is always welcome in my opinion - what do you think?? Silver EarringsI did not make these, but found them on a website before I went to India, they are so pretty I couldn't resist them for my Caprilicious ladies - some of them were sold in India, and these are the few that remain. They are light, pretty and inexpensive and if you do like them, they are on the silver earrings page of the website. They are great as little gifts too. My nieces picked up a few and certainly loved them. That's me for this week folks, have a lovely week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx "There’s so much sameness in the world. And if people are not going to change their manner of dress, at least change your jewelry so you don’t all look alike." Hello folks, another week has gone by with storms lashing the UK and high winds of over 60mph. We had a bit of damage in our garden - a couple of large pots blew over and smashed to smithereens - I cannot imagine how that could have happened as one of them was planted with a large rhododendron bush and was weighed down with broken bricks and tiles at the bottom. That was one wild and wooly night! The trees were bent over double and the cat decided to cause a disturbance indoors by bringing in a live mouse at 2am - the mouse ran off (not quite up a clock as under a bed), so now we have the pleasure of sharing our accomodation with a mouse. It's a good thing I'm not squeamish, but still, I'm not sure how I'll react if the mouse runs out in front of me. As you might have read last week, it was Mike's birthday last week, and we celebrated in London. His birthday presents had been ordered in December, but only turned up a week after his birthday, which was a shame. However, he loves them, so that made up for the disappointment on the day. I wrote in 2013, and it seems like yesterday, of a kitsch collection of animal figurines called Tom's Drag. We saw them on a trip to Berlin and we loved them so much I made a point of taking a picture of the logo by the side of the figurines so I could find them again. Unfortunately Tom died in 2012, but his partner Arno Mueller still runs the company using Toms designs, and we are now the proud owners of three little cats, only two of which have arrived from Germany, the third to arrive in March.
I made a necklace of little citrine teardrops with iolite beads between them The citrine beads are gently faceted and appear like crystals made of unrefined sugar. I posted a picture on instagram and the necklace was picked up even before I gave it a name or had good pictures of it on file. I had to rush to get some photographs before I posted it out to its forever home with a little pair of earrings to match. ConfluenceHematite is the mineral form of iron oxide and has a striking metallic lustre, similar to polished gunmetal. The word hematite comes from the Greek work "haima" meaning blood, referring to the mineral's red color when in powdered form. When heated enough, hematite becomes a paramagnet, where the atomic magnets just randomly point all different directions, making it weakly magnetic. Hematite helps to absorb negative energy in times of stress or worry. I've had these beads for a while now, as well as the amethyst druzy pendant and suddenly they appeared in the same drawer of my bead stash and demanded to be put together. Whether this was by magic or serendipity, I shall never know, but I think they look good together. Purple and black can look a bit gothic, but not in this case as the amethyst pendant is a pale lilac. The colours in amethyst are also from iron ore so the two seem made for each other. The word Confluence means two streams meeting to become the source of a river of a new name, as did the iron ore in the two materials of this necklace. That's me for this week folks. Have a lovely week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx Hello folks, thanks for coming back to join me at the Caprilicious Blog, I am very pleased that you are here. This week has been all about making jewellery for the Mitchell Gallery in Warwick. I was requested to replenish stocks there and I decided to make new pieces for them as well as hand over a couple of pieces from my collection. FloraI made two of these necklaces for the gallery and one more for Caprilicious as I felt that I would be doing the website an injustice if I didn't have one for you, my online people. I love the exuberant colour in these necklaces and they have an extravagant feel when the crystals I have used liberally catch the light. I only have pictures from the piece on the website as I didn't have time to photograph the others before they had to be delivered. My fingertips were shot by the end of the third piece, and I took a couple of days off. The day job has been ever so busy with one of my colleagues still off sick and consequently there was very little time to play with beads and wire. Eventually, towards the end of the week I made a little necklace with some amethyst beads that had been sitting in my stash. I buy beads precisely because they are cut differently, or have lovely markings on them, and then I can't seem to decide what to do with them. I tend to leave them at the top of a pile of beads and suddenly one day, wham! out of nowhere comes an idea and a necklace is born. AmethysteThe weather is definitely on the turn, here in the UK and it was raining one awful, damp, cold morning. I decided that I would wear something bright rather than go into dark, drab mourning garb, so I wore a lime green dress to work. I was late, as usual and I grabbed the first piece of jewellery I could lay my hands on, which happened to be the necklace above. During my lunch break - or what passes for a lunch break, I took a little selfie to demonstrate that purple and green did, indeed go together and to demonstrate that sometimes contrasting colours can look well together. A lot of ladies like to wear 'matching' jewellery while I am a fan of contrasting my accessories with my clothes, and that was what I set out to demonstrate. To my surprise, I got a load of negative comments and people even messaged me to say how I hadn't done a good job with styling the necklace. 'I am not a fan of this necklace .. Maybe it would stand out more with grey..black. or even white. It's very subtle,' said one lady. However, she went to the album with the same necklace in it the next day and remarked 'Very nice..'!! Another lady echoed her sentiments and went on to ask what material I had used to string the beads together as she was always worried about necklaces falling apart. And I had a couple of messages telling me how badly I had styled the necklace. Oh well, you can't please everyone all of the time. I bet you want to see what all the fuss was about now, so I have put the picture on below - well, if you have any comments to make that aren't particularly nice, feel free, I'm used to it by now! Anyway, the necklace was snapped up by a lovely lady that very day, so I didn't feel quite so bad, in the end. I made a couple of copies of 'Bewitched' in different colours. These colours are definitely influenced by my Indian heritage - but I believe that East and West meet, if nowhere else, in Caprilicious. I was brought up buying sarees in these colours and the colours which though bright, will look beautiful when worn with a simple black dress. I thought I'd leave you with a video of colourful sarees on display in a shop in India. This is probably a more modern shop, where the sarees are out on display. When I was young, the sarees were all folded up behind glass, to keep them from getting shop soiled. Each customer had three people to wait on them - one salesman would take the sarees out of the cupboards and fling them open with a flourish to demonstrate the colour and what they looked like with movement, another would pleat and drape the saree over himself to show how it would look when worn and a third apprentice quickly refolded the sarees that weren't picked and stacked them ready to return to the cupboard. Someone would bring the customers cold drinks, and sit us down comfortably, switching on fans like a modern day punkawallah. We would make a long list, then a short list and finally make our purchase. Most people who go into a saree shop actually buy, you'd have to be very hard hearted indeed, to walk away after all that effort. Window shopping is an alien concept in a country like India - or was, until recently. I hope you enjoyed that short clip, readers. It brought me a lot of nostalgia - it's been ages since I've bought a saree as I haven't that many places to wear them to, and already have too many in my cupboard. Oh well, that's life!
Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next Friday as usual, same time, same place. Until then xx 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. YinYin 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. WingsI 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'. Here's the soutache and leather cuff for which I needed the aluminium insert mentioned earlier . 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. 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 Hello dear readers, how nice of you to stop by this week to take a peek into the goings on at Caprilicious. We've been hanging on to the lazy, crazy hazy days of summer by our fingernails as it is still warm enough to wear our summer clothes, and pretend that autumn is not just around the corner. We peer at the long term forecast worriedly, muttering to ourselves, and this year have been lucky to have fairly decent weather in September. I've even got the most beautiful double begonias flowering in a pot, providing a brilliant splash of colour in an otherwise dull corner of the garden. However, I know this isn't going to last very much longer and our jumpers and cardigans will have to come out of the closet sooner or later. This must have been deeply ingrained on my subconscious as all my jewellery had a floral theme this week. I am preparing a few simple, inexpensive necklaces to go into a couple of stalls I have agreed to set up at charitable events in October and November. They aren't on the website and will only go on should they remain unsold at the end of November.
Daisy Daisy, a necklace with four pretty jade flowers and black glazed terracotta beads, was born as I rummaged around in my stash. A pair of jade and onyx earrings with pyrite teardrops dangling from them add a fabulous finishing touch. Daisy MaeThis is my last turquoise clasp - I've been hoarding it for three years and finally decided to let it go. The pearls are cultured in fresh water and once I started on the necklace, the tiny daisies jumped out of my findings basket onto my work surface and demanded to be used. So, here we have a very sophisticated pearl necklace, with a whimsical touch - I love it!! So there we have it folks - my subconscious is obviously desperate to hold on to the last vestiges of summer, and has pushed Ms Muse in the direction of florals all week. That's me done for now, have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place
Until then xx Hello readers, and a very happy Friday to you. Have you ever played those games on Facebook - you know the ones that ask 'Which Cocktail are you?' 'Which Colour are You?' 'What does your Name say about You?' 'What Flower are You' and even more ludicrous, 'Who were You in a Former Life? '!!! I have often wondered what makes people I have previously regarded as fairly sane play these games - and having played them be crazy enough to admit that they have actually wasted so many precious moments of their life on drivel. Perhaps they ought to see a psychiatrist and be told what they seem to be desparate to know - "you are crazy, Toc ! Toc ! Toc !." We all live slightly schizophrenic lives, me more than most, and these days I'm beginning to wonder whether I ought to consult an Oracle of sorts, or even a shrink - I suppose a prerequisite of trying to find out about the future should be a baseline measurement of who or what you are at that very moment. The problem with that is I'm a bit afraid of the final answer. So, here I am, born in the UK, brought up in India, having now spent nigh on thirty years of my adult life in the UK, married to an Englishman, and a gynaecologist and obstetrician who designs and makes jewellery. I have done my utmost to integrate into the community in which I live, but have not lost that core of my being from whence I came. (from whence I came? who talks like that?) And now I have got involved in making Soutache jewellery which is mainly an Eastern European specialty, although it's concoction is originally attributed to an Israeli, Dori Csengeri. It is a fairly recent art form and new techniques are evolving all the time and while this is happening, I am really enjoying the ability to inject colour and movement to my jewelery. Anyway, enough about the crazies, here's the piece I made this week..... Sunset BoulevardThis is one of my favourite old black and white movies about Norma Desmond, an aging drama queen from the silent movie era who's career is over though she refuses to accept it. This piece is for drama queens everywhere, who enjoy a touch of the theatrical and revel in being highly visible. I can imagine Norma standing at the foot of that beautiful staircase, wearing this necklace. I think the amethyst slabs set the pendant off beautifully, don't you? I sent a couple of pieces of jewellery to a lady who was buying them as a gift and as I was writing this, I had an email from her - I thought it was worth sharing on this page. When people are so fulsome in their praise, it really makes my day. That's me for this week, folks. Thanks for coming back and spending some time with me. Have a fabulous week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place. Until then xx It's Friday, and we meet again. Hello, readers, I am so glad to see you. This has been a busy week at the day job and consequently I am tired and exhausted at the end of it. The weather is slowly warming up and I spent a bit of time in the garden, weeding and clearing out the detritus from the winter and feeding my plants. People who aren't used to seasonal changes in the garden cannot understand how miraculous the regeneration of the garden feels like in the spring and how much it uplifts you. I thank goodness for my garden and Caprilicious this week - they are a balm for my soul. As it gets dark later and later on in the day, it is wonderful to be able to sit out in the garden with a cup of tea and watch the cats (yes, they are now just over one year old now and not kittens anymore) play in the greenery that is only just breaking free of the ground. Once it gets too cool for that, we go indoors and then I get to play with my beads and wire while Mike idly flicks through the channels looking for something on the TV to round off the day. I am completely addicted to these two entities that keep me sane and punctuate my day with pleasurable moments that make it all worthwhile. MarrakeshI fell in love with all things Moroccan a long time ago and even made an effort to import one of these tiled Moroccan Zellige fountains for my garden. Unfortunately, the deal fell through. Oh well, it was simply not to be - but isn't it ever so pretty?? It has a tap in the mosaic wall from which water pours into the trough below and is recycled by a pump - not good if you have bladder problems, which, fortunately, isn't a worry, for the moment anyway! The beauty of the distinctive pink walls of Marrakesh which are made of a red clay and chalk is the inspiration for this necklace. The slab nuggets of quartz have been electroplated with titanium and a couple of gaily enamelled Berber beads are accents that are reminiscent of a Bedouin tent. SophiaA tassel from Istanbul with an opulent bead cap, decorated with Hamsa hands and cubic zirconia arrived last week and went straight into a necklace of amethyst beads. The pendant calls forth memories of beautiful Byzantine architecture conjuring up the Aya Sophia on the banks of the Bosphorus. I attempted to get the necklace to match the opulence of the pendant, using pyrite, shiny crystals and a couple of bronze clay beads I made in my kiln, as well as a baroque crystal dangling from a chain at the back. Tassel necklaces are extremely fashionable at the moment and never let it be said that Caprilicious hasn't got its finger on the pulse. The gemstone beads in the necklace are pretty too and are in the colour I call 'Iced amethyst crush' rather than the usual deep purple that is the norm. Steel and RustI bought the stripy lucite focal bead in India a couple of years ago and had it stashed away. I brought it out and fondled it regularly like a worry bead, without any idea what to do with it - just knowing that it was pretty was enough for the time being. And then, I set eyes on this picture - a picture of rust growing on a steel door and that was it, like a thunderclap, I suddenly knew what to do with it. The fabulousness of the mouldable colour of polymer clay swung into action and I made the beads in order to create this necklace in the colours of Steel and Rust. Birds Do It, Bees Do It.......This lampwork glass bead is almost translucent. Heart-shaped, with a sprig of blue flowers on it, and wrapped in about twenty-five feet of wire it makes a very pretty addition to the series. That's me for this week, folks. I did start a wire dragonfly, but I soon realised that it was going badly when it began to resemble a cow, with wonky wings at that. Note to self: Don't try to make anything when mentally exhausted. It only turns into a mangled lump of rubbish. I have had to cut it up and rescue the bead, which was rather pretty. The wire went into the bin.
Thanks for dropping by, it means a lot. Have a lovely week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place xx Hello readers and lovers of statement jewellery, thanks for joining me this week. If this is your first read, welcome - if it isn't and you are a regular reader, may I request you to please support the blog by following it on Bloglovin or Networked Blogs - the link is in the sidebar. Do also take a moment to leave me a comment - it's nice to know I'm not talking into thin air and there's someone in the ether out there, actually looking at my work. I put all the polymer clay beads I made over the last week, using various faux effects together, and I found that I had filled the lid of a shoebox - rather a lot of beads! I did so enjoy making them though - a week away from the day job just passed by in a gentle haze. And yet, I felt compelled to make even more, trying out techniques and tutorials I have been collecting on my Pinterest boards for ages and haven't had the time to try. I once saw some glass drawbench drizzle beads on a website and loved the look of them so much, that I decided to try and replicate them in polymer clay. Researching how to do this drew a blank, so I decided to give it a go myself. I photographed the process as I went along, and by the end, I had a mini tutorial for anyone who might want to follow in my footsteps and also as an aide-memoire - these beads are so pretty, I will most definitely make them again. I know it is a very simple tutorial and describes a technique that most polymeristas can carry out with their eyes shut, but I would have given a lot to find something like it when I first started and is aimed at beginners. The week went by in a truly Caprilicious manner. One minute I was making a sweet and serene necklace and the next time I looked in the mirror, there was a riot around my neck! Cerulean SkyCoin pearls, and gemstone beads in shades of blue went into this necklace inspired by the bright blue of the sky. I made this necklace long but added a Mabe pearl clasp, so that it could be doubled up into two rows if necessary. HoliHoli is the Indian festival of colour, marking spring. People buy coloured pigments and a free-for-all carnival of colours ensues, where participants chase and colour each other with dry powder and coloured water. There is music and laughter and everyone has a riot of a time. They end the day looking terribly bedraggled - well, everyone knows that if you mix more than three colours together, you get a muddy brown - but by then, nobody seems to care a jot. This necklace is a riot of colour, with the bright red of the coral and the colourful cat's eye beads. The cat's eyes have a fibre-optic element embedded into them and they catch the light to provide that extra glint. The colours of the cat's eyes match the colours in the brightly enamelled Moroccan bead which is the focal point of this piece. ShiboriShibori is a Japanese tie-dye technique. This next piece was inspired by a Shibori scarf I saw on Pinterest and an orange and grey gown I saw on someone's Facebook page. I remembered the beautiful carnelian slab nuggets I've had in my stash for ages - they are waxy and in a delicately shaded orange. They are a perfect match for a string of rutilated quartz beads. I would wear this necklace of an evening and feel very sophisticated in it, indeed! Every time I walked past my shoebox lid full of beads, the faux drawbench beads called out to me. I couldn't resist them anymore and teamed them with a couple of nuggets of coral - red, black and silver is always irresistible, see for yourself. We were re-watching Some Like it Hot and Running Wild was the song that was being played as I put the necklace together. Running WildThe Peacock in ParkOne of my favourites, the peacock is such a beautiful, irresistible bird. I sat down to make this wire torque, and it took me simply ages to decide how to finish it - and it took a week to make. This is probably one of the most labour intensive pieces I have made and I will almost certainly never be able to remake it. Dragon FlightpathA swirly wrap of both sterling silver and fine silver around a pleasingly hefty ombré chunk of amethyst with a little pewter dragonfly wired onto it was then hung on a lilac organza ribbon. Fine silver is tarnish proof because it is an alloy of silver and germanium, rather than silver and copper, which is sterling silver. It is the copper content of sterling silver or 0.925% silver that causes it to tarnish by being oxidised. Fine silver is also easy to manipulate and doesn't break - a pleasure to work with especially in the higher gauges of weaving wire. The tracks made by the sterling silver over the amethyst describe the flight path of the little dragonfly wired onto the pendant. And last, but not least.................. drumroll......... TresorI brought these little beauties back from my holiday in India - they are little carnelian and amethyst briolettes, and they took simply ages to string. I made the necklace one string a day until all the beads were used up - and then I didn't like what I had made so I restrung them three times until I was finally satisfied. Well, readers, you can see that I have been having a lot of fun in my time off from the day job. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and so it came to pass that I had to go back to work on Wednesday. Oh well, it was great while it lasted and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to face any curveballs that come my way.
That's it for this week, have a lovely week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place xx Welcome, readers, to the Friday Caprilicious Blog, where I diarise my romance with statement jewellery. To me, it is not enough to make jewellery - that would make me merely a technician - I want to design, make as many of the components as I can myself, weave a story around the finished piece, and produce a degree of romance, which engulfs the wearer of jewellery by Caprilicious. I know that some people conceptualise their jewellery and send their drawings away to artisans to have them made up - but oh no, that's not for me, I like to do all the making myself. Romance is at the essence of every piece of my jewellery, be it from me falling in love with the stone or beads, and telling you a tale to make you love it enough to want it, or even each time you pick it up out of the box with a smile on your face and wear it to embellish your beautiful self. Rose tinted spectacles?? Yes, my muse has them on this week - I have been reading By Grand Central Station I sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart - I read a review on the dust jacket that said the book was like Madame Bovary on speed - I felt like I was walking through a thick fog, my feet mired in the swampy syrup of love - this is not me at my most pragmatic, normal self, and I am sure the effects will wear off by next week. Why was I reading the book?? I've no idea, it just seemed like a good idea at the time. But, while I felt this way, my muse has been infected by the virus of romance and these are the results .................. Shalimar"Kashmiri Song" is a song by Amy Woodforde-Finden based on a poem by Laurence Hope. Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar, and it ends, all romantically morbid, and lovesick ( I assume this chap is still talking to the 'Pale Hands').......................... I would have rather felt you round my throat, This was a poem/song written in 1901, and you can just imagine the gentleman pining for his lover, who by all accounts seems to be a bit of a goer - leading men down 'Raptures roadway' before discarding them and moving on quickly to her next victim. This necklace, named after the Shalimar gardens, built in Kashmir by the Mughal emperor Jehangir for his wife Nur Jahan, was made for such a mood - romantic and seductive, worn at night to bring a glow to the complexion. The mother of pearl pendants and little amethyst nuggets complement each other and convey romantic wistfulness to the observer. MoonglowFor some reason, my muse has decided to go festive this week - perhaps she senses the 'C' word - yes, there are only 103 days left........bring on party time!! Opalite beads glowing gently are teamed up with clear crystal, coated with an Aurora Borealis sheen to make another pretty and romantic necklace. I recently picked up some beautiful agate cabochons - the depth of colour in these stones is amazing - they are a deep purple, with veins of orange and blue, and I fell in love with them instantly. I wrapped each one in miles of copper wire, two of them went on organza ribbons, and the other two into necklaces. Although all four of the stones are cut from the same rock, I gave each of them their own treatment, taking into consideration their shapes and the pattern on their faces. Handmade lampwork beads in a deep shade of crimson complemented the colour of the stones. Le CapriceAt this point, I decided that I had had an overdose of romance - so I put my foot down with a firm hand and gently led my muse away, before she made a complete fool of herself, the soppy thing! My little kittens are very keen to help in my jewellery making - they especially love wire, and their teeth are so sharp, I could probably use them as wire snips if I ever ran out, provided I could train the cats to cut the wire where I needed them to. They also have a very short attention span and fall asleep on my bead tray while I am working, so it is a wonder that I have actually produced anything at all. The Promise of AutumnThe lampwork beads in this pendant are handmade and came from a stall at the Newmarket Bead fair - I went there last year with my friend BN and found these really pretty handmade beads. The beads are in a pretty green, with a stripe of red/orange and yellow running through the centre. The design is by Nicole Hanna and meant for earrings, but I felt that the piece was too heavy for earrings so converted it into a pendant. Heavy Earrings and how to Wear ThemThis is for people who feel they cannot wear earrings because their earlobes are too fragile, or torn from many years of ear lobe abuse - yes, there are many of us around, missing out on the old danglers - well, now, here's help - there is a product called Lobe Repair - a tiny skin coloured adhesive patch you put on the back of the ear lobe and pierce with the stalk of your earrings or ear wires. I have tried it and it does work, provided you do not wear the earrings for too long - just enough to party for a few hours, perhaps. They aren't very expensive and are invisible, if anyone wants to give them a go. I have ordered some and if anyone wants a few to try, do let me know.
This is along the same principles as the Indian chains used to hold a heavy earring up into the hair or even around the ear. These perform a dual function in being ornamental as well as suspensory, but obviously cannot be used with contemporary styles or ear wires. So, there you are, Cinderella shall go to the ball in her beautiful danglers! That's all I have for you this week, catch you next week, same time, same place xx |
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