Hello all, thanks for stopping by the Caprilicious Blog. The temperature is dropping like a stone outside and soon it will be winter. My poor garden is going to suffer, all frozen and laid bare - but we still have a few flowers in the garden - for a few days more, until the frost kills them off. I have tried my best to prolong the season by making a necklace inspired by the last flower left standing in the garden. Passion PlayThe flowers were made with amethyst and green quartz fragments and the necklace lasted all of ten minutes on my pages - I was so pleased it found a home! The lady who bought it sent me this message - I am so glad she liked it, hope she sends me that picture. The Pearl PrincessA face set in sterling silver from my stash was combined with luxurious peacock coloured Biwa pearls in this piece. The pendant was sold to me as 'Smithsonite' - I thought it was so pretty and different, I bought it and then went on an expedition to research the stone - sometimes I wish I hadn't - it turns an object of beauty into something so prosaic - Smithsonite is Zinc carbonate - ZnCo3 apparently! - nothing to get excited or to write home about - but yet - so different, and so pretty. It was discovered by and named after Smithson in the early 19th century and occurs as a secondary mineral in the weathering or oxidation zone of zinc-bearing ore deposits. I suppose this is as unromantic as a pearl being an object that came from a grain of sand surrounded by oyster spit! Yet, from such humble beginnings, inexplicably comes this beauty. This one lasted on my shelves for about twenty four hours! Smoke on the WaterSpectrolite is black labradorite - According to an Eskimo legend, the Northern Lights were once imprisoned in the rocks along the coast of labrador, and then a wandering Eskimo warrior found them and freed most of the lights with a mighty blow of his spear. Some of the lights were still trapped within the stone however making labradorite - one of my favourite stones. The black ones in this necklace are faceted and graduated, with beautiful flashes of blue grey in their depths, the colour of smoke when light shines through it. I teamed them with an electroplated maple leaf and hung a wire cage containing a red jade teardrop on the pendant bail - and here we have Smoke on the Water................. After being so restrained with my colour choices, I felt the need to splash out a bit. I picked an artisan created pendant from Tibet in my favourite colours of turquoise and coral and matched it with citrine flat beads, coral pillars, and turquoise - a bit more colourful than the last three. Jewel from the EastTivoli LightsA few years ago, we spent time in Copenhagen, at the jazz festival in the Tivoli Gardens. The gardens are lit up at night, and this illumination was the inspiration for what are now known as Tivoli Lights - Mr Ben George from Tustin Ca, had the idea to use up a supply of automotive miniature incandescent lamps he had been selling. He put them inside plastic tubes to create decorative light strings, and The Tivoli Light was born. Tivoli tubes now contain LED lights and have been incorporated into building facades, aisles and steps and one finds them everywhere. My necklace was inspired by the illuminations at the Tivoli Gardens - the Czech glass dagger beads glow with a blue iridescence, reflecting the colours in the picture above. And that's a wrap for the week - hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures - do post me a comment, I'd love to hear from you. Take care now, and have a good week, catch you next week, same time, same place
xx
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Last weekend was Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, a three day festival which is the start of a new year in India - a lamp is lit to guide the Goddess of wealth Lakshmi, into the house, some more are lit to show Ram, the exiled prince, the way back to his kingdom, and even more, to celebrate the death of a pesky demon - the myth of the triumph of good over evil - the stuff of good Hollywood/Bollywood movies! My mother phoned me to make sure I had lit the lamp she gave me - so here's proof, mom! And then in the UK we had Bonfire night, where we celebrate either the execution of Guy Fawkes, or honour his attempts to do away with the government, or exult over the safety of the king/monarchy with a bonfire and fireworks - depending on your take on it. Whatever the excuse, it is a lovely time of year - the leaves are gold and brown and crunchy underfoot, the air is clean and crisp, and the fireworks scent the air with their own sharp aroma. Time to bring out the warm clothing, sweaters, UGG boots, gloves, scarves - and jewellery needs to be large and bright, and necklaces longer, to go over winter woolies. To go with the theme of 'lights' i made a pair of wire filigree earrings that I called 'Candelabra' - they are curved gently into the shape of the face to give a three dimensional effect. If you read my blog last week you will know I was blown away by the stuff I learned at Polydays - I just couldn't believe that I had actually made these complicated designs - so I decided to try them out again, just to convince myself that is was possible, and it was indeed me at Polydays. These are the pieces I made - not bad for a day spent playing, huh? Pendants and earrings and even a bead rolled off my craft table - I was most excited! While I was in the mood to play with clay, I made a sheet of coloured clay, graduating from a forest green, to a beautiful dull gold, and I made wafer beads from it. Together with a gold coloured pod shaped bead I made earlier, The Fruit of the Forest necklace materialised in my hands as if by magic. The tiny seed beads between the wafers make the necklace very flexible and comfortable, ideal for wearing over a cardigan. The depth of the shades of green in the necklace is just splendiferous. A Touch of FrostIn keeping with the weather, I came up with a winter white necklace of mother of pearl shell fragments, wired on to a torque - the centerpiece being a trio of clear AB coated crystal flowers and one single red rose. Winter white is a creamy white, richer than the glaring whites of summer, and the mother of pearl casts a beautiful glow upwards onto the wearer's face. These pictures were taken with my new all singing and dancing Nikon 5100 - isn't it a shame that I cannot sing and dance with it - but soon, real soon, I will get the hang of it and then, watch out, my photographs will sizzle! The Peach Blossom PendantLast week I made this pretty necklace, but I had a few rough quartz needles left over. I used one of them in my next little pendant, which I wound with sterling silver wire. Antiqued and polished, it looks sweet on a silver snake chain. An easy piece to wear of a daytime, for someone who has a quiet statement to make. Work has been pretty busy, so I haven't had time to do much else. It will soon be two years since I set Caprilicious Jewellery up and we have come a long way together since then, thanks to you all - I am very grateful. Have a great week, and I will catch you soon, same time, same place xx Hello readers, thanks for stopping by. This has been a productive week, made difficult by the lack of a camera. I realised how important a camera was to Caprilicious when my little Canon IXUS went to the 1st Aid Centre (no, I'm not joking - it is called just that) to have it's LCD screen replaced. I have no camera phone, and so was unable to take a single picture all week. I generally take pictures of almost everything I make as I go along - it's amazing how minor flaws, like a wire end going awol, or a crookedly placed gemstone show up clearly on camera, but cannot be seen when I eyeball them. The camera hospital were kind enough to return it in three days time - phew! and I was off and away again. While I waited for the return of the invalid, I played with wire and made some earrings - wire filigree is so much fun. Peach Blossom This is not a colour I would generally pick - but I fell in love with the delicacy of the iridescent peachy pink of these quartz needles. I sent off for glass teardrops to put in between them - I think this is such a pretty piece of jewellery - I might even wear it myself, and sit down demurely sipping a cup of tea, and nibbling on a cucumber sandwich, just so I can suit the necklace, as I do love it. I am sure it will find a home with someone who is a bit more ladylike than me. Rula
This next necklace was inspired by my crab apple tree, and made with wire and Czech glass beads. Why Rula?? - well, Rula Lenska is an English actress of Polish origin - in the late eighties she was in a TV commercial, and her line was "My hair is a brilliant red, my eyes a dazzling green and if you're not seeing that you're not watching on an RCA television"... besides, the piece is so theatrical, I could see Rula Lenska wearing it. Serena
Ruslana I think this most definitely qualifies as an Explosion of Colour!
For those of you who celebrate it, a Happy Diwali to you, and I'll see you again next week, same time, same place xx I woke up this morning with a start - 'where am I ?', was the first thought that popped into my head - of course a large black cat sitting on my head and purring loudly, clarified matters somewhat quickly. Having been rescued from the cattery last night Harold was going all out to impress on us what a lovely cat he is and why we shouldn't dream of ever leaving him again! I feel like I've been in a tailspin over the last few days, fortunately I have the weekend off to recover before I have to go to work again. Polydays 2013 - the Contemporary Coven Organised by Allison Gallant, who was ably supported by her family, and once again held in the village hall in Toddington, Polydays 2013 was like a contemporary Italian coven - all of us bent over our pasta machines instead of cauldrons, casting spells on lumps of clay which magically turned into pieces of jewellery. I stayed with the 'Carlton Cottage Gang' in Broadway once again, and the other five ladies were as much fun as last year. Our tutors were really cool too - Lindly Haunani, who is Hawaiian and Jana Roberts Benzon, a real boho chick from Salt Lake City. Unfortunately I missed the last day with Eva Haskova and Alison Gallant, but I had a short workshop in Paris to attend that day, and then a flight to Venice for a holiday - why did I cram all this into such a short space of time?? - ask me again - the answer is that nothing seems to happen, and when it does, it all comes together at the same time! - I'm sorry if this reads like I am a jet setter - am nothing of the kind, usually. This year it seemed to be all about textile techniques translated into polymer clay - an Ikat cane technique and a Bargello cane - this was originally a needlepoint and quilting stitch - I could never have figured these out for myself - in fact I cannot quite believe I made stuff using these techniques. I Don't Believe It! And then, Jana taught us how to make a Bargello cane and I made the pendant you see in this picture - I am still rubbing my eyes with disbelief! This weekend, I shall make some more stuff using this technique, just to prove to myself that I wasn't dreaming. Too soon, it was time to drive back home, pick up the second suitcase I had packed earlier, and fly out to Venice, via Paris. Planes, Trains, Automobiles .... and Buses and Boats! Venice is beautiful - decaying, distressed, but somehow, miraculously still standing. A lot of the city is empty and derelict, some of the houses and hotels can only be reached by boat and have huge stone doorsteps that hold the tide back. We went to several bead shops, and in one, I found a gentleman who collects old trade beads - when he saw how excited I was, he let me wear one of his precious chevron bead necklaces and even took a photograph of me in it for his records - I don't think he's seen too many Asian women get so excited about his collection- it was so heavy, my neck hurt when i took it off! The glass in Murano is exquisite - but expensive! - and having been treated to a demonstration of how it is made I can understand why. Unfortunately cheap Chinese imports are everywhere, even in Venice, and the art is dying out. We took the obligatory gondola ride, had coffee at Cafe Florian in St Mark's Square and paid six euros each extra on the bill just to listen to their music (shocking I know, but a once in a lifetime experience), and drank Bellinis at Harry's Bar. We needed a few more days to see all the sights, but saw quite a lot of the place, having taken a couple of all day walking tours - any more and we would have ended up completely bankrupt - Venice, we soon found, is one of the most expensive cities in the world. I dragged Mike out to Burano on the vaporetti - he grumbled a bit, but the colours on that little island soon changed his tune - we just loved the quaint little place. We got chatting to a resident - he didn't seem too thrilled with his life - once the tourists disappeared of an evening, he said, there was nothing to do on the island - oh well, I suppose you can't have everything! Once we had been to colourful Burano, the beauty of Venice seemed even more drab in comparison. We had to look for colour in the local markets, in the fruit and vegetable stalls - but we could find nothing to rival the colours of Burano. Time to pack for home soon arrived - and our wallets heaved a sigh of relief - as did our clothes which were fitting a bit too snugly for comfort after all those gelatos, pizzas and pasta!
I'm going to finish some of the projects I started at Polydays this weekend, and get ready to go to work next week, hopefully having lost the weight I put on whilst on holiday. Catch you next week, same time, same place xx Seven Ways to Make a Statement Hello readers - relax now, I'm not about to give you chapter and verse on fifty ways to wear your jewellery - I wouldn't want to bore you, and besides why go for fifty when just seven will do?? I'm often told 'Oh, you can carry it off, but it would look odd on me', so I thought I'd write a few pointers down if you want to give statement jewellery a go.......
OK, homily over now, let me tell you about the pieces I made last week. Walk on the Wild Side This necklace is in fabulously wild fuchsia pinks, bright greens and cobalt blue - the pendant is from Afghanistan inlaid with colourful glass, complemented by polymer clay beads - little wavy chips, and a couple of faux trade beads. This is just the kind of necklace that could be paired with jeans and a tee for an afternoon at the pub, and with your LBD and Louboutins at night - a go-anywhere necklace - well, perhaps not to an office - the bells on the chain fringe of the pendant might just put your work colleagues off a bit, although they would certainly see ( hear?? ) you coming! White Russian Since the end of the Cold War and the toppling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a chromium bearing diopside, (originally found in eastern Siberia, close to the diamond mines) has become available as an alternative to the much more expensive emerald. The green in this stone literally glows - however, in larger sizes the tone can be very dark. Careful cutting is required in the larger sizes to keep the angles slightly shallow to maintain the colour. In smaller sizes the color is exceptionally vivid and fresh. I found an extremely contemporary pendant, set in silver, with chromium diopside, contrasted with mystic quartz, onyx and an agate druzy, and paired it with a string of fluorite. The greens in the fluorite beads were a bit too muted, so I added another string of acid yellow tinted, tiny seed pearls and onyx beads - this seemed to lift the colour value of the necklace, and set the beautiful green in the pendant off beautifully. Now, this one will definitely go to the office with you, as well as on an evening out. Oh, and a White Russian is someone who comes from the area of Russia now known as Belarus, and also a cocktail made of vodka, coffee liqueur and cream, or a strain of marijuana! Timbuktu Timbuktu is a town in Mali in West Africa - spindle whorls are African trade beads made predominantly in Mali. Spindle whorls have been used worldwide for thousands of years, originally as tools in the cotton spinning industry to increase or maintain the speed of spin. In more recent years they have become much sought after as interesting beads and incorporated into the very fashionable genre of 'Tribal' jewellery. The whorls were made from clay, amber, antler, bone, coral, glass, metal and wood. Local materials such as chalk, limestone, mudstone, and soapstone, have been used in those found in Mali and Guinea. Used as weights for traditional cotton spinning, the whorls are fitted at the bottom of the spindle shafts, which are used as supported spindles to spin very fine threads. The bottom tip of the shaft rests in a small bowl placed in the weavers lap or on a table to one side. As you can imagine, the clay/wood whorls are quite heavy and can be difficult to wear in a necklace. I designed mine out of polymer clay in three pieces, joined together to make a hollow, light bead. Strung on a handmade red and gold Kumihimo braid, they make a very effective, elegant and light daytime necklace. The beads, though light and hollow are robust and give the impression of being chunky and heavy, which is an integral part of the tribal look. These red beads with a silver motif, made of polymer clay last weekend, and the blue chips will go into a necklace next week. Polymer clay is a very addictive medium, and I am increasingly seduced by it - I love the process of working out how something is made - the more complicated the better - there is so much fun to be had! That's it for this week folks, catch you next week, same time, same place
xx 'When a woman puts on a heel, she has a different posture, a different attitude. She really stands up and has a consciousness of her body.' I was raised to be a mouse, shy and quiet, dressed in simple clothes that helped me to merge with the crowd - that was the way good little Indian girls were brought up when I was a child - very Victorian - unfortunately, my personality wouldn't be repressed and the mismatch when "I" escaped was sometimes very odd. Eventually, I said to myself, to hell with being quiet and nondescript - I shall be me - and then, it was like a weight dropped off my shoulders - I was free! The habit of being shy and quiet though, has been ingrained into me, and rears its ugly head when I am in a roomful of people I don't know - that is when I need my piece of statement jewellery to give me a boost with a soupçon of extra confidence, and help me regain my equilibrium. When I make a piece of jewellery for the Caprilicious Woman, this is what I aim for - the wearer walks tall, knowing she wears a distinctive piece of jewellery, marking her as a feisty, interesting woman, who cares about herself, has ideals and dreams and is capable of taking her destiny in her hands and running with it - she is the 'Caprilicious Woman'. Just as your Louboutins give you that 'attitude', a piece of Caprilicious jewellery should help you stand out from the crowd, be noticed and most importantly, feel good about yourself. Mike and I watch Some Like it Hot, with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon at least once a year - it is a standby favourite for rainy Sunday afternoons, along with Singing in the Rain, and Top Hat. Isn't Marilyn cute?? Apparently she was four months pregnant when she shot this scene - I couldn't tell - clearly, she has some really good foundation garments on here. I was looking to use these Moroccan Berber tarnished silver metal beads I recently acquired - they are large but light, as they are hollow. Teamed with a couple of hot pink agate beads, and rough cut black tourmaline, I used fuchsia pink pearls as spacers - I had to call this necklace after my favourite film. Some Like it Hot I used both my little point and shoot camera and my brand new Nikon to take these pictures - I can see why I am going to enjoy the Nikon once I understand it better - just now it feels like I am driving a car for the first time, coordinating all it's functions seems like an impossible task. Sruthi Singh, a design blogger who calls herself the East Coast Desi, featured our house and garden on her blog - she was curious about how the design ethic in the decor of the place I live in matched up to the jewellery I make. You can read her article here - the photographs were taken by a friend, and the piece was written by Sruthi. Don't forget to leave a comment on her blog - she will be really chuffed to hear from you. I took delivery of these exciting and colourful pendants from the Afghanistan/ Turkmenistan area and decided to make some colourful beads to go with them. Armed with a tutorial from a Russian polymer clay artist, Ms Kopilka and my extruder, I set out to put some really bright colours together and see what happened. The extruder reminds me of an implement from my mothers kitchen, used to make deep fried savoury snacks. I have never made these snacks myself, my excuse being that I don't deep fry anything ( although this hasn't stopped me eating them!) I find it really ironic that I, the most un-domestic goddess, am now using kitchen implements in my avocation that I would never have dreamed of using to cook with! This is how the beads from this technique came out - pretty colourful, eh? I still have loads of the cane I made in the picture above and more beads to come from it later on. I also made some Kumihimo braid using Chinese satin thread and nubbly sari ribbon fabric .......... Turkish Delight The first of these beauties went onto the Kumihimo braided cord, which I then festooned to my heart's content with coins made of shell and pewter - very pretty, with a tinkle and a rustle reminiscent of belly dancers in Istanbul. As the story goes, people threw coins at the feet of Ottoman street dancers, and having nowhere else to store them to protect against theft, the dancers sewed the coins into their belts and scarves. After a while, it became an issue of prestige - the belly dancer with the most coins was obviously the best one, so they began to wear their coins attached to their clothing, visible for all to see, as a sort of clanking, rustling, curriculum vitae cum bank account. They add rhythm and colour to the costumes and the dance, and I certainly think they suit this necklace down to the ground - what do you think ?? It would have been a boring necklace without them, in my opinion.
That's all I had time for this week, folks, stay well and have fun, and I'll catch you soon, same time, same place xx As a child, my excuses for work not handed in on time were extremely inventive to say the least - but now, I have surpassed all my previous efforts, and then some! My inner child is alive and well, having survived standing behind the blackboard for most of my chemistry lessons, and learning all of The Merchant of Venice off by heart as a form of punishment - so well, that I can rattle the whole play off today, a hundred years down the line.
It took me an entire evening to mold, cut out, dry, and sand my latest effort - Oh, I was mighty proud of my beautiful creation! The next day, I was ready to fire it - but, I couldn't find the bl@@~y sheet of paper with the instructions - I hunted high and low, but in the end, with a sense of deja vu, conceded to myself that 'The house ate my instructions'. I went back to my computer and downloaded a fresh set of instructions and followed them accurately, and guess what?? This time, 'The kiln ate my pendant'! All I had left to show that I had actually put anything in the kiln (apart for the photographic evidence above - thank God for technology) were a few tiny pieces of sintered metal, and on scrabbling through the carbon particles, I found the little stone I had set into the pendant. I think I went a bit hysterical at this point - well, it wasn't worth crying over, and that seemed to be the only other possible course of action. So, I sat there, on my haunches in a red towelling robe, clean and fresh from a prolonged soak in a hot bath while my kiln had been chomping away at my pendant, scrabbling around in carbon particles with blackened, dirty hands and a smudge on the side of my nose, laughing as if my sides would split - Mike thought he'd phone the men in white coats to take me away, but I escaped incarceration in a padded cell in the nick of time!
Inspirational Beading is a blog written by Mortira vanPelt of Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. She makes the most exquisite beaded jewellery and likes to support her fellow artisans. She published an interview with Caprilicious Jewellery on her 'Inspired Beader' page and sent me a link - http://inspirationalbeading.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/inspired-beader-caprilicious-jewelry.html Mortira likes to make eco friendly jewellery and says 'I often try to put a bit of a green spin on things, while also appealing to every type of beader. I also hope to create discussion and debate, so comments are always welcome, no matter how old a post is' - so do head over and leave a comment on her blog, if you are reading this. Neytiri Avatar was made in 2009, and is possibly the highest grossing film of all time. Neytiri was a Na'vi princess of the Omaticaya tribe and the female protagonist of that movie. She was portrayed as brave and fearless, and had a strong sense of loyalty. The entire movie was shot in shades of the most beautiful cobalt, turquoise and ultramarine blue. I fell in love with the dyed jade medallion in this next piece, and teamed it with opaque turquoise crystals. The pendant is strong, and almost masculine, with the dragon motif, but it's colour is very feminine. Not entirely happy with the lack of movement in the piece, I added a turquoise teardrop bead, wire wrapped with shiny blue crystals. It is a very striking piece in Neytiri's colours, and it sits on my 'Oriental Inspirations' page on the website. The dragon motif seems to embody Neytiri's strength of character. I love the colours, and the addition of a bit of wirework finishes it off beautifully in my opinion - what do you think? Leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me, why don't you?? Running With Scissors - as usual! As if I wasn't despondent enough with the bronze clay fiasco, I decided court yet more failure by attempting to make canes using polymer clay. Canes are cylinders of clay or glass that have a design running through them, and when the cylinder is sliced, each cross section contains the design. Each one is made up in a large cylinder so that it can be managed easily, and once the process is finished, the cane is reduced to the size required, and then a cross section made - lo, and behold (hopefully) a design appears. This is the theory, but..... I find it very difficult not to cut it open and peek midway through the process - you need a the patience of Job (whoever he was) to make a cane without slicing it open every two minutes, and it has to be accepted that a whole load of clay might end up on the scrap heap. Added to this, once the cane is made, it has to be 'rested' overnight before it is cut open, or it smears and distorts and generally looks like rubbish - even more patience. Can you see why this might not be a suitable endeavour for yours truly?? I decided to try out some tutorials by Marie Segal of Art From My Heart at http://mariesegal.blogspot.co.uk/_ These tutorials were probably written for someone more experienced than me (that's almost everybody) and involves the use of extruders and other implements - but I was going to die trying, and in actual fact, it wasn't so bad - have a look at my attempts - I think they are quite acceptable for a first time. I only wish I was less annoyingly ambitious - most people make bullseyes and little flowers to start with - but no sirree, not me, I have to try out the daddy of all the canes available. Anyway, I now have five canes - next, to make something with them - probably next week. You can see on the bottom right that I didn't wait to rest the cane before cutting it open - it is meant to be heart shaped at the centre. The Purple Rose of Cairo Another necklace with solar quartz set in sterling silver, the stalactite this time dyed purple, looking just like a purple flower, so I named it after one of my favourite movies. Teamed with amethyst teardrop nuggets, a few peridot, crystal beads and pearls, it turned into a delicate, and elegant necklace - very understated, but yet, making its own quiet, sweet melody. A little silver flower toggle clasp I had been hoarding for just such an occasion came in handy to finish this necklace off to perfection. I know that many of you read this blog regularly - certainly more than the twenty three kind people who have publicly declared their affiliation by pressing the 'follow this blog' logo - can I ask you to please click on it - make a poor artisan who is doing her best happy, eh?? and rack up some points in heaven! I promise it won't rear up out of your computer and bite you - all that will happen will be that the blog will drop into your inboxes each week, with a silent 'plop' , and there will be a smile on my face - it is safe, I promise - please, pretty please..... I've even put the link on the end of this sentence for you - you won't even have to scroll back up to the top right of this page, where it normally lives. Them's my shenanigans for this week folks, thanks for stopping by. Catch you next week, same time, same place.
xx Hello, and a warm welcome to you, wonderful readers. Four weeks of sunshine - probably the best summer we have had here in the UK for a long time, ended with a crashing thunderstorm - and exactly at the wrong time, for us, anyway. We had a barbeque planned, and it started to pelt it down half an hour before we were due to light up - fortunately, we outsmarted the malign party - pooper gods by taking the simple precaution of reading the weather report - and moving the barbeque under cover - Ha Ha Ha! Put that in your collective pipes and smoke it, malign party - pooper gods! And a good time was had by all - no doubt it could have been better, but no one complained, and we just got on with it, the way we are wont to do in this country. Biker Pearls I had some beautiful pearls, in pastel colours - cream, lavender and peach - they had large holes, and could be strung onto leather - they are quite difficult to find, as pearls usually have the tiniest holes that do not allow for stringing onto anything but the finest material. I wanted to make an unconventional pearl piece for the non Audrey Hepburn woman - not everyone wants to look like a tea dance is imminent on their schedule for the day. I love these two necklaces - fifteen strands of black leather with a pearl on each strand, with a magnetic clasp - who says that the words 'pearls, lavender, peach and leather' weren't meant to be in the same sentence - eat your words, people! I loved them so much, I even wore one to the barbeque. Berry Sensation These are Himalayan Goji berries - much has been written about them being super fruit with whole websites devoted to their antioxidant and nutrient value, claiming that they are the next best thing since sliced bread (what's so wonderful about sliced bread, anyway ?? - it dries out so quickly - anyone who has eaten an unsliced French crusty loaf will attest it's superiority). Tibetan beeswax amber beads, capped with sterling silver that arrived on my doorstep a couple of days ago looked so much like these berries, that once the necklace was made, I had to use the word 'berry' in the name - I couldn't think of anything more befitting. I teamed the 'berries' with aventurine, dyed jade, malachite, red howlite and iridescent Czech glass to make two strands of a fairly long necklace. The Emerald Isle This is a picture of an island in the Maldives - why is it on a blog that deals in the main with jewellery?? Well, I bought these beautiful slabs of green agate - and the markings within the stones reminded me of the atolls of the Maldives - the serenity emanating from the depths of these gemstones is amazing. These were teamed with frosted clear quartz chunks, which reminded me of the breakers when the waves hit the shoreline, and The Emerald Isle was born from these thoughts. When I modelled it for my husband, he sort of chuckled - I was a bit taken aback at this - I didn't see the joke, until he explained himself - he said whoever wears this one is most definitely making this statement, 'look at me, look at what I am wearing' - well, I don't see anything wrong with that, do you? The Caprilicious woman is no wee, quaking, timorous beastie - she is most definitely visible, and what's more, enjoys and revels in that visibility!
Anyway, in my opinion, what's the point wearing something that says 'don't look at me' ?? One might as well save one's money and wrap up in a chador. After all, your clothes, jewellery, your home and garden all make a statement about you - people make judgements about you on looking at them - nondescript outfits are a bit like wearing camouflage - a cover up of the real you. I will leave you with that thought this week, I am off to play with polymer clay in my craft room this weekend. Have a fab week and I will catch you later, same time, same place xx Hello readers, I trust you have all had a good week. The flowers are a-blooming and everything looks so pretty when we walk into our garden or drive around town. The warmth of the unaccustomed summer sun in the UK has brought out the romantic in me and this mood has touched all that I have made this week. I had a bunch of coloured baroque pearls and I strung them onto mono filament invisible nylon, using jeweller's glue to get them to stay in place. Of course, the nylon had a mind of it's own, so did the pearls, and as for the glue - let's not even go there - a few newly invented swear words later, this necklace appeared - my husband wondered whether I was developing Tourette's syndrome and I had to take time out to reassure him that it was all for real and the air around me wasn't blue due to a psychiatric disorder. I had to prise my fingers apart after soaking them in warm water to take some pictures of my latest creation. Anyway, it was all worth it in the end, and I can present Summer Holiday............... This is an ideal piece to carry away on holiday, light and pretty, and with so many colours, it will go with anything - Summer Holiday seemed apt. The next piece was almost to claw back the now distant memory of our holiday in the spring, and Peter Cincotti's rendition of I Love Paris says it all. Romance was firmly back on the agenda. Shiny heart shaped Czech glass beads, little crystals and rose quartz wired onto a torque sit around the neck in this piece like a garland of flowers. I didn't put any crystals at the back of the necklace - the stiffness of the torque would cause the wired flowers and leaves to dig the wearer in the neck - who wants that in the heat of a warm summer evening, when this piece should really float elegantly around the neck? Not me, that's who! Peacock from the Ocean Abalone or Paua is a snail, found in temperate waters around the world from the genus Haliotis ( no, not Halitosis - pay attention now!), meaning 'sea - ear'. It has a flattish shell, which is dull on the outside, and beautifully coloured on the inside, with a mother of pearl nacre. The snail has a strong foot, and clings to a rock surface on the ocean bed, and has to be prised off - this can be extremely difficult, and I was surprised to read that divers have perished in the attempt. "Abalone grip so hard that unless you catch one by surprise, you are unable to pry it off the basin. Divers used to drown while collecting abalone . . . a diver would pry an abalone loose, stick his fingers under the shell to lift it and then in surprise and pain when the ab clamps down would drop his ab bar. At that point, there would be no way to get his hand loose and he would drown. (Tank diving is illegal when gathering abalone.)" This is called the 'Abalone's Revenge'. One question - how does one catch an abalone by surprise?? - there is no mention of this anywhere - maybe you have to leap out at it from behind a rock, all guns blazing?? Clint Eastwood, eat your heart out! Abalone Sashimi Red Abalone are harvested mainly for the Sushi restaurant trade - males and females are put into large tanks on moonlit nights ( they prefer to mate on full moon nights), with soft violin music, candlelight, and a bottle of wine (yes, joke!). An Abalone Farm - a far cry from 'bring on the violins'! They produce baby abalones, which are collected and given a diet of kelp smoothies and snail spaghetti, which is a slurry of bran, seaweed and other nutrients made into a dough, extruded through a pasta machine and baked, to help them grow till they are large enough to be eaten. The shells are used for jewellery, but have to be ground and polished by experts as the dust is very toxic, and causes lung diseases. No wonder then, the shells are expensive - however, the colours are so beautiful, I am sure you will agree it is worth all that trouble. I made a polymer clay ruffle bead in abalone colours, and put a necklace together. The colours are gorgeous and I could only hope that my ruffle bead would be up to the task of complementing the abalone shell beads - what do you think?? WILD This necklace, made with crystals and diamante encrusted spacers, has been one of Caprilicious' more successful designs. It has been reproduced in quite a few colours, and at the jewellery party at my friends place, the hostess picked it up almost immediately - when she showed it off to her friends, they fell in love with it, and I had orders for the same piece, having asked her permission first, of course. I sent off for strings of crystals and spacers and clasps, and I made the first of the necklaces on order this week. Fortunately, I have the design and the suppliers written down, and this is one of the few that can actually be remade. That's about all I have had time for this week folks, it looks like another scorcher here in the UK over the weekend. Have fun, and I will catch up with you next week, same time, same place xx You know the old saying "..... are like buses, you wait forever, and then three show up at once" - well, in my case, the '.....' at the beginning of this aphorism was old friends. I met people whom I hadn't met for over twenty, and in one case, thirty years last week, and it was really fabulous to see them again. Friends from the USA were visiting the UK, doing a bit of sightseeing with their children, and had arranged to meet up with us along the way. Of course this meant that my fingers were flying all week, making little gifts for them, and I didn't make anything else for Caprilicious the whole week. One of my friends had her hubby and two daughters in tow, and I made little pendants for the three ladies. I was meant to meet them at another friends place, although this didn't work out quite the way we intended, one more was made for the hostess. Two days later, another friend came to stay with me overnight - she interrupted a schedule of sightseeing with her son, and took a train all the way from London to Warwickshire to visit with us, and we had a great deal of fun, catching up till 3 am, chatting about all the things that had happened to us in the past years. Since we hadn't met since she moved to USA in 1974, there was a lot to talk about! I wanted her to have something to remember me by - just in case we didn't meet again for another age - but the world has shrunk since we were kids and chances are it wont be so long before we meet up again. She received a little pendant as well, and I sent one more to her sister in the US of A who was meant to be with us, but couldn't make it. Mike enjoyed their visit with us too - a Cohiba each and Courvosier to wash the taste down contributed to a conversation with my friend's son till 4 am, setting the world to rights. All these were inspired by the wire weaving of Nicole Hanna, and I have been trying to make my pendants smaller and smaller - almost in competition with myself to see how tiny I can get the weave down to. I am all pendanted out, and my fingers are sore from wire twisting and weaving - next week will have to be a nice simple couple of necklaces (except, I don't know quite know how to do simple, and now people have come to expect a few flourishes from Caprilicious - sweet and simple doesn't cut it!). It was a nice feeling to be able to give them something that I have made myself - these people already have at least one of everything else and it is difficult to buy gifts for them. I took delivery of some really pretty silver pendants I ordered a while ago, and will spend the next couple of weeks making little necklaces with them, to nurse my sore fingertips back to the rude health they normally enjoy. Take a look at them - they are really pretty. I have fallen in love with gemstones that have hidden depths - fire opals, hawkeye,
and solar quartz - their beauty is visible when they are moved in the light - a little secret between them and their wearer, my inner child is well pleased by this. You can see that I have collected plenty of shinies - storing them away like a magpie - but of course, I am well brought up and have this compulsion to share - that means you can have some too - they will be on these pages one by one, when I get around to parting with them, I promise, sooner, rather than later. Have a fabulous week won't you, and I'll catch you all next week, same time, same place xx |
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