Colourburst

Hello folks, thanks for coming back to take a squiz at Caprilicious today. Last week was Diwali and I'd quite forgotten about it and had to make do with lighting a lamp my mother gave me many years ago, which hangs in my porch. We usually have a few friends round to dinner and let off some firecrackers, but this year it was too late to organise anything. A belated Happy Diwali to those of you who celebrated it.

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I've been getting ready for my photoshoot with Lorna on Saturday - salting necklaces away, one by one. I was meant to be free this weekend, but due to one of my colleagues sustaining an ankle injury I've had to volunteer to be on call - I just hope it is quiet so that after my initial morning visit to the hospital, I can spend a couple of hours on the the photoshoot. The picture is a little sneak peek into the collection - shiny, shiny, shiny!

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I connected with a girl who was at school with me on Facebook - Anita lives in the USA and asked if I would write an article for an annual charity brochure issued by the India Catholic Association of Austin, Texas. I ensured that she was aware that I had no religious affiliations, but she said it didn't matter that I was a self confessed heathen. Anita's dad owned a stationer's shop by our school - the entire population of the school bought their textbooks and note books from St Joseph's bookstore. The nuns insisted that we cover all our books with brown paper and that a label be applied to the front with our names and class on it. My poor mother would sit down with reams of brown paper and all our books - she was a doctor, a busy anaesthetist who worked all hours, and the last thing she needed was this chore for her three kids - she soon taught us how to do it ourselves, I can tell you and it was turned into a competition to ensure that they were all wrapped quickly, and to her standards. The books all looked crisp and tidy when we started out, but by the end of the year, brown paper cover or not, they looked like they had been in a dog fight. Anyway, I digress. To cut a long story short, they wanted an article about the Jewellery of India and it was such a vast subject that I had to do an extremely potted history lesson. Anita sent me a copy of the brochure and a certificate of appreciation.

The Colourburst Necklace

Colourful aurora borealis coated crystals arrived and my magpie heart was instantly in  love. I added some baroque pearls and this beautiful necklace was conjured up as if by magic.

The carved oyster lip clasp provides a beautiful foil for the colourful necklace. 

I suffered from a bit of wire withdrawal and whipped up a penannular brooch using copper wire and smoky glass teardrop beads from a design by Abby Hook. 
Caprilicious will be at an Etsy Made Local Event in Birmingham at The Custard Factory, Digbeth, on the 1st of December and the brooch can go along. 

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That's me for this week, folks. Have a fabulous week and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place.
Until then,
​xx