Drops of Frozen Wine, by Caprilicious Jewellery

Hello, folks, it's lovely to catch up with you again. I'm back at work this week, and working all weekend - but hey! life goes on despite all that. I love my creative exploits - it is wonderful to come home and shrug off the cares of the day with a few beads and a reel of wire. That reminds me, it's been a long time since I played with wire. These days, I seem to play with seed beads all the time, but I decided to break the duck after almost an year and make a simple but rather beautiful necklace. 

I saw a pendant set in sterling silver in the virtual window of a vendor from whom I tend to pick up little bits and bobs - it was breathtaking in its simplicity. I fell totally in love, and of course I had to have it for Caprilicious. Unfortunately it was just a bit too expensive, so I set about bargaining with him until I finally got it at a more realistic price. I wanted to put it in a necklace almost straight away, but decided to send for the beads (as if I don't have enough, already) and had to wait impatiently until they arrived.
At that point in time I was deep into Rhapsody in Blue so had to wait yet some more. My patience was finally rewarded this week - the necklace is finished and I think it is particularly pretty. I used a beautiful lapis and pearl silver clasp I brought back from Jaipur and sparkly, faceted haematite beads that have been electroplated with silver. 
It's been so long since I made a simple but effective necklace - I've spent most of the pandemic constructing beaded confections that I had almost forgotten how - almost but not quite!

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They brought me rubies from the mine,
And held them to the sun;
I said, they are drops of frozen wine
From Eden's vats that run.
​R W Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the Transcendentalist Movement of the mid-19th century, which believed in  the inherent goodness of people and nature, and that while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. What a brilliant concept! ​

Zen and the Art of Making Beaded Earrings

​I've been making a few more pairs of earrings - I find that it is very soothing, sewing on little seed beads one by one, picking up colours at random, and brick stitch in particular is akin to raking sand into waves or ripple patterns - this is a practice originally used by Zen Buddhists in the attempt to focus ones mind and aid  concentration. 
All the days problems flow away from me as if by magic and I'm smiling as I head off to bed. 

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I hope you like my little earrings, they are made by weaving beads around metal frames, some of which I patinated in verdigris. I enjoyed making them and there are more to come, in preparation for The Earrings Show on the 28th of the month, and in the pursuit of Zen!  

That's all I have time for, folks. Have a wonderful week, and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then
​xx