How to Appear Wise (when you might actually know nothing)

Hello readers, thanks for joining me at Caprilicious today. This week the sun has been shining, but the air is cold and crisp with the odd flurry of snow, which melts even before it touches the ground. I've had the week off, in an attempt to mend my exhausted spirit after the shenanigans of the past three weeks, and I must say, it has worked a treat. I tend to save a lot of my annual holiday entitlement until the end of the year, just in case I need it for some reason, which usually means that I have a load of time off work in March.

The Flower Sermon

I found a beautiful Buddha face ox bone cabochon bought from Indounik last year and decided that it would be turned into my first piece of wire work this year. The original idea was to turn it into a Balinese dancer, but my muse had other ideas. I started off making a flower headdress for the dancer with Czech glass dagger-shaped beads - and it took me all evening to eventually give up - the design simply would not work - I had to keep cutting it up and reshaping it - in the end, I gave up in disgust and went to bed.
The next day, The Flower Sermon caught my eye. This is a story from Zen Buddhism - 
The Buddha took his disciples to a pond for a wordless sermon. He reached out into the pond and pulled up a lotus flower. He silently handed the flower to his disciples who passed it around, one by one expounding their own theories about what the Buddha must have meant when he handed the flower to them.  
All except Mahakashyapa who simply smiled and said nothing.

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 “What can be said I have said to you,” said the Buddha, “and what cannot be said, I have given to Mahakashyapa.”  - enigmatic, eh? But the Buddha talked in riddles like that and us unenlightened beings might have a bit of difficulty with understanding the meaning of his words.
Mahakashyapa became Buddha’s successor from that day forward.

The moral of this story - keep your mouth shut, and you might appear as if you have a few brain cells to rub together. Gabble, and you just look and sound stupid. We will never know if old wily boots Mahakashyapa actually knew what the wordless sermon was all about, but the odds are that he was just as clueless as the others.
 Apparently, the Buddha meant to say that the beautiful lotus comes from the depths of the muck in the pond - but none of the muck seems to adhere to it because it is so pure - or something like that - no one really knows, it was a wordless sermon.

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The pendant ended up being a Buddha face with a  flower to one side, and I added some pretty silver foiled glass flowers to the necklace which I made with red dyed quartz beads and black and white Krobo beads from Kenya. Red, white and black always look striking when put together with silver accents, and I was quite pleased with the piece by the time my muse and I had finished with it. 

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Sitara (Star)

This pendant has been sitting on my table for a while. I meant to team it with orange Czech glass beads and got all the supplies together when my muse spotted these star beads made from shell and dyed a beautiful turquoise blue. The pendant is blue grey on one side and orange/yellow on the other, reversible,  and was made from polymer clay I had mixed up for another project - I loved the colours so much, I couldn't allow the remnants to join the scrap clay pile. A fluorite flower dangles from the tip of the pendant.

Pavo the Third

I had to, I simply had to make another Pavo necklace - so many people have asked for it, I'm exhausted apologising for not having one. Apologies to the ladies who have one already - there will only ever be a very limited number, and you will all belong to a very select group - it takes a special woman to wear Pavo.

The postman brought me these beauties - well, I only photographed two of them, but there are more in the stash. I need to figure out a necklace for them - these clasps are so pretty, they have to be visible, but I shall make the necklaces so they can be worn at the back as well - for someone who is wearing her hair up, or has a backless dress with short, cropped hair perhaps?? The possibilities are endless!

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This week, my muse decided to show me that she was the boss - she wasn't going to allow me to enjoy my new found independence which allowed me to make a few bits and bobs while she was away. She changed every design I started and made sure her presence was felt, and how!
 But, in the grand scheme of things, who cares, as long as the jewellery that gets on to these pages is interesting and looks good - Ms Muse, I salute you, and here's a warm welcome back to work!
That's all Ms Muse allowed me to make this week, so have a wonderful week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place
xx