I Beg Your Pardon, I Never Promised You A.......

How are you this fine day readers, thanks for joining me again this week.

I'm not a flowery person, most definitely not, I promise you. When I pick up a piece of jewellery to wear, my hand seems to automatically go to the tribal, larger, badass necklaces - perhaps they boost my confidence when I wear them. Isn't that the reason why one wears Caprilicious??
However, as spring breaks, and the weather turns warmer, my thoughts and hands turn to floral offerings without me consciously making that decision.
When we were last in Paris, we took a taxi to the Bois de Boulogne which is a wooded garden on the outskirts. At it's heart is a rose garden or Roseraie, that today has about 10,000 roses and thousands of varieties - the scent in the air in the summer sunshine was so heady, I could have gone to sleep and thought I was in an attar of roses fantasy by Omar Khayyam. Unfortunately our time there was cut short by a thunderstorm and I have but a few pictures, but the memory of that magical garden influenced this necklace.

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The pendant is made from a slice of wood given to me by my friend who makes beautiful wooden bowls. It comes from Brazil and is called Purple Heart - when cut freshly it is a greyish brown, which matures on exposure to an aubergine purple. He cut and polished it for me a while ago, and I put it away in my stash until I found a use for it. I briefly toyed with the idea of making a mosaic to cover its surface, but that would have meant that I would have lost the beauty of the wood. I recently learned the technique of polymer clay 'embroidery' and decided to try and recreate a Roseraie in clay.

I couldn't leave it as it was, I just had to string it with some really bright beads and make a lovely necklace out of it - I think it is very effective, do you??

I thought I'd bring you some Bollywood and a 'wet scene' - nothing like one of these to lower the tone!! As wet scenes go however, this is one of the more tasteful ones I've seen in a while. 

Mi Amore

I love the titanium coated quartz needles and purple and green make such an explosion of colour. The little amber coloured glass acorn I thought was a treasure - I have a few more of these in my stash. The necklace has a lively dynamic of its own and it looks as if it is going to get up and dance away all by itself.

Sugar Sugar

The most interesting gemstone in this necklace is hemimorphite - beautiful nuggets that resemble sugar cubes, some of them tinged a pale blue. I pulled out all the other blue beads in my stash and finally chose blue agate, and jade to go with the hemimorphite. This gemstone is thought to increase empathy, compassion and inner strength - and if you believe in that sort of thing, it is meant to help you communicate with 'angelic' beings. All I would say is, it is unusual, and it is very pretty.

I was only a child when this lovely song surfaced - Sugar Sugar by the Archies. When I handled the hemimorphite nuggets, this was the first title that came to mind.

I had a few pangs of withdrawal from my wire addiction, so I made a little pendant from a Vintaj brass rubbing I bought in the USA last year, adding a seahorse from a clip on earring that once belonged to my mother - she bought the delightful little enamel and Marcasite creature in Paris and it is older than me - so definitely a vintage piece! The other one in the pair went into a piece of jewellery ages ago and now lives in the USA. I added strands of seaweed, and a sea anemone - oh go on, cut me a bit of slack - if you squint at it in poor light, it looks exactly like a sea anemone! And even if you won't have it about the fruits la mer, you'll have to accept that the pendant is sparkly and shiny and pretty.

My tutorial for Anastasia, the tiara made with polymer clay roses finally came out in Bead and Jewellery magazine and I received a photograph from my friend with her little daughter wearing the prototype piece. I think the little three year old looks adorable in it, don't you?

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That's me for this week folks, I will have a new and exciting development to report next week so do come back and join me. Have a fabulous weekend, and I'll catch you next week, same time, same place.
Until then
​xx