Inspired by Warmer Climes, by Caprilicious

Hello folks, what a fabulously warm and sunny week it has been here in Warwickshire. It almost made up for not being able to abroad on holiday - well, almost! I hope you've all had a good week too and are ready to settle down with the blog for a little read. 
We're winding up the garden, cutting back dead foliage in time for autumn and deadheading flowers, giving the lawn one last cut and soon there will be nothing left to do outdoors - well, it will be too cold to do anything even if we wanted to.

This week, I was looking for beads in my stash and found a pack of agate slices, and I knew immediately that they needed to be in my next project.  While I was thinking about a design for them I came across this pair of earrings made from polymer clay (on a blog called Polymer Clay Daily) to an abstract design, and knew that that what I was going to do with them.

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Bougainvillaea

The colourful bracts of bougainvillaea are so common in India that I never rated them until I moved to a temperate climate. In my mind now, bougainvillaea are firmly connected to warmth and sunshine and I crave a glimpse of their beauty. Pinks and reds are very common colours, but there are also yellow and white varieties that are equally beautiful. 

The pendant is made in bougainvillaea colours and the bail is studded with pink and red crystals. I put it on a beaded necklace that I picked up in Hong Kong a number of years ago - a lot of the colours in the pendant were matched to the necklace. I wore it to work the day after I made it and everyone loved it.

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Cactus Flower

I love the Christmas Cactus - it is irresistible when in full flower, but does nothing for the rest of the year and is usually killed off by the resident pot plant murderer, aka Mike. The slice of agate has a central aperture, and I filled it with 'cactus flowers' in luminous pinks and reds, having surrounded the agate with colourful abstract bead embroidery. This one was hung on a torque necklace for the sake of simplicity - I wanted the pendant to be the focus of attention.

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I hope you like these designs, folks. They certainy aren't for the faint hearted. However, if you can muster up the courage to wear one, I promise you you will stand tall, look people in the eye and be assertive with ease - it works like magic! There's a lot of research that has gone into the way women dress and how they are treated in the workplace and among their peers - and I can tell you, wearing the pendant equivalent of a power suit gets you a place at the big girls table. 

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