Ms Muse Remains in Holiday Mode

Dear readers, how nice of you to drop by, I love meeting you here like this. I despair of Ms Muse, I really do - she refuses to come out of holiday mode. She's been galvanising me into using the most colourful beads in my hoard and this week's pieces have all come out bright and beautiful as a consequence. 
I thought I'd play you some music as well, it has been a while, so here we are.

Hello Holly

The lovely red crystal beads I had leftover from making 'Mandarin' were turned into a necklace of two strands using diamante set connectors. They do look like holly berries, don't they?

Kind of Blue

The pendant and the silver beads in this necklace are from Jaipur and are made with 925 silver. The capsular pendant has little dangling bells and is on a necklace of the most beautiful lapis lazuli teardrops contrasting with bright green dyed jade beads. I named the necklace after a record by my favourite Jazz and Blues musician, Miles Davis. Ms Muse  remembered a statue of him made by Niki Saint Phalle outside Le Negresco in Nice. My necklace I think, is no less colourful. A pair of earrings with the lapis teardrops and a tiny peridot bead echoing the green of the jade accompanies the necklace.

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Brown Sugar

I've had all the elements for this necklace in my stash forever - they just sat there quietly until one day the carnelian leaf shaped pendant jumped out of it's box and demanded, yes, demanded to be used. I rummaged around in my bead drawers and the red jasper needles and citrine nuggets came out to join the party. The citrine nuggets are so pretty, and remind me of the crystalline unrefined sugar my grandma used to hand out to us kids when we'd been especially good. Mum used to go mad, claiming that she had spoiled our appetites for dinner, but my grandma knew that if she bribed us with brown sugar, we were sure to return to keep her company in the hope of more coming our way.

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By the Grace of the Griot

The word “Tcherot” means “message” or “paper on which something is written” in the language of the nomadic Tuareg tribe. The Tcherot is  often a metal or leather lozenge shaped box which holds magic letters, numbers, names of days, stars and planets, or signs representing the eye, revealing the esoteric practices well known by the Griots or holy men. At other times a Tcherot may contain desert sand, small 'lucky' objects, or simply the “whiff” of the Griot, at the request of the person who needs protection from the evil eye, curses and diseases or to receive favors or luck.

I bought a Tcherot from a trader in the UK - and one look at the price and I wondered if would be subsidising her next airfare to Niger. However when I rechecked the prices on other websites and realised that I was getting a fair price I simply had to buy it. It is made of camel's leather and studded with bronze.
I decided to make some dull gold beads using polymer clay and gold foil - thankfully I had written an aide memoire for silver foiled beads which was easy to follow.

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If pyrite is Fool's Gold and these are faux pyrite, what would you call them? 

Herbarium pendant by Anna Mazon

That's it for this week, folks. I am publishing the blog a day earlier this week as I am going to a precious metal  clay class in the south of England which I am combining with a medical meeting and visiting friends in Bournemouth. 
Anna Mazon is coming in from Poland to teach her herbarium pendants and I have long wanted to learn a bit more about using precious metal clay - and there's nothing like learning from a professional. I have only made fairly simple and straightforward pieces of jewellery in my kiln, and am really looking forward to learning some new techniques from her. I shall tell you all about it next week.
Have a lovely week, folks, thanks again for joining me. I shall catch you next Friday, usual time, same place
xx

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