Que Sara Sara.......

Hello readers, I hope you've all had a great week. We have had a lovely, sunny and warm Bank Holiday long weekend in the UK, and I have had schoolmates to stay for our annual reunion - more on that later. This inevitably got me thinking of childhood dreams, and taking stock of the reality of adulthood. As a child, I was a very girly girl - I loved jewellery, make up and dressing up and would have liked nothing better than to be a cross between Curly Locks from the nursery rhyme by Mother Goose, and Umrao Jaan - a famous courtesan and poet, whose life story has been immortalised in a couple of Bollywood movies. Of course, thankfully, neither was I beautiful enough to be Umrao Jaan, nor did I write poetry, and as for being Curly Locks...............
Oh well, Que Sara Sara!

I was too young to understand what Umrao Jaan had to do for a living apart from singing her poetry soulfully and wearing beautiful jewellery. 
Today, I have a day job that is both prosaic and exciting (how did those two words jump into the same sentence??) and have had a few Umrao Jaan's pass my way as patients - such is life!

Curly-locks, Curly-locks, 
Wilt thou be mine?
Thou shalt not wash the dishes, 
Nor yet feed the swine;
But sit on a cushion, 
And sew a fine seam
And feed upon strawberries, 
Sugar, and cream.
from Mother Goose

Besides which, I don't really like strawberries and my sewing skills leave a lot to be desired - I was the bane of the needlework teachers life!
 I do not wash dishes or feed swine either - that's a no-no in my book, so not all is lost.
And of course, we mustn't forget my mother, who would have chased me around Bangalore with a big stick before abandoning me to either the Umrao Jaan or Curly-locks course of action!

Aren't these colours exciting?? These are the colours predicted by Pantone, the world authority on colour, to be prominent in design and fashion this autumn.  The colours are so bright and vivid - brighter than last years colours, which were just a couple of shades paler, but what a difference that makes!

Pantone colours - Fall 2012

All the clothes in the shops will follow this trend as designers, who are swamped by this imagery will find themselves making stuff in these colours, almost subconsciously picking them for their products. 

The East Coast Desi 

Desi [d̪eːsi] is a term for the people, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent  and their diaspora. India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal are some of the countries included In this term. 
The largest Desi diaspora populations are found in the USA, UK, Canada, South Africa, the Middle East, Australia and South East Asia .

Last week, the East Coast Desi, Sruthi Singh featured Caprilicious Jewellery on her blog
 http://theeastcoastdesi.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/caprilicious-jewellery-featured-shop.html
Sruthi has a lovely home and takes some beautiful photographs of it on her blog, apart from other things that fill her with enthusiasm - I am grateful that Caprilicious Jewellery is one of them - she is just the kind of woman for whom I design - contemporary, fun and feisty, the quintessential Caprilicious Woman! Sruthi says.....

'I'm Sruthi - a mother, wife, artist, and a huge decor enthusiast. I've been a part of the corporate world and worked for the Big Four in accounting. But my heart was always inclined towards the creative field. My son has taught me to stop and smell the roses and devour the smaller moments in life. Decorating his room has led me to opening my online children's art boutique on Etsy called "The Yellow Bamboo". You can check it out right here  http://www.etsy.com/shop/theyellowbamboo
Coming from India and having lived in the US for 8 long years has made me realize my love for all things Indian and I get to enjoy the best of both worlds."The East Coast Desi" is my space to archive and share all things  inspirational to me.'

Thank you very much, Sruthi, that was a great write up for Caprilicious. 

I discovered Facebook late in life -  to look around and see if I could find out what had happened to mates from school, and I must say I was richly rewarded - there are five of us in the UK from my school year - and we have made contact with each other now and meet up at least once a year. This year we met over four days, with people coming and going at their convenience, so I had little time to make jewellery. What was nice was that my friends like my jewellery and took some home with them - I'm a sucker for anyone who likes my jewellery!
 We ate and drank, swam, sang and danced to our hearts content, and it was worth the effort Mike and I put in to have such a fun time.  We will most definitely do it again in August next year, and anyone from our class who wants to come along is welcome.

Five ladies........ and Mike

The Emerald Isle Cuff  

This bracelet was made using wire, a green agate slab nugget and pale green crystals. The green agate is particularly pretty, with markings running through it bringing to mind an atoll in the Indian Ocean. It took two days to weave the fine netting of wire, and I added tiny green crystals at the front of the cuff to add a bit of colour.

The Necklace

An island in the Maldives

That's all I had time for this week folks. I am at work on the day job all this weekend and if I have the time, I intend to play with my kiln again - am keeping my fingers crossed that I will have something to show for it at the end of all my hard work.
Have a fab week and I will catch you later, same time, same place
xx