Tapestry, by Caprilicious Jewellery

Hello all, how are you this lovely Bank Holiday weekend? Warmer weather is on the way and I intend to enjoy every moment of it. I have four days to do absolutely nothing, and I intend to do just that.
It's time to do a bit of spring cleaning and check out what I have in my cupboards in terms of beads, clay supplies, tutorials and other resources. I have been picking up bits and bobs for over ten years now and I've forgotten that I even own some of the stuff in my stash. But first, I need to clear out my worktable - it is such a total mess, that I don't want to sit at it, let alone create anything. This weekend, I promise. I need to recharge the creative batteries, and while I'm doing that, some of my unused bits and bobs might just end up in the charity shops, now that they are open.

Tapestry

​The inspiration for this bracelet came from my book on Japanese embroidery - The Art of Bead Embroidery: Japanese style, by Margaret Lee where the author follows the lines on a piece of paisley printed velvet with beads. I created the cuff bracelet using the general idea. This is the second project in this book that has inspired me, the first was Woodland Fantasy. A lot of embroidery work goes into Japanese beading, and before anyone asks me, no the beads aren't stuck on, they are sewn in one by one.  The velvet was hard to find as I was looking for just the right pattern in an offcut from e bay, so that the project wouldn't be too expensive and I wouldn't be lumbered with yards of material that I might not find any use for later on. After all this  was an experimental piece and I had no idea if it would work out. 

It took so long to make this cuff, and it looked so hopeless at the beginning, that it almost got thrown in a dark corner on many an occasion. However, perseverance is my middle name and eventually this lovely piece hove into sight. The trick was to use one colour at a time and to sew in the straight (ish) lines first. You can see the patterned velvet in some of the photographs in the background.

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It is lined with Italian leather, so soft and supple that my No 10 needle (which is extremely fine, for those who don't know) went through it like a hot knife through butter. 

Caprilicious Jewellery is in a showcase on the 29th May from 830 pm to 830 pm on the 30th in The Jewellery Show, Facebook - do drop by if you fancy looking at some pretties - now that summer is on us and things are opening up, you need something to lift your spirits, right? Here's the link

https://www.facebook.com/groups/202104383623506/?ref=share

and if you let me know that you saw the invitation on the blog, you can have a discount of 10%. Do be sure to let me know, though.

That's me for this week, folks. Have a lovely bank holiday weekend and an even better week. I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then
xx