 What I won't be doing on holiday!! Hello folks, I'm so glad to be able to talk to you again today. I'm on a countdown to my annual visit to see my mother back in India, and I am now counting the days to my next adventure. I have various side trips planned, to Goa and to Udaipur in Rajasthan and will bring back tales from all those fabulous places. I have a show planned, in collaboration with a well known designer in Bangalore and of course will meet up with mates from school, college, relatives and friends - a very relaxing holiday (not!). I will need another holiday to get over this one. Every year I decide that I will chill out when I get to India, but by the time I even have my bags packed I have such a bulging itinerary that I know I will be rushed off my feet. Anyway it will be nice to get out of the cold and rain that we're currently enjoying here in the UK.  I made the last few necklaces for my show and am now going to relax completely. There is one more necklace planned, as well as some earrings, and then that's it. I shall relax and take it easy before my holiday as I'm certainly not going to get any time during the three weeks I shall be away from hubby and cat! For some reason, all the beads I picked up last week were green - I couldn't get away from onyx as much as I tried. I named the necklaces after The Absinthe Fairy or La Fee, the Green Goddess or Belle as she was otherwise known. Absinthe is a drink that captures my imagination - I've only tried it once and it is pretty vile - but that's probably because I'm not a fan of aniseed. It is an anise-flavoured 45–74% spirit derived from botanicals, including the flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium ("grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. However the beautiful green colour, the story behind it and the fact that absinthe has been reputed to be the muse of many thinkers and artists in the nineteenth century piques my curiosity and interest. It was banned in Europe for a long time in the 20th century because of its high alcohol content and has only recently made its way back onto the bar menus in Paris. The Green Goddess Transformation has always been the fundamental essence of the Green Goddess, for transformation is what she provides on several parallels. During the magical ritual of la louche, the drink transforms from the concentrated, alcohol-rich, deep emerald green liquor into an alluring opalescent, cloudy greenish-white mixture when water is added to it over a couple of cubes of sugar. This, of course, is symbolic of the subsequent transformation that takes place in the drinker's mind. As the cool water liberates the power of wormwood oil and the other herbal ingredients from the green concentrate, so will new ideas, concepts and notions be set free in the mind of the drinker - be he a poet, an artist, a scientist, or the common man on the street. Or at least, that's their excuse for drinking absinthe in such quantities! I love the beautiful canister of ice water with the taps that regulates the outflow of water over the sugar placed in perforated spoons - such a fun ritual!
Belle
La FeeThis is the most beautiful of the Absinthe Fairy necklaces - It has seven strands of onyx nugget beads, seed pearls, diamante beads, and the most sumptuous, delectable box clasp that can be worn to one side should one wish it to be visible.
These necklaces are very much more beautiful in person - the diamante is very difficult to photograph unless I go out and buy myself a macro lens - maybe one day! Just now, all I can do is take loads of closely cropped photographs that I hope will excite your interest - these are moments when I wish I had a bricks and mortar outlet to exhibit my necklaces. That's me for this week, folks. Have a great week and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then xx
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