There's Always a Silver Lining when you're Talking to a Jewellery Maker, by Caprilicious Jewellery

Hello folks, how did your Christmas go? I hope you all had a load of fun, ate and drank yourselves silly and are now on the way to recovery, just in time for New Years Eve. Of course, if you did remember the reason why Christmas was originally celebrated for ten seconds, that's got to be a good thing, right? 

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Some of my Christmas day was spent at work, in the bosom of my work family. We cracked open bottles of non alcoholic champagne, ate chocolate and cake and handed around gifts - I made little earrings for all the midwives and health care support staff who were at work that day, the patients mostly had the courtesy to stay at home until they had had their Christmas dinner and only wandered in after the pudding was served and the Tiramisu decimated, so it was a fairly quiet day, and I was able to come home and cook our Christmas dinner, having prepped it beforehand.

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Of Clouds and Silver Linings

The design for this pendant was by Nicole Hanna and after the really tricky ones I'd made recently, it was a doddle. I love the way the wire swoops into arcs, signifying rain clouds and I added blue crystal teardrops to signify rain, and two rows of very shiny crystal beads. A diamante studded outsize lobster clasp came into play and picked up the shiny theme - very Holidayish! It was picked up last week and will soon be on its way to its forever home.

As I had Boxing Day off, I hid out in my craft room and played with clay, veneers and bead making. The oven was on non stop all day while I ferried my trays full of beads back and forth.

These beads were made under instruction from Ginger Davis Allman at the Blue Bottle Tree. I love the verdigris effect created by the surface treatment of a cured bead.

The veneer on the left was made on raw clay with a layer of Kroma Krackle over copper acrylic paint, coloured with alcohol inks. Once it had dried, I made the beads in the picture above. I then coated them one by one with liquid clay and hit them with a heat gun. Strangely, the Kroma Krackle turned white when I painted it with liquid clay, but the colour came back as it cured under the heat gun, albeit a bit darker than before. The veneer acquired fine bubbles when the heat gun was applied - perhaps from the Kroma Krackle or even the thick layer of acrylic paint as the black beads without the veneer sheet were fine. I wish I'd had the courage not to use the liquid clay, but I felt the need to seal the beads with something other than varnish. 

I have a series of pictures sent to me by one of my regular customers who decided that it was time one of her friends was introduced to Caprilicious Jewellery. I call it 'The Making of a Caprilicious Woman' - photographs were taken as the gift was unwrapped, the necklace tried on and the delight on the lady's face is a sight to behold, and she very graciously agreed that I could share them on my pages and on social media. I just had to share these pictures with you!

That's me for this week, folks. Have a fabulous week, and wonderful New Year's Eve celebrations (cue violins, I'm working again!) and I'll catch you next Friday, same time, same place.
Until then
​xx

P.S. here's the payday discount code I promised you - use it to pick up something interesting, the code is HelloJanuary and lasts till the 6th of January, 2019.
xx
​N.

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