Beachy Keen

My big project this weekend was a beach-themed necklace using some of the sea glass I collected while visiting my family in Maine.  I began by selecting the piece of seaglass I wanted to use from my stash.  I just loved the triangular shape of this piece of sea glass.   

After selecting the piece of sea glass and shells I wanted to include, I had to figure out how to include the seaglass in the necklace.  Since I found the sea glass myself, it didn't have a hole in it and I didn't want to try drilling it myself (I'd rather practice on unimportant pieces of glass before I work on something I'd hate to see break).  I started by trying to create a bezel for the glass, but I ended up making the bezel too small and it looked too heavy.  I really wanted something light and beachy.  I came up with this free-form-weaving net.  I thought it went with the whole beachy theme... like the glass is caught in a fishing net. 

My next challenge was figuring out how to incorporate the shells and really create the feeling of the ocean.  I selected my colors first.  I wanted to work from the dark blue of the deep ocean to the aquas and greens of shallow water and the reef.  I created mixtures of each color and faded them together.  Finally, I sprinkled some shells

throughout the mixture.  I then used a freeform beading technique to create a really substantial necklace to balance the size of the pendant.  I wasn't sure how the necklace would turn out, but in the end, it is my favorite piece I have created to date.  I think it really invokes a feeling of the beach.  It's really organic with all shapes and sizes of beads.  I accomplished what I wanted to even though I didn't know exactly where I was going when I started.  Everything came from the one piece of glass I found.

Happy Beading! 

Kell