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

June...

Wow, the entire month of June has gone by without a blog post.  In my own defense, I have a good reason.  I've been in the process of moving from Guam to Florida.  The move began at the end of April when we shipped the majority of our belongings and hasn't ended yet... although we are almost done moving.  We spent the month of May sleeping on a air bed, with only a few belongings and spent the month of June in six different hotels and the homes of two family members.  We still have only the belongings we were allowed to fly with (2 suitcases and 2 carry-ons each) and the boxes of stuff we mailed to family members.  However, at the end of the week we will close on our house, and should have our shipments delivered in the next couple of weeks.

Now that I'm done with the excuses, I can go on to the beady happenings in my life.  During our journey, we spent some time visiting our families in Maine and New York.  While in Maine, we spent some time on a small island with a great beach.  Since the beach is only accessible by boat, it is relatively undisturbed.  While combing the beach with my husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and puppy we found a bunch of buoys and LOTS of beautiful sea glass.  I can't wait to start designing with it!!!  Here are some pictures of the glass we found:

My entire stash:

Bottle pieces:

The whites:

The browns:

The blues, greens, and one purple piece:

Check back later for how I use these beautiful finds in custom jewelry pieces!!!