Waves

This bracelet was inspired by the 2008 Bead and Button special Right Angle Weave issue. A very simple version of this concept was in the magazine, and I immediately knew I wanted to do a wave bracelet for an Ocean themed contest on the BeadDreamz Yahoo group. I was further inspired by my memories of a belated honeymoon trip to Hawaii that I took with my husband, my son (who was 1), and my mother-in-law. The challenge title was The Ocean Adventures Challenge: Use your imagination to create an ocean-themed piece. So, this is what I came up with. I picked the sea-foam green beads because they are closer to the colors I saw in Hawaii versus the blues you see in the Caribbean. The silver lined beads and the shapes of eyes are for the incredible sea life that we got to snorkel with while we were there. And, finally, the gold beads represent the sun sparkling across the tops of the waves. An Hawaiian sunset is hard to beat. I had a lot of fun playing around with this concept, and I hope you like what I came up with for the challenge.

Buried Treasure

Pendants are very versatile and wearable in quite a variety of situations. That's why I am really drawn to them. When you pour your creative heart and soul into something, it's nice to know that it can be shown to the world. This piece was inspired by the red beads. I recently bought them at a bead show, and specifically picked out the smallest ones I could find for beadweaving.

I started with a ring of these red beads with sead beads in my favorite colorway. From there I just played with adding beads to my liking. It really feels like being an artist when I take this approach. Not only am I painting with color, but with texture and form as well. In the end, I added the citrine drop gem in the middle, which gave me the name for the piece... Buried Treasure.