The Backstory to My Necklace in Creative Spark Summer 2015 Online Magazine

Sea Inspired

Znetshows challenge is met, but not with out planning and redesigning.  Znetshows offered their designers the chance to create jewelry featuring their  sea glass beads.  I was challenged to create sea inspired jewelry.  To begin this challenge I needed to selecting 6 items from the Znetshows catalog.  My first reaction was, YEAH!  I love to pick beads out and there are so many beads to choose from.  This turned out to be a huge task.  What shapes to I pick?  What colors do I select?  Truthfully, I think it is easier to just be sent a pile of beads to work with!  All of the time preplanning is eliminated then.

Photo of Peace focal from Znetshows website

Once I found a focal, the task became easier.  I fell in love with the Peace focal pictured above.  The sea glass bead is available in a number of colors, but I feel in love with the Light Aqua `Coke` bottle Seafoam .  The color seems so tranquil and perfect.  It also reminds me of the sea.

I decided that I want to work with the bone shaped beads and selected the color crystal as my second color.

Goodies I ordered for Znetshow Design Challenge

With that decision made, I sketched out the size of the focal bead as well as the size of bone beads to see if they would have the correct size proportions.   I had a definite design in mind and sketched primarily to figure out the size of the beads.  For this necklace, I used:

1.  Cultured Sea Glass Pendants 30x26mm 88 - Light Aqua `Coke` bottle Seafoam flat freeform shape engrave characters with `peace`-P63-B88 

2.  Cultured Sea Glass teardrop round Beads - About 16x8mm 88 - Light Aqua `Coke` bottle Seafoam (6-pc-str)   S91-B88

3.  Base Metal Alloy freeform flat Beads antique silver tone    M0259-AS-1

4.  Cultured Sea Glass round Beads 4mm 88 - Light Aqua `Coke` bottle Seafoam (8-in-strand)-S03-B88FIVE

5.  Cultured Sea Glass fish bone Beads center-drilled about 20-25mm 01-Crystal stick(20-pc-str)-S60-B01FOUR

Rough Sketch of Necklace Design

When the beads arrived, my plans changed.  My experience is that usually beads ordered sight unseen  offer some element of surprise.  I rarely have the opportunity to select beads in person so you would think I would be good at it by now.   Surprise--the 4mm seafoam beads offered little contrast against the crystal bone beads.  I  decided to use the silver beads instead.

Notice the PEACE focal and how it hangs between the bone beads

I needed to find something to put in the center that would keep the bone beads from touching the PEACE focal and leaving a gap between the two.  I originally thought I would use silver wire to attach the focal.  I didn't like the look so I moved to beading wire which was an even worse choice.  I finally settled on Irish waxed linen which worked beautifully, but even wasn't straight forward.  I originally thought about using an aqua color and then switched to white.  I spent much more time planning than actually making the necklace. 

Peace Necklace by Bay Moon Design is available for purchase HERE

After I made all these switches the necklace came together quickly and I am thrilled with it.  I love all of the silver in the necklace and the PEACE focal is beautiful.

I also made a matching bracelet and pair of earrings which you can see in the free online magazine Znetshows Creative Spark Summer 2015 on pages 11 and 12.

Creative Sparks Summer 2015

These pieces and lots of other sea inspired jewelry, vegetable inspired jewelry, upcycled jewelry and tutorials.  There are also social media tips and even items created with Znetshows cultured sea glass beads that are NOT jewelry.  Just grab a cool drink and Download HERE !

Grab a cool drink and enjoy!