And the "bead" goes on....

A new day and a new project!
Spring is here and I seem to be bursting with new ideas for jewelry pieces. My latest project is a piece that I call "Gifts from the Sea". I had a similar idea many years ago, but never go around to working on it. 
I love the ocean and we get so many gifts from the sea! I love to work with shells and pearls in my jewelry making! And I love ocean colors! This project puts all of this together to create a wonderful new bracelet  for my collection! 

Here is my palette:

I usually begin a project with a focal piece and then set up a palette of beads and embellishment like a painter sets up his paint palette.

 

 I "sketch" out a general idea of what I want to do, but this changes as I work on the piece. 

I really enjoy working on a piece and seeing it develop! I love he creative process and I am always excited to see the final outcome! 

I have been working most of my pieces directly on ultrasusede fabric, but I have noticed lately that the fabric pulls out of shape as I am working. I don't like to work with "Laceys Stiff Stuff" like a lot of beaders  do. I like the look of the ultrasuede on the finished beadwork. I am going to try to use some heavyweight fusible interfacing and see if that helps. 

I did a simple beaded bezel around a pale peach calcite donut. I added beautiful pieces of "everlasting" shell  to the center of the donut. These shell pieces are in shades of beige , pale peach, white and brown gave me the colors that I wanted to work with. And I knew that I wanted the "waves" on the bracelet to be turquoise blue/green with white "breakers". I am happy with the colors that I have chosen and I think that the piece will turn out beautifully! I will post the finished piece when it is done!