Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Where the Ocean Meets the Sand - A custom necklace inspired by Florida

Your walking along the shore.  You feel the wet sand under you feet.  Glancing back, you see your footprints leading the way back to where you've been.  Looking ahead all you see is possibilities.  You can go anywhere and your options are endless.  But you're called back to the water...

For my first custom design for Cousin Corporation, our assignment was to create something inspired by Florida because their company is based in Largo, FL.  We could choose anything at all about Florida to use as inspiration, but we had to use only Cousin beads in our creations.  Whether it was flamingos, citrus fruits, Disney, palm trees or something else all together.  I always chose the "something else" path less traveled. 

I created this custom beaded necklace I call Where the Ocean Meets the Sand. I started by laying out everything under the sun that might go into this necklace.  Initially I wasn't sure where my inspiration would take me... but here's what I started to play with.

Personally, I've always been drawn to water.  Sunrise, sunset, walks on the beach... and let's be honest, Florida being a peninsula has a LOT of beaches.  So I thought it was appropriate that my Florida inspired necklace feature the beautiful ocean and beaches.

As a focal, I selected an amber and teal colored geode slice. It's almost the shape of Florida (it's just missing the panhandle).  It paired perfectly with the teal seed bead mix and the amber seed bead mix from Cousin.  The mixes have a combination of bugle beads, 11/0 and 8/0 that worked to give this an organic, funky flow.  To finish the necklace I pulled in beautiful copper accents in bead caps and the toggle clasp, some amber gemstone nuggets and acrylic faceted beads.
A little wire-wrapping makes this necklace reversible

This is one of those pieces that will go perfectly with turquoise outfits all summer and will blend marvelously into the fall earthy tones.  It's artistic and fun.  It's asymmetrical and still balanced.  I think I nailed Florida so perfectly that this piece should take a trip to Florida just for good measures! ;)

And because I needed some instant gratification in the sea of seed beads and all the looping to make this necklace, I created a pair of matching earrings.  The kidney ear wires and copper charms with crystal accents are both Cousin products.  The lampwork glass beads are from Juli Cannon of StudioJuls.  Yet another staple in my array of turquoise and copper... can you say LOVE?!?! 

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7 comments:

Barb said...

What an AWESOME necklace. Just beautiful.

The Quiet Lion said...

Nice! No question that it belongs in FL.

creativegoddess said...

Very pretty, Dawn! I love the colors and the name of the piece. :)

Lisa Crone said...

Love it Dawn! Beautifully made and described! I was on the beach there for a minute. :) Thanks for the trip!

Therese's Treasures said...

Hi Dawn,
I can say love and love I do! The necklace is gorgeous and does look like the sand and water of Florida.
The earrings are a perfect match and you know I love anything made with Juli's beads.
Therese

Unknown said...

somewhat and I look at this necklace the more that I love it! The contrast between the colors is really striking, just like those colors in Florida.

Nice work! Keep up the good work!

Unknown said...

Hi,

I just came across your blog and glad i did. I found pleasure to read.

I work with GemPundit.com and am usually very stingy about giving out complements ;) Good Job! Congratulations to you on your wonderful blog.
I will come back often to read more :)


- Shivangi Sharma

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