what the water gave me

I've slowly been collecting materials for this necklace. The focal beach glass is the one from the deconstruction project. It's been languishing all week on my workbench, whilst I've perused the stash boxes, pondered and sketched. All portions of this necklace are special to me. The large blue/green beach glass was collected on a trip

to Nags Head with my husband a few years ago, and the smaller pieces were collected at a beach on the James River last week during a day trip with my dog Lucy. The limpets are special treasures found on Assateague Beach on one of many seashell hunting walks with my parents over the years. And the other shells were found near Port Townsend, Washington, on one of the loveliest beaches I have ever been privileged to walk. I've put a lovely patina on the double strand sterling chain, and plan to use one of my land & sea series round mokume gane beads somewhere in the mix. Hiding beyond the glass is some lovely prehnite and faceted chalcedony that must have a place since the colors are so much of the waters.

The title, "what the water gave me," is taken from a Frida Kahlo painting of the same name, one of my favorites.

Hampering my progress is a bout of insomnia that just won't let up. Conversely, there's nothing like it for an excuse to get up at 4 a.m. and sand polymer beads. I managed to finish all of them from the last batch and only must figure out which ones are going with me to a shop in Chincoteague, VA, next week and which ones will be mounted in silver or posted alone on etsy.

On another note,