Sand Between My Toes

by Patti Adcock.
(United States)

This is the first piece I have ever displayed publicly, other than wearing it myself. I just took the leap into starting my own handmade jewelry business, and it’s been slow-going.

Sand between my toes

I found the sea star on clearance at a local hobby store, and I love anything “ocean”. So I looked at it for a while when I sat at my bench, wondering what to do with it. I was browsing a well-known bead supplier online one day, and came across an inexpensive simple piece, the kind you buy in bulk quantity and set out at your register for last second impulse buys.

The piece that inspired me

I loved it and actually began looking for the components in my stock to make a copy of it for myself. (Eventually, I just ordered it so I could see it in person.) Well, most of you know how that goes. I began substituting this for that, and since I didn’t have the focal in the photograph, *voila*, the sea star became my focal.

This is the first time I’ve used mixed metals. The rondelles are a bigger version of the ones Rena used for her “Waterfall” earrings tutorial, and they really look like the ocean. The chips are yellow agate and quartz, the whitish beads are “sea opal”, and I used Rena’s technique for wrapping a briolette.

Thanks, Rena, for all your help and for sharing your wisdom and experience so freely with us.

Patti Adcock