Shangri-La Beach Glass Ring
by Tamara Robertson.
(Sarnia, Ontario, Canada)
Shangri-La Beach Glass Ring
Recently I’ve made a new friend that lives in Michigan. I came to find out that she has a new, small business selling Color Street nail polish strips. I received a couple of her beautiful strips. I have to say that right from the beginning, I could see the possibility of using this material to create matching jewellery for adorned nails!
The nail polish strips that I have on my nail tips here are called “Shangri-La”. I love the silver and aurora borealis sparkles for the holiday season. I hadn’t actually thought of experimenting with putting some on jewellery at this particular time, but I was looking to see if I had a ring that would enhance my nails when taking a picture to send to her.
My eyes landed on this blue beach glass ring in my jewellery box. The gentle curve of this large piece of blue glass made it perfect for a ring, and I still had a pewter ring base in my stash of supplies. I created the ring, but didn’t embellished it in any way at that time, simply put it away with my jewellery. It clicked with me immediately that this ring would look lovely with a bit of Shangri-La on it! I I very quickly added a small square of it onto my ring. An aurora borealis crystal was a natural choice to place on top, to pick up the aurora borealis crystals in the nail polish.
I like to keep my beach glass jewellery pretty simple, to let the beautiful glass speak for itself. It’s rare to find a piece of blue glass this large, and I didn’t want to cover too much of it up, but a bit of embellishment definitely seemed to hit the mark. I didn’t even try to make the square too perfect, in order to harmonize with the irregular beach glass.
I looked up the meaning of Shangri-La, and it is defined as “a fictional land of peace and perpetual youth”. That seems to fit perfectly with my little beach haven, which is not fictional. So naming my blue beach glass ring, that reminds me of the beautiful waters of paradise, Shangri-La, seemed perfect to me.
We’ve often used nail polish in our jewellery creations, but this is a different take on it. And once again, a neat way to marry two different creative endeavours! My friend was very surprised when I sent her these pictures of my hand with her nail strips and my matching ring! I think it makes an eye-catching look. It’s a combination of two styles – the glamour of the sparkling polish and crystals, mixed with the natural, casual, boho look of the beach glass, but that’s a look I love and tend to do naturally anyway. And the jewel-toned blue looks beautiful with the silver-based polish, perfect for the holiday season!
Tamara Robertson
Pink Pearls and Potpourri
