Featured :: ZnetShows Sea Glass

I've got a lot of sea glass from ZnetShows on the bead table at the moment. In fact I kinda have it all over the place with pieces in varying levels of 'done-ness.' Much to my family's chagrin. 

I'm working as quickly as I can to plow through the patterns, but just as I'm halfway through one another pattern seeps in and I need to start that project so I don't lose the idea. Yeah, I know, it's kinda a sickness. But the ideas are just pouring out as I play with this wonderful sea glass!

I think this freeform piece might just be my all-time favorite. Not sure why exactly since I had a bit of a throw down wrestling with the pattern. It was all good in the end. The cream, matte beads seemed to pick up the texture of a starfish and the orange sea glass are like windows beckoning both sides of the cuff. It is uniformed when looking at the whole piece, but pull up close and it has the uniqueness you'd find on the surface of a starfish, or snowflake that only a freeform pattern can do.

I used a number of stitches in this one. The main one being freeform peyote, but I also used ladder and brick with some larger square beads. I also continued this freeform stitching for the bezels around the sea glass, and brought in some micro seed beads to create a bit of a dainty pattern around the edges. I am still working on the closure, but I will most likely use my most recent zig zag pattern to give it a continuous feel. 

I have been trying to find my groove with freeform, but I have struggled with feeling like I am suppose to create a somewhat 'messy' pattern. But my big epiphany with this piece is that there are no rules, and who says you can't have a little structure to freeform? I still stitched organically across the pattern, but I used some structured elements too. I think this might actually be my comfort zone with freeform beading.