Giveaway Challenge Reveal ~ Sea Star Necklace

Last month I gave away 3 sets of my new Tattered Butterfly Wing beads—with an added twist—the winners were required to make something with their beads. Today we finally get to see what fabulous creations they each dreamed up!!

Here's what I made…

The starting point for my design was the pointed flower petal-like pattern on the Tattered Butterfly Wing beads—I really wanted the other beads in my necklace to echo that design. I had originally planned to do a floral inspired piece, but I kept coming back to a gorgeous star pendant from Gaea I was hoarding—the colors and points on the stars matched my Tattered Butterfly Wing beads perfectly.

I dug deeper into my stash and found more beads that fit the color palette and I thought the colors spoke more of sea stars than celestial stars—at that realization my design fell together quickly! I added in peacock pearls, sparkling czech glass, glowing opalites, several rounds from Gaea, and some ceramic rondelles from Michael's.

I went for a slightly asymmetrical look, using mismatched beads, and if you look closely you'll see that on the right side I kept to mostly sea-blue beads, and on the left I used mostly mauve and purple beads.

On the blue side, I strung one of my teal Aster Wheel beads (wired to a mother-of-pearl button and topped with an opalite) to mimic the pattern in the Tattered Butterfly Wing beads on the purple side.

I used one additional Tattered Butterfly Wing bead—it was a lonesome extra and wanted some company.

There's also one lonely star bead from Gaea. But these wobbly pebble beads here are my very favorite addition to the necklace—they are my very first polymer clay beads! I made them years back—before I even owned a pasta machine—they were entirely hand mixed and hand shaped. I had actually used them in a few previous necklaces, but had taken them each apart as my style changed. Now I think they're finally home at last!

Probably the most difficult part about creating this necklace was deciding how to attach Gaea's pendant. I tried a few variations before settling on this bail with seed beads and wire. It was the most simplistic, but I really like how it adds a little detail, but not too much that it distracts from the pendant.

One other special addition to my necklace was two beads from my great grandma's bead box—the faceted mauve and white beads in the lower right corner and the upper left—I had been hoarding them for just the right design.

I used two large sea-blue coins on the blue side of the necklace. The small beads wired over the top were added to hide the string hole—I have always disliked being able to see a string hole!

And to finish things off, I wired several seed beads onto the clasp. 

I hope you enjoyed following along with the creative process involved in making my new necklace!


This is a blog hop! Be sure to visit the links below to see what the lucky winners created with their bead sets:

Stephanie LaRosa - http://stringaholic.blogspot.com/

Kathy Alderfer - http://artfulaccents.blogspot.com/

Kay Thomerson - http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/