Bicoastal creation.

So we are just a few hours from the Gulf of California and the main inspiration for this comes from the Florida side of the continent. 

I have made loads of Beachy things, mostly stones, snaills, seahorses and fish, but the inspiration for this neck piece was directly from the west coast of Florida. We often spent Christmas vacations there while I was teaching full time and I absolutely loved beach combing.

The snail, starfish and white thing are simple hand formed polymer creations, but the scallop shell and faux coral have closer ties to the beach.  I made the scallop using a modified Skinner blend sheet which I coaxed along an actual scallop shell I collected many years ago. After I made the impression of the ridges, I used the inner part of the real scallop shell to make a backing.  For the faux coral, I made a molded impression of an actual conglomerate of whah might be coral ... Not sure... but it was plenty interesting with lots of texture.  I whipped up a small batch of "impromptu" coral colors and put it in the mold. Fortunately the impression took pretty well, and where it wasn't good, (there may have been some undercuts), I used a needle tool and pulled out some pipe work. 

I tempoarily have it strung on heavier waxed cotton cord.  Not certain how I am going to finish it.   Maybe I'll sleep on it tonight and have a few pipe dreams of how it is all going to come together.