Water as an insperation.

Star Fish earrings by EmilyClaireCreations

I grew up in Washington State on the beaches of the beautiful Puget Sound. I spent many many days watching the ebb and flow of the tide looking for the treasures the reseeding tide would reveal in the tide pools. I was at once awed and inspired by the Sea Stars clinging to the rocks and docks,the sand dollars that appeared on the sand and the tiny rock and sand crabs that skittered everywhere. Still today the most calming sound I know is the crash of the waves and the call of Seagulls as they sailed on the salt air looking for a meal.

Sea Star pendant by Beachcomber

I am so often inspired by the beautiful memories of the sea and love to use the colors and textures in my artwork. Today I thought I would share the artwork of fellow polymer clay artists that are inspired by water too.

Sweet wall hanging made by Fantasyclay

All of these awesome projects are made by Fellow members of my Artfire Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild ... http://polymerclaysmooshers.blogspot.com/

The colors of this necklace by HaffinaCreations scream water to me.

If you enjoy the water and or polymer clay art as much as I do please visit our Smooshers blog http://polymerclaysmooshers.blogspot.com/
or check out the shops of the featured artists in this article
http://Emilyclairecreations.artfire.com
http://Fantasyclay.artfire.com
http://beachcomber.artfire.com
http://Haffinascreations.artfire.com

Do you want to see how I made it?

Don't you just love these colors together? I do.
I had this beautiful Dicro cabochon in my stash for a couple of years waiting for the right design to use it.

I thought it would be fun to do kind of a step by step of how I made these beads into the pretty necklace at the end of this post.

I mounted the cab onto a square of stiff interfacing and stitched a peyote bezel around it with Dark blue size 10 Delica beads. I like using delicas because of their uniform size and large holes.

After I stitched the bezel I trimmed the interfacing and glued the unit to some soft ultra suede to hide the ulgly stitches and make a nice finished back for the pendant.

The next step is to join the front and back together and finish the edge with pretty picots.

When I finished the edgings and embellishments I added a Swarovski crystal link and used it for the pendant bail.

Here is the necklace being made. This stitch makes the necklace look like a spiral staircase of pretty bugle beads

This is how the back looks totally finished. See how neat and tidy it looks.

Here is the front finished, isn't it pretty.

This is a close up of the finished necklace. I named it Tranquil Waters because I think the glass cab looks like a pool of water with gentle ripples.

Tada here is the finished necklace I wish the camera could capture how pretty the pendant is but trust me it is lovely in real life.
I hope you enjoyed seeing how this necklace was made and maybe you are a little inspired to try a little beading yourself.

I fell in love with these beads...

I must confess I have a bit of a problem when it comes to buying and hoarding beads.

I don't know how most people create but I buy beads that speak to me with no idea how I will use them. Then I hoard them until they tell my "Muse" what to do with them...

This necklace is a good example:

Almost 2 years ago Jose and I went to a bead show in Chicago and I saw the cranberry pearls for some reason I had to have them. I don't know why because they are not in my usual color pallet. I passed by them twice before I went back to get them. So there they sat in my bead stash waiting to be used.

A few weeks ago I saw the 2 piece lamp work shell beads and fell in love with them; so much so I bought 4 strands in 2 colors again not in my usual pallet. I didn't have a clue how I was going to use them. So there they sat in my bead stash waiting to be used.

A couple of days ago I was feeling unmotivated so I conditioned some pearl clay and began to play with some ink and alcohol to see what kind of pretty sheets of color I could come up with. One of the sheets came out looking like sunset colors with a very pretty pattern- Ding- the light bulb above my head went on and I thought it would make some pretty hollow lentil beads. I made the beads and when they were done sanded,buffed and polished I loved how this one looked. Again I had no idea how I was going to use it.....

As I was putting it away in my stash I saw the cranberry pearls and the shell beads next to the lentil and in my mind I saw this necklace......

So that is how I create; strange I know but is what works for me....How do you create?