The Glass Bead Tree

The Great Barrier Reef necklace was created while studying with Stephanie Sersich.  Using her technique named the Spiny Knotted Necklace I created the necklace based on my memory of my trip to The Great Barrior Reef  with my Sister Marcy.  Although Stephanie uses a lot of long 'spiny shaped beads' in which the piece got it's name.  I wanted to create more of a knobby look.

My trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1989 with my Sister Marcy is easily one of the high lights of my life.  Prior to our trip I had met several people from Australia, Craig, a dear friend who was a foreign exchange student in high school  and several other fellow travelers that I had met during my tour of Europe in the early eighties.  I had kept in touch with all of them and continually received invitations to visit.  So in November of 1989 my sister and I got on a plane and headed down under for a month long Odyssey of  visiting and seeing the sights of Australia.  We had a fabulous time seeing a land so far from home.   After  visiting Sydney and the blue mountains, Marcy and I rented a car and traveled north on the eastern coast of New South Wales to the Gold Coast near Brisbane and Surfers Paradise.  In Gladstone, we boarded a boat to Heron Island, located on the Tropic of Capricorn.

Heron Island is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.  The colors of the foliage, water, and the sea life that we saw is what I based this necklace on.

As a glass bead artist I really enjoyed the challenge of creating beads that reflected the images in my mind.

The resort on the island ( it is a very small island, there is only one resort) is a series of cottages that are nestled among the trees.   The leaves on the trees are a dark, lush green.

I really enjoy creating leaves of glass. As you can see from the photos above, they lay on the edge of the necklace like fringe.

Looking out on the ocean from the island you could see the most amazing shades of blue and green.  These are easily my favorite colors and ones that I use on a regular basis.   The photo on the left above shows the necklace and a few of the shades that I remember and found most pleasing.

While on the island Marcy and I had the opportunity to watch Sea Turtles lay there eggs.  There were special guides that escorted guests onto the beach to educate and share the experience sea turtles laying there eggs.  Looking for the telltale, bulldozer like tracks in the sand and watching from afar as the sand flew while the turtles dug the deep bowl like holes.  The guides would then determine when the turtle was in a trance like state, and safe for us to get a closer look as the ping pong ball shaped eggs dropped gently into place.  In the necklace I created small lentil shaped beads that have little turtles on them.  These turtle beads are placed randomly on both sides of the necklace.  All the little turtles are headed up to the button closure of the necklace.  The Turtles are also on the surface of the disk that hangs from the center.

Along with the disk with turtles, the centerpiece of the necklace includes some of the dark leaves and a fun shape in the upper right corner that resembles a boom-a-rang.

Other beads that I created for the necklace include, little periwinkle shell like beads (lower left), beads with an Aboriginy like design, (seen above center)  A blue bead on the right was created by using an opaque copper green  with a pale transparent blue glass on top.  By layering the two glasses I was able to recreate one of the shades I remember most.