Breast Cancer Project - Part 2 + my love for Sherry Serafini's work :-)

Here is my second square for the Bead Artists Against Breast Cancer fundraiser organized by Jeanette Shanigan (you can read more about it and see my first square in my previous post Breast Cancer Project - part 1 ) Again I was thinking of all the things I love so I started thinking of the sea, water, lakes with grass all round.... I've always felt the most comfortable in life when I've been in water, I love it, LOVE swimming, can spend my life swimming, although I rarely get to swim nowadays, I'm usually watching my 4 year old who can't :-)  so that's how  my second square came about.  

 

 

 

 

 

This square was actually finished about a week ago, but have been busy with both my "real" job and I've been working on a Sherry Serafini necklace.... I actually bought the pattern of one of her pieces - A Mermaid's Attire from Bead Pattern Central, collected more or less all the necessary beads I needed for it - although I couldn't find some and had to substitute with the closer thing I could find or I was happy with -  and started beading!!!! and I can't tell you what a joy and how much I've learnt from following this pattern!!!!  I would really like to fly to the US and attend one of her classes... but as that is simply not feasible at the moment :-) this was the closest best thing for me :-)  I LOVE Sherry Serafini's work.... I mean I actually drool over  her work!!!! whenever I'm stuck or am lacking inspiration, the first thing I do is get all my books that have her work in and I go to her web site - her amazing work just does it for me!!!! I'm crazy about it, and I drive all my friends a bit crazy too talking about her, especially as most of them have absolutely no interest in beadwork!!! :-) anyway... :-D this is what I've been doing all week with all my waking free moments.... I keep having these aha moments while I'm beading... this necklace is just beautiful, and how she's designed all the different elements to fit, is amazing.  I've never followed instructions before to make someone else's creation, it's not something that interests me.... I like looking at the instructions to work out how it's done, but to actually execute the whole thing, to me, seems pointless.... as I miss out the excitement of creating something unique and mine! that to me is the challenge, not whether I can follow the instructions, which by the way I can't, as I have no patience.... even with this piece, which I'm madly in love with, I've had to make some changes, some out of me trying to correct mistakes I'd made without having to destroy hours of work, and some because I couldn't find the exact beads I needed so I had to substitute quite a few - and I'm a bit sorry about that, because I would have loved to have made the necklace as it is intended to be, but.... :-)
I am so glad I bought this and that I'm actually doing it, and not just reading the instructions - it's an amazing learning experience for me, thorough enjoying it!!! :-)

I'm not sure when I will have the whole thing finished - so far I'm about 1/3 of the way, but the next bit is using a technique I have not used before and therefore have no idea how long it will take me to do it.... but as soon as I finished it, I'm definitely posting a picture!!! so come back soon :-D