Gosh it’s so long since I last posted, I can’t even remember! Work, kids, not enough time to create, let alone come up with a blog post. Anyway. Here I am, and maybe I’ll manage to post a bit more often over the next few months.
Today’s post was inspired by a blog challenge set up by the lovely folks at Art Elements, who have decided to hold a monthly themed creative challenge. This month’s theme: tide pools.
As I was thinking about tide pools, I thought about some that I am very familiar with, at Wye River on the coast of Victoria. Wye River is a small village, hamlet even, at the point where the Wye River (which is really a stream) hits the Southern Ocean. It’s a lovely spot, and my parents had a little holiday house there until about two years ago when it was destroyed in a rather nasty bushfire on Christmas Day. Thankfully no one was hurt, but subsequent delays in rebuilding mean that I haven’t been down there since not long after the fire went through.
One of the things I most liked to do when staying in Wye River was going for a long wander along the beach. At the far end, the sand gives way to a rocky tide pool-y stretch of coastline, and I took great pleasure in meandering along, peering into each pool, pointing out the anemones and tiny crabs to the kids.
The surf can be pretty strong along that part of the coast and the tide pools are rugged, with anemones and limpets attached firmly to the rocks, so the rushing waters don’t sweep them away, and hardy seaweeds in the deeper pools. There are tiny pools found in the fissures of the rocks, too, usually harbouring a few anemones.
I’d love to have had the time to make a little tide pool of my own, using resin and shells collected from the beaches down there, but I need to learn the best way of doing that first I think! So instead I dug through my beads to find something that inspired me: a pair of enamelled charms from Anne Gardanne. A couple of tossed and tumbled Czech glass rondelles and voila! Tide pool earrings!
I’ve got some enamelled shells from Anne as well, so they may become necklaces in the near future.
This is a blog hop, so visit some of the other blogs to see what they were inspired to create!
beadrecipes 
These are so pretty Melissa and really do evoke tide pools. Thanks for joining in with out challenge.
Those charms were made for this theme! Love the earrings! We have the Black Sea in Bulgaria but I’ve never seen a tide pool. I wonder why? Haven’t been to wild enough parts of it, I guess 🙂
I love the colors of sea and sand in your earrings! Those charms are great for the challenge… nice job. Good to see you back! P.S. I also love your pics of your tide pools and the environs around them.
Beautiful earrings Melissa! I love your photos as well, and hearing about Wye! Thanks for sharing!
The earrings are beautiful. They so represent a tide pool.
Beautiful earrings, and beautiful seaside photos
The earrings are perfect for the challenge, so pretty!
Love these! Those enameled components are so perfect!
Your earrings are beautiful and perfect for this challenge.
Your earrings are really lovely, and I like how you’ve added glass beads that perfectly complement the charms!
These enameled charms were absolutley perfect for this theme. I love them!
What lovely earrings Melissa, the colours are just perfect and they are very wearable!
Glad you could join us! An happy belated Birthday! Those earrings are the essence of tidepool, distilled, abstracted. Thanks for sharing your pictures – the area is stunning.
A perfect pair of charms for a perfect pair of earrings! All the muted colors go together perfectly!
These are perfect earrings for this challenge. I love the beads that you selected to go with the charms. Stunning!
Great post and beautiful earrings… love the colour of the enamels!
Just your photos alone are perfect for the challenge. Those earrings are so yummy! Glad to see you again and that you participated! Hope to see you in future challenges as life allows.