The Sea and Me: A Story of Blessing in Disguise

May this year, I misread my plane schedule on my flight back home from Seoul to Jakarta. Fortunately, the real flight schedule was a day after my assumed date, and not the previous. The horror it will be to miss the plane.

I booked a room at Incheon Airport Hotel Oceanview which is about 20 minutes from Incheon Aiport. It's a a bit far, but they had shuttle service to and from the airport so it was still okay. I chose that place because not only does it have shuttle, but it was also very close to the beach. Just about 2 minutes walk.

Because my room was not ready yet, I decided to kill some time by strolling at the beach. At first, it looked so bleak. It was cold, windy, not many people around-which is actually perfect, a bit of some garbage in the corner, and many broken seashells. I decided to take a stroll at the beach and to my surprise I found sea glasses!

Sea glasses are basically glasses that are tumbled by the sand and sea water, giving it a very frosty look. I have been to many beaches in Indonesia (including ever so popular Kuta in Bali) but I have never ever seen a sea glass before. I was as ecstatic as a kid given ice cream upon this discovery. I ended up collecting as many as my hands could bring.

Last weekend I tried being productive and thus it resulted in this necklace. It is very much inspired by Halcraft's Beach Keen Necklace, but tweaked to suit my supplies.

 First sea glass spotted at a Eurwangni Beach, Incheon

 

Broken sea shells by the beach 

Sea Glass Necklace

 

 

 Close up

Tools:
Round nose plier
Flat plier
Wire cutter

Materials:
Sea glass

Plastic beads

Seed beads

Sea shell

Sea-themed charm

Pearl

Chain

26g gunmetal wire
Jump rings 

Blue cord

Violet suede cord
Cord stopper

Necklace clasp

 

Cherry Blossom Ending: A Layered Rose Quartz Necklace

Back in May, I received a lovely chunky rose quartz (at least I think it's rose quartz) bracelet from my dear friend, Alice. We both attended Language and Culture Training for Diplomats sponsored by Korean Foundation in Seoul from March to May 2016. The training was held exactly during spring. I was lucky to have chance to see lovely cherry blossoms blooming in April. And Busker Busker's Cherry Blossom Ending (벚꽃 엔딩) seems to be the eternal song of spring.

Back to the bracelet, I feel like this represents the lovely pink hues that the cherry blossoms bring. Unfortunately, it was a bit too big for my wrist. Since I could resize it due to the wire string, I figured out that it would better be a necklace.

Fortunately, I have everything that I need including the shocking pink stone and assortment of rose quartz beads. After all, rose quartz is one of the two Pantone colour of 2016. :)

The chunky lower layer is the former bracelet

Cherry Blossom Hues

Tools:
Round nose plier
Flat plier
Wire cutter

 Materials:
Chunky rose quartz bracelet
6mm rose quartz beads

Stone chips rose quartz beads
Shocking pink beads (what is the name for it?)
Chain
Jump rings
Pink cord
Plastic cord (for the pink beads)
Cord stopper