Going through the world with open eyes - gifts from nature

Are you the kind of person that collects things in your vacation?
Pretty rocks in the mountains or on the beach, various shells, pieces of roots for a terrarium ...
I do and I know people who do. I remember friends moving. It was memorable all right, especially the boxes that said "Rock collection" and "Cigar cases collection". Maybe it would have been a good idea to mix the collections. The rock boxes were incredibly heavy, the ones with the cigar cases you could almost lift with two fingers.

I usually held on to just a few because I didn't know where to put them. I still have the first oyster shell I ever found on a Californian beach, for example.
But this year things changed. I got a whole bag full of goodies from a Danish beach - rocks, shells, pieces of shells, seaglass and they were just as beautiful as a gemstone, granted, with less sparkle, but all those shapes, colors, textures fascinated me.
Why shouldn't a rock be worthy of a silver wire bezel? Why throw a piece of shell away when the colors are so lovely?

Here's a little gallery of them now.

Little piece of shell in a wine red wire crochet bezel


Rock in black and brown in a wine red wire crochet bezel


I really had fun with this one. Blue wire for the ocean, a big piece of a shell and for added interest grey freshwater pearls. Modern, yet romantic.


The "tooth". Somehow this pendant reminds me of an ancient monster's tooth. It's a rock in a silver-colored wire crochet bezel.


I absolutely fell in love with these shell pieces. The cream color with the brown stripes is so lovely! I think they make fun earrings with the contrasting colored wire.


This black rock is the one I had mentioned above. Holding it against the light it has an ever so soft shimmer. I don't think I was wrong when teaming it up with fine silver wire, tourmalines in all possible colors and tiny Bali silver beads. Doesn't it make for a stunning contrast?


And last but not least my favorite piece, a shell with a fine silver wire bezel from which tiny labradorite beads and a pink and a white pearl dangle. The shell has a lovely color, one of my friends said it reminded her of sand. It's a very feminine, soft and somehow peaceful piece to me.


I can't wait to get to work on the other gifts of nature and I hope I'll have enough ideas to do them justice.