# 40 An oceanic reflection

The wily reader will know that all these necklaces weren't made in the past few days as the pace of posting may suggest.  As is my pattern sometimes, a flurry of creativity doesn't always coincide with regular posting! All the necklaces of the past few posts were made a couple of weeks ago.And some of the components of this necklace have been in my possession for A LONG TIME.  The focal bead, a mermaid bead, was made many, many years ago from one of those incredibly complex canes that I wish I'd made so much more of.  I sold a number of pendants using it and had kept a few remaining beads for something!  A very special necklace that was going to say EVERYTHING I wanted to say about the ocean.It would be all about annual holidays at Norah Head; music from the loudspeakers at Soldiers' Point Beach; wondering if the surfing boy with the sun bleached hair was into shy, hairy girls (as if!!); being dumped and dumped again by salt filled waves of turquoise, but getting back out there; of finally body surfing back triumphantly onto the beach with sand in your pants and shells in your hair and screaming with excitement; of lying, basted and burning in the sun for hours (did we really do that?) at Cronulla beach and feeling really ugly next to your skinny tanned girlfriend; of frangipani, seaweed and weightlessness in cool, magical water.  Tough call for one necklace.So...the components were collected for ages, some pre-dating the Nepal move!  Like a really lazy bower bird.  Then there was a bit of action and serious possibilities were stored on a cracked beading tray waiting for the sign.  And then, one day as I had my quiet little sit in the morning, watching my monkey mind, my monkey mind popped up with this one.  So, so, so much fun to make.  Having hoarded for it for so long means there's real history there.  A Tibetan farewell scarf has been plaited with metallic ribbon bought on a coastal holiday in Kiama; recently made ammonites nestle with azure and emerald coloured resin triangles from somewhere a long time ago!  Faux turquoise, real turquoise, Nepali turquoise seed beads...all there in #40.I can look at some of those beads and think of where I got them, when, what I was doing, what my life looked like then.  And reflect on the fact that at no point in time, while making or buying those beads, would I have ever thought I'd be contentedly spending some of my life in Broken Hill.  A long way from the ocean.A girl can have a few sacred places.