Helping the Gulf Coast and Ring Twenty-two

Last week, Help the Gulf Coast announced that they have received approval from the National Wildlife Federation to raise funds on their behalf. Just yesterday, they made their first donation, and matched the $2000 already raised for Oxfam America. Not bad for less than two weeks of fundraising!

The collective is still going strong, with over 400 amazing handmade donations still available, and counting. Every dollar raised will go towards efforts to halt and repair the damage done by the enormous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

Once I had sent in Ring # 17 as my donation, I couldn’t wait to get started on another piece for the cause. After hearing the great news about NWF, I thought I would celebrate with one more starfish ring. The first ring, Baby Fish Blues, had a cheerful color palette, with not-so-cheerful inspiration. This time, I thought I would use some more somber colors, to reflect how we all feel about this disaster.

Ring # 22 - Heartbreaker

I started with the starfish, and used a jet black druk with transparent smoky gray seed beads. I knew that I wanted to use a black and red palette, so all that was left was to choose the band color. When I mentally went over my red bead stash, I thought the best choice would be lustered cranberry. Imagine my delight when I opened the bead box and found a little packet of black-lined garnet 3-cuts tucked away in the corner. It was as if fate had kept me from using them up all this time. The garnet contrasts with the starfish perfectly!

You can learn more about the Help the Gulf Coast collective, and their fundraising efforts, by visiting the Help the Gulf Coast blog, or following them on Twitter. If you still haven’t shopped or donated your own handmade treasure to the cause, here are a few sites to get you motivated:

National Geographic - A photo gallery of the oil spill.
Louisiana Oil Spill 2010 Photos - Over 300 photographs with informative captions.
If it Was My Home - Type in any location to see an up-to-date size reference of the BP oil "spill".

As a tribute to Help the Gulf Coast, and all of the animals that they are helping to save, I created this Etsy treasury with my favorite sea life designs from the shop.

One Creature at a Time includes creations from these wonderful artists:

amyperrotti.etsy.com
CirclesRoundtheSun.etsy.com
iktomi.etsy.com
seabelly.etsy.com
FolkArtFromFlorida.etsy.com
HollyEdwards.etsy.com
LiaLane.etsy.com
SeaDayDesigns.etsy.com
leefee.etsy.com
arttales.etsy.com
handknitbycara.etsy.com
AjBCreations.etsy.com

I would like to send out a huge Thank You to the wonderful sellers who keep Help the Gulf Coast going, and to everyone who has donated or purchased an item for the cause. Every dollar is a drop in the bucket!

Copyright 2010
Inspirational Beading and The Sage's Cupboard
Etsy.com and IfItWasMyHome.com