Waves on the Ocean

I love these blue and white beads I made--they make me think of ocean waves ebbing and waning. The idea actually came to me while watching a sunset, but with the colors I chose they ended up being more ocean-y than sunset-y. Maybe I'll make sunset beads another day.

I made these by starting with a blank white sheet of paper. I used blue acrylic paint and and artist's sponge for painting. I started at the top edge of the paper and sponge painted heavily, making a dark blue. As I moved down the paper, I used a lighter hand with the sponge so it the color gradually lightened. It was nearly white by the bottom edge.

I cut the paper into traditional, one-inch tapered triangles. Since that cutting method alternates which side of the paper is the base, half my triangles were dark blue on the wide side and light blue at the tip, while the other half were the other way around.

As I rolled the beads, half of them came out dark blue at the edges, lightening toward the middle. The other half were light blue at the edges and darkened toward the middle. I think it's a really neat effect. I'm looking forward to trying it with other color combinations.