There must be something strangely sacred about salt. It is in our tears and in the sea. – Kahlil Gibran

I first came across this quote on my favorite place on the internet: tumblr. I thought nothing of it for a long time. I had simply copied the quote in the notes app on my phone and continued on with my life. This past summer though I took a family vacation to the beach and felt called back to this quote. I have always loved the ocean, ever since I was little. It has been my dream to live near the ocean. So the quote really spoke to me as someone who both cries a lot and loves the sea.

The quote above comes from Kahlil Gibran’s book Sand and Foam: A Book of Aphorisms, first published in 1926. You can read the 1946 reprinting on the Internet Archive here.

I haven’t read much of this book, only a handful of other passages but I’ve mentally put a pin in it to perhaps come back to one day when reading some poetry feels right.

While I was on my beach vacation this past August I embroidered. Inspired by one of the craftivism books I had read, I decided to embroider this quote on an old shirt of my husband’s which seemed the perfect beachy color. The whole feel of the piece I was going for was ocean-inspired. I finished embroidering the words while on the trip and when I came home I felt compelled to add beads.

I have never done beaded embroidery before, but since my mom gave me all of her beading supplies, I had plenty of supplies and decided to try my hand at it. I had a glorious vision though I’m pretty sure I went overboard with it. I had to redo the embroidery, both the beading and some of the letters, several times. I got too enthusiastic adding the beads (because I found out that I really really loved sewing those beads on there!) and the legibility of the actual quote was eroded.

I’m pretty happy with the final result, especially since I free-handed the writing (starting in the car on the way to the beach!). I still think there are too many beads so the writing isn’t super legible (and of course my infamously bad photos of my art work) but I do really like it. The feeling of the beading is also superb! It now hangs in my dining room.