Research for Independent Design

I researched the legend of the sand dollar after looking at an arrowhead sand dollar that I had in a collection.  I wanted to use the delicate pattern of the lily which is etched on one side because it was such a part of the natural beauty of the piece.  When I found the written legend, I thought I could expand on the sand dollar by interpreting the legend by stacking the paper pieces and stringing them together in some type of hanging art piece.  At first I thought a mobile would be a good choice, but then was convinced it would be too cliché.  So I decided to stack the sand dollar to appear as it would, if it was floating onto the sand and left a small graduated trail, with the lily cut out and stacked as one piece, the tear drop stacked as one piece, and lastly, the doves stacked as another piece. The doves are not visible and are contained within the sand dollar, and can only be accessed if the shell is broken.  The final product is the piece hanging in the arch.