Well, I've added more pearls and another piece of beetle wing. And it's starting to look like a thing.
What has helped is that I've found the story for this piece. It's how I work all my art pieces. There needs to be a story, and mystery. I won't bore you all with the details of the story, since I'm the only one that needs to know it, but it has a revised title. "Ripples: or, Mermaids and the sailors that, briefly, loved them." That's enough of a story to carry over in to a couple of differentt pieces, a brooch, possibly a bracelet and hopefully a neckpiece.
Happy Stitching!