Treasures of the Sea

We’ve just got back from having a few days by the seaside.  We were staying with a friend who has recently moved to live by the sea, and when I say by the sea, I mean within 100 yards of the beach, so it was a fantastic opportunity to spend lots of time there.

I especially liked being able to bob back and forth as the whim took us. The wide expanse of beach was largely sandy, with patches of pebbles, and occasional shells, driftwood, seaglass and other less identifiable objects.  While the kids played in the sand, I ended up spending a lot of time with my eyes glued to the ground, beachcombing. I’ve always loved sea glass, so I collected lots of that, but what really caught my eye was the huge variety of different coloured stones, and their wonderful textures. I loved the chalky colours, the smooth, matt textures and the subtle patterns they contained. I found myself ‘compelled’ to collect bucketfuls of the most beautiful ones, with no real purpose in mind.  Some of the most beautiful were actually lumps of concrete, or pieces of brick or pottery worn smooth by the sea. It’s amazing the transformative effect that the ocean has.

So we’ve came home with all this stuff, and I’m now wondering what to do with it all. The stones are way too beautiful to paint, so they may just end up in a bowl or jar on display somewhere.  I thought about creating a mosaic with the sea glass and smaller stones, or maybe we’ll just create a piece of temporary beach art away from the beach.

However, before we left me and the kids created a stone snake ‘sculpture’ for our host as a thank you gift and souvenir of our visit….