As you’ve probably gathered, I’m a great lover of found objects. I love finding them just as much as I love using them and I was determined to source some debris pieces from the beaches we visited (Polzeath, Hawker’s Cove, Tintagel and Constantine Bay) to go into my journal. But of course, they had to fit in with the colour scheme of blues and greens!
I gathered a real selection of weathered and broken oddments, bits of fishing tackle and scraps of shredded rope and a selection of very funny looks as I went grubbing around in the tideline.
Back home a piece of bubble fabric in rusty gold with a scribbly pattern of green was the perfect background. I layered it on some hand dyed cheesecloth for extra strength and then began to arrange the (cleaned, scrubbed and dried) debris.
Overlapping elements, particularly the fragments of frayed rope, helped to hold other pieces in place as I was using no glue and trying to go for minimal visible stitching.
It wasn’t blue or green, but I loved the shape of the grey ring pull type thing at the bottom. The green and red rope was already bent so it fitted perfectly around the edge.
Shells, already thoughtfully holed by the dog whelk which ate the occupant, were chosen from my existing collection to be stitched on. The scraped and scoured plastic nuggets are beautifully tactile.
I’m so pleased with this piece. It came together quickly and easily and the bubble fabric works brilliantly as a background. It’s satisfyingly substantial in the hand, too.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, they say. 🙂
Under A Topaz Sky 
A fascinating collection that really works well together
I’m always amazed by your handiwork and creativity! This is so clever, absolutely beautiful, and (wow!) environmentally friendly.
Excellent! I’m amazed at all the blue and green treasure you found.
You’ve certainly made a treasure here! I’m glad to know what makes those tiny holes in the shells. When finding one I was always thankful for the hole already drilled and never gave a thought to ‘who’ might have drilled it for me.
Worth the strange looks, I feel!
there is so much to look at here….a proper treasure trove. I am thinking that this composition is more interesting than the beach you originally found these things on….