Nautical Series Part 3: Beach Combing

It's one of life's simple pleasures, and one many of us do every time we find ourselves with sand beneath our feet. I have been beach combing my entire life, on each visit to Wales to visit my grandparents, or Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay on the annual family holiday. I'd gather all sorts of things from pretty shells to bits of driftwood, large pebbles for painting or ancient fossils. It's collecting in its most basic and natural form.

A visit to Dyffryn beach the weekend before last was the perfect opportunity to add to my shell stash.

I was also particularly looking for sea glass this time, as it seems to be turning up all over the crafting world at the moment, and I have a project in mind for my finds! Sea glass is not only pretty but a reminder that nature always claims and reshapes all things man made in the end.

I had a very enthusiastic helper, obviously, though she was more interested in trying to get me to take dead crabs home instead.

Each beach find has its own feature or quirk...

Evidence of recent history mixed in with the prehistoric...

"...Ner!"

I always feel so satisfied when I return home from the beach with a bucket full of finds ready to wash and squirrel away, even though I rarely know what to do with them next!

Speaking of shells and beaches, this amazing photograph was posted by Action for Happiness on Facebook last week...this is sand magnified x 200. Isn't it amazing?!

I'll never look at grains of sand in the same way again! This world of ours is a pretty amazing place.

Hoping your day is full of adventure,








P.S. You can read the first two posts in the nautical series here and here. x

Nautical Series Part 2: Smash Book

Arrrr, me hearties, I am back with the second in my Nautical Series. (First post here). 

I decided to gather all sorts of seaworthy ideas and pop them into my smash book to make a themed page. Smash booking is already becoming an exciting new craft for me because I have come to realise lately that every craft or art I do is pretty precise, whether it be working with miniatures, embroidery, knitting or sewing. One slipped stitch or lapse in concentration and it's often all over! Even when writing - although writing can be a very free artform - I tend to spend a long time choosing that perfect phrase to describe that situation.

So my smash book allows me to just get my ideas on a page, to stick them in haphazardly without worrying about doing it wrong, or being neat, and to just enjoy the process. It feels like getting back to the rawness of creativity.  

I'm sure this page will help spawn ideas for the rest of my nautical series too!

Have you tried smash booking yet? This video explains things pretty well if you're wondering exactly what it is:

                          

I'm off to drink copious amounts of rum walk the plank,

Ta ta!

Nautical Series Part 1: Seaside Bunting

I decided to push myself to sail uncharted seas by making a series of craft projects with a nautical theme. You may be wondering why I have chosen autumn to do such a thing when all things seaside are generally associated with the summer. Well you see, to me, they aren't! 

Traditionally four generations of my family gather in the North Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby every October, so I associate the seaside with warm boots, turbulent waves crashing over the pier, stormy skies and eating fish and chips all cosy and warm in the kitchen of whichever cottage we're renting that year. For me that week is full of seafaring legends and ghostly goings on, the gothic Whitby Abbey and looking out for seals in the harbour while wrapped up in a scarf and coat. My nan also lives by the sea in North Wales, so I've always been used to visiting beaches at all times of the year, whatever the weather!

 I can't make it to Whitby this year, so I decided to fuel a series of creative projects instead. 

Over the next few weeks I'll be exploring all things seaside and nautical through a variety of art and craft forms, playing around with ideas and sharing my results here with you.

So first of all, I made my first ever bunting!

It does actually look rather summery, doesn't it, but then bunting is supposed to be cheery and I made it to brighten things up a little. 

In traditional bunting fashion I used fabric scraps left over from other projects and appliqued on some seaside scraps I bought for a few pence on eBay. I have quite a stash of bias binding because it's one of those things you see in craft books and think 'where on earth would I buy that from?!' so when I see it, I tend to buy a couple of metres, and it turns out I'd got into a bit of a habit and built up quite a stash!

I really enjoyed making this project and found it a lot less nerve racking sewing such a long length in a straight line on the sewing machine than I thought I would. This piece is only short at eight pennants, but I can now see me making bunting in longer lengths and for every occasion!  

And I have a new entry in my sewing journal...

I really hope you'll join me for the rest of my nautical series. I'm going to be posting projects erratically because I don't want to lose the fun of creative exploration by pushing myself to produce them by a certain deadline, but there will be more soon.

What does the seaside remind you of?