String of ring shells

Coastal style, for free, with a shell mobile – or a seashell wall hanging, if you prefer.

We all like to pick up stones and shells at the beach; some sort of leftover hunter-gatherer instinct, I think. Or all those interesting textures, colours, shapes... Anyway, I was on the beach near Alnwick, in Northumberland the other day (pic at bottom of page, and started picking up ring shells (limpets, in this case, whose tops have worn away). My goal was to find one to wear on my finger, having admired one on a woman in Western Australia once, asking her where she'd got it.

After I'd found one of those, I carried on picking them up, as I walked along the stunning, reflective expanse of sand/sea/sky, turning over the ring shells in my pocket, and decided that, back in the motorhome, I'd string them on a long length of what I had to hand there, which was fishing line.

For maximum beachcombing cred, you could use some discarded fishing line you find. It's dangerous for wildlife, as it's practically invisible, so removing it from the natural environment is nothing but beneficial. And untangling the knots would probably be a great mindfulness exercise. However, I didn't see any discarded line...

Back in the motorhome, I cut a length of line, and tied on my first shell: bigger than the rest, to give the finished piece some weight and encourage it to hang straight. I just tied two granny knots with the end of the line, then carried on with the rest of the shells, tying reach on with two granny knots and roughly equal intervals along the line. At the top I tied a hanging loop, and there it is: a string of ring shells. I think it's offset well by the faux wood of the motorhome wardrobe door.

This project was great for a small space like the motorhome (no need for a pure white, perfectly tidy dedicated craft room, as seen on some Instagram accounts), and it was so satisfying to make the seashell wall hanging not far from where I'd found the materials.

This may be the last motorhome trip of the season, and I'll probably take the string of ring shells home with me, as a memento of the last days of summer.