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.

Sea loch and stone stack

Cycling past a beach on Loch Linnhe, I had to stop for a closer look at the striking stones on the beach. And once I stopped, I had to build a stone tower...

I love to do this on a beach. Here's some I built earlier: by a river near Machynlleth, 'stepping stones' in Dorset, and soon-to-be-demolished-by-the-tide near Chichester.

Balancing on the beach

We all have that basic urge to throw stones into the sea when we're at the beach, don't we? I do, too, and I also like to pile stones on top of each other, or next to each other, or balance stones on pieces of wood, or wood on wood...

Here's a stone circle I made while staying in a yurt near Machynlleth, and pebble feet plus a quartz line meandering across different stones. And more recently, here's a little tower I made last weekend on the beach in West Sussex. There are a couple of shingle spits projecting out into the sea and on this one the tide was coming in from both sides. I made a five-stone tower and retreated to the 'mainland' to watch it be washed away.

On the way back to the motorhome, I found a length of wave-washed wood lying on the shingle, so I scooped a hollow with my heel, stood it upright and heaped stones around it, then placed a lichen-covered stone and an oyster shell on top of it.

Small steps

Some things we make last a lifetime; others are more transient, and in this case, as Paul Weller put it in Broken Stones: 'like pebbles on a beach/Kicked around, displaced by feet'.

On an autumn day in Dorset, I made some pebble feet, and then did an experiment in 'taking a line for a walk' as Paul Klee described drawing.

Next year's Christmas card designs

Merry Christmas - I know it's nearly New Year, but I'm planning ahead - this is next year's Christmas card! A coastal Christmas tree made of seaweed with whitish stones for lights/baubles and an odd fronded sponge-like plant/animal for a star on the top. Made in minutes on Deal beach on Christmas Day.

My OH was v keen to make our own cards this year but a last-minute trip shortly before Christmas knocked that on the head (along with a generously decorated Christmas tree and a wreath for the door - I got as far as buying the foam ring...)