Shell Gatherer

A few days ago, I posted about my love and affinity with the sea. Last year, we visited California and I fell in love with the Pacific coast there and the stunning state beaches....

San Clemente, California

Being from the UK, we are close enough to Europe that I have also holidayed there often throughout the years, and have always loved visiting Mediterranean beaches there - I'm not one to 'work on my tan' being only a few shades warmer than the traditional Scottish blue, but I love the sun, I love swimming in the sea and I adore being on holiday and soaking up foreign culture. 

Found on Pinterest

However, being from Scotland, and currently living in Northern Ireland,  I am also fond of a steelier and rather more wind-lashed beach as well. In the UK and Ireland, you are never very far away from the sea, no matter how inland you are. I am lucky to have grown up in Edinburgh, not far from the sea at all, and holidayed often in and around Scotland when I was growing up. 

Beach shots from the eerily beautiful Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

As a child, we holidayed in the Highlands and Islands, but also took day trips to pretty places close by Edinburgh, often to the seaside. 

And one of my favourite activities on these trips? Collecting shells! Not big, shiny perfect shells - these rarely turn up for people to stumble upon, and they're often some wee creature's home before they are polished up and put for sale in tourist spots. 

More like these:

Found on Pinterest

Old, weathered, broken and tumbled by sea and sand. I had a huge bag. My hoarding tendencies were present, even then...

So when Claire Lockwood of Something to do with your hands used delightfully chippy and rustic blush 'rose' shell beads in a recent project for Beads and Beyond magazine, I knew I had to track some of them for myself. 

Nestled

So far, I've made a couple of bracelets with these pretty beads. The first has flown away already, but there is a second bracelet is available in the shop. 

I imagined my handwoven {song}beads being colourful pearls, nestling between the shell roses. 

Available on etsy

Me and the sea; Whitby, North Yorkshire