"Strands" and Beach Plastic

Once or twice a week, the dog and I head off to the beach - great exercise for both, plus I pick up any plastic I find. 
I'm looking at some of that beach plastic with new eyes after seeing some artistic uses for it lately. 
These pieces of jewelery using beach plastic are by Sophie Carnell                                 

The next photograph is from an exhibition of works by Stuart Haygarth called "Strand", from items picked up on a 500 mile coastal walk in England, after he was asked to make something for a permanent exhibition at the Macmillan Cancer Centre. 

Colour coordinated and photographed by Stuart Haygarth

There's more on this artist/photographer's work at Zero Waste London's blogspot and More here from Dezeen.com where you can see his spectacular hanging installation, the jewel of his works.

I'm a beachcomber at heart, so when I saw that this book was in the library I put in a speedy request.

The author writes about a year's worth of beach wandering in England, with observations on all sorts of interesting finds, and then delving into some of them for a chapter. The chapters ranged in subject from archeological finds and beach plastic to how tobacco waste had been dumped there many years ago, and it's implications on the environment and more. 

One of my own discoveries was some little skeletons, thin as the finest egg shell, that I had picked up called a Heart Urchin, or Spatangoida. They are unbelievably fragile, so must just bounce around in the waves like a bubble. 

Heart urchin shell