I’ve been really interested to find out about Hannah Marshall and her ‘Beachshack Project’. Hannah uses objects found on the beach – sea glass and sea pottery – to create unusual statement jewellery.
The feel of her website and her products is very ‘surfy’ – I feel she’d be more at home in Newquay rather than Brighton where beachlife revolves around pitchers of Pimms at The Gemini!
She tells me her inspiration comes from Ancient Cultures jewellery, as well the more traditional hemp jewellery beloved and made iconic by the surf fraternity.
Jewellery first emerged as a way of expressing what we did and who we were. The oldest known pieces of jewellery date from 100,000 years ago and consist of shells with bored with sharpened flint.
‘My work stems around a central idea of taking objectionable elements and altering them so they then become objects of desire.’ explains Hannah.
She also tells me that although her work is heavily focused on found objects, The Beachshack Project didn’t begin as a recycling project. ‘I use the beach as a platform for gathering new ideas and materials’ she says ‘the pieces design themselves in my head. I never see what I find as rubbish, but just an unfinished part of something else’.
The sea pottery she uses in her work is gorgeous! I’ve never seen anything so beautiful lying around on Shoreham beach!
Fragments of tiles, plates, ornaments, bottles, teapots…. all polished by the sea against the sand (rather like a stone tumbler) smoothing the jagged edges. Apparently high tide after a storm is the best time to beach comb. All the pieces will have been dislodged from the seabed and these beautiful treasures will be left on the sand – like a gift from nature!
‘Flowers, boats, art deco motifs, oriental gardens and makers stamps are all great finds’ says Hannah ‘as is unusually textured pieces’. Hannah is an absolute expert on the subject and tells me you can find sea glass and pottery all around the world – amazing thick mosaic type pieces on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, big shards of rare red sea glass in Thailand, chunky pieces of Turquoise glass in Barcelona and unusual Victorian tea ware pottery in rivers in Suffolk!
There is lots of information on www.beachshackproject.co.uk and it’s really worth a read. It also describes Hannah’s involvement in SAS (surfers against sewage) a UK-based non profit-making organisation campaigning for clean, safe recreational waters, free from sewage effluents, toxic chemicals, marine litter and nuclear waste.
The fruits of Hannah’s labour can be found locally at Bellis (8-9 Kings Rd, Brighton) and Skylark (The Neddlemakers, Lewes).
By Helen Ruff
One Comment
Nice write up. I like the use of hemp with your sea pottery. Has a very earthy feel, something you’d want to wear all the time. Definitely a Mermaid’s delight.
Fair Winds and Calm Seas, Deborah Leon
http://www.mermaidspurseseaglass.com