My Works of HeART

There's something about the smell of the salt air and the sound of the waves that takes me to a special place.

I was born just 4 blocks from the beach and spent the better part of my childhood with sandy toes. My first "real" job was as a beach cleaner picking up trash where the sand combing machine couldn't reach -- under the boardwalk, along the shoreline, in the pavilion. It was the perfect first job for a 14-year old kid. After just a couple short hours prepping for the day's beach-goers, I'd go home by 10 am to get my own suit on and head back to the sand.

Back then seaglass wasn't as rare as it is today. We still had glass bottles and recycling of any kind was for the tree huggers. Going home with my pockets full of frosty glass treasures wasn't abnormal. The smells. The sounds. The feeling of gritty sand stuck in my suit. That was life at my beach.

I got married and moved away, but my heart is still there (along with my family). I try to go back once a month to re-fuel my happy place. Even in the winter when you'll only find the diehards on the boardwalk, I'll take off my shoes to feel those magical grains of sand slip between my toes.

I always look for seaglass when I go the beach. I usually find just one good piece...the rounded frosty kind. Mostly I find pieces that "aren't ready yet" so after a whisper for safe travels upon the sea floor, I throw it back with hopes that someday it will find its way back to the shore.

Seaglass is a mysterious thing. Who knows where it came from and where it will go. That's the really cool thing about these beauties. Some pieces have been bouncing along the bottom for hundreds of years. Did it come from a wreck? Was it from community trash early in the last century? Did it come from far, far away...or just a couple towns down the shore?

Seaglass has come to mean something much more to me than smoothed glass bits. Seaglass is adventurous and magical. I love the unknown history behind each piece and I love to create wearable art that features this wondrous gem from the sea.

I hope you enjoy browsing my Works of HeART. Each piece is made with love by a girl whose heart beats with the rhythm of the waves.