You have probably heard of modern day mudlarks - history lovers who search muddy estuaries for lost objects from the past.
Out here on the rugged North-East coast, I call myself a sandlark, exploring the shorelines of places like Whitley Bay and Seaham. Sandlarking is all about connecting to our past. Every piece of frosty glass has a story, and was once a useful object used by the people who knew the same shores decades ago.
They are real pieces of local history from Victorian glass factories, forgotten shipwrecks and bottles tossed away, only to be smoothed down by the tides and returned to us.
Fieldnote #2 Location: The Workshop
Back in the warmth, work shifts from discovery to preservation. Often it's hard to see the vibrant colours of a piece until this stage.
The true magic lies in the mystery of the find - a whisper of delicate pink, or the flash of a multicoloured 'multi' from the Seaham glassworks. I treat them as historical artefacts, working with the shapes created by the sea.
Fieldnote #3 Location: The Bench
After cleaning and deciding how to design around the glass, the final part of preservation takes place at the bench. I saw, wrap and solder fine and sterling silver, to transform the lost fragments into wearable pieces.
By combining raw sea-sculpted history with handcrafted silver, a forgotten piece of North-East history is curated for the future.
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