She sells sea shells on the sea shore...

I love sea shells.

Any trip to the seaside is not complete without me filling my pockets with sandy treasures. Needless to say, if you are anything like me, you bring them home and then are not sure what to do with them next.

That is not a problem that the ingenious Vikki from Brandyoak Cottage has. She takes them and turns them into something even more special and sells them in her Etsy store.

Inspired by the great Victorian Designer,William Morris, she creates beautiful gifts from natural sea shells, combining art & nature once more.

In her work she uses empty natural shells that are both found washed-up on the shores around the UK, along with those that are recycled from the food and fishing industries that would otherwise end up in landfill. Shells are fully cleansed and sanitised before being carefully repurposed into beautiful and useful objects for your home and living space.

I particularly specialise in mixed media decoupage, that uses both delicate tissues and fine fabrics, with a large leaning towards the wonderful works of the Victorian designer, William Morris. It is with a shared love of nature and in homage to the Victorian designer’s great works, that I have created many of my beautiful jewellery trinket dishes and other items from natural sea shells, combining nature and art once more.

It goes without saying that these would make perfect gifts, to others or yourself.

She also uses larger shells that act as trinket boxes but it will come as no surprise that my favourites are the reversible charms. Just imagine several of these on brightly coloured ribbon. How wonderful…

Queen Marie

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