I love living ten miles from the ocean, but isn't the ocean I love, it is what the ocean brings to shore. I could spend all day just walking along the beaches looking for smooth rocks with holes in them (and especially through them, that is like finding gold for me) and shells and ocean glass.
Rocks were the first thing I ever collected and I still have many rocks I picked from when I was four or five. In fact, I have boxes of rocks, rocks in mason jars, rocks in vases, rocks in ceramic bowls...it is the one thing I truly collect. For the past ten years I've collected rocks with holes in them or through them as they are abundant here on the beaches. The holes were actually air bubbles in the liquid lava when it entered the ocean.
I also love sea glass and have made jewelry with it and even a large mobile installation for a solo art show about nine years ago. These are just a few I found recently. That blue oval one is fantastic!
And of course what is beachcombing without collecting a few shells? These were also recent finds, but we haven't been going to the shell beaches lately. Some people here label beaches on how they are to surf or swim in...but I think of them as "rock beach" or "shell beach" or "glass beach"! Of course what you find is completely seasonal and with the different tides brings different shells and different rocks.
