It was my 60th birthday on the 11th and I received this stunning card from a new friend called Gracie and her family.  I know they read this blog and will be delighted to see their card.

I was at Woolacombe beach today, North Devon.  3 miles of stunning gently sloping sandy beach; the perfect family beach holiday location.  Indeed from a distance it looks stunning, and even clean, no large bits of plastic littered about.  However, walk down onto the beach and the tidelines are trails of micro plastic, the top half of the beach is covered with it - like some sort of weird beach mosaic.  I wanted to cry seeing some children happily playing in the sunshine, barefooted, with buckets and spades right near a huge area of colored debris.

My Facebook feed is full of items on micro plastic, probably because I'm posting so much, however it's obviously a top environmental topic right now.  I'm a great believer in Zeitgeist and I seem to have become part of one now.  It feels great to get my teeth into something so meaningful, just wish it wasn't necessary.

www.gofundme.com/plasticseas  my fundraising page

CELEBRATION

My fundraising page has reached 10%

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far.

Next target £1,000

www.gofundme.com/plasticseas

💝💝

Plastic bottles, one of the worst culprits of disposable plastic, easily re-cycled but often found littering our streets and beaches.  This photo is from a building I made while doing my art degree.  I used about 2000 plastic bottles collected from the college's waste bins - there were no facilities for bottle recycling; I called it 'A Folly'.

I'm making earrings to sell.  Made from waste plastic bottles, mostly found on the street.  Earrings have silver plated hooks and are sold in a biodegradable 'plastic' bag.  Sun catchers to hang in windows and cards of my art work nearly ready.

This mixed media piece was one of the first I made using bits of rope found on a beach.  It's stitched onto a piece of printed paper and was one of a collection that I exhibited at the NEC Waste Recycling Exhibition 2010 - I sold the entire collection to a recycling company for their offices.

NEWS-NEWS-NEWS

www.gofundme.com/plasticseas

17 people have donated to my fundraising page, thank you very very much.  Total now 620 (I don't have a GBP sign on my laptop it being from the USA).  Still a long way to go to reach my target so please don't feel like you've missed out ;-)  And please please share this blog and my Facebook posts with your family and friends. I'll have cards and jewelry to sell in a week or so.

Marine Conservation Society

I contacted the MCS and they are very interested in being involved.  This is very exciting as I'd really like this expedition to be the start of something for me.

plastic sunset

Gratitude, gratitude to all those who are donating to my fundraising page.

The above image is one of the first I took of plastic on my coastal visits and it has been a very popular image for cards; I particularly like it as a condolence card, it has a poignancy of farewell.

Ironically, over the years I have come to see the beauty in waste plastic, the bright colours, it's malleability and versatility.  However, I have used this beauty to highlight the extent of plastic littering our coastlines and, therefore, our seas.  Every piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists, unless it was burnt, in which case the toxic fumes are adding to the greenhouse effect.  Young people may not realise that when I was young, the most colourful bits on the beach were sea polished glass - there just wasn't any plastic.  Now it's rare to find a beach without a tide line of colour.