The Ecoarts studio is within easy reach of local beaches, the source of most of the driftwood used in previous sculptures. We are now trying to do our bit to raise awareness on the issue of plastic and fishing waste by recycling it into art.
Three of the beaches that we frequently visit for our beachcombing/beach cleaning trips are listed on the newly published scrapbook map, highlighting the worse areas for accumulations of debris on Scotland’s beaches.
We decided that we can no longer ignore this issue when collecting driftwood so beachcombing has now become beach cleaning, spending an hour or so on each visit filling sacks with assorted rubbish.
It is quite shocking to see the amount of waste material, most of it washed ashore but some of it dumped from the nearby road. Even some of the clearest stretches of beach do not stand up to closer inspection.
William the TrashArt duck was the first creation from the beach rubbish. Everything involved in creating the sculptures has been collected in recent beach cleaning visits.
Even the fish crates came from the beach, along with seemingly endless amounts of fishing rope and netting plus a massive range of plastic items.
The body of this pony is made from a lobster creel and he is being created using waste rope, netting and wire.
