This year’s exhibition takes place in the light-filled bright Archangel Studio, in the former vicarage in Cumnor.  Sarah Bond’s vibrant mixed media paintings and monoprints convey the beauty and endeavour of renewable energy.  Her recent work is inspired by a nine day trek in the Alps, on the Tour of the Matterhorn.  There will be cards, prints and beautiful items for the home… and of course, tea and cake.

The exhibition will include small shell pictures and a variety of larger shellworks including mirrors decorated with shells. I appreciate the importance of sustainability, using empty shells harvested from the Cornish, Norfolk and Anglesey coast. Friends, pubs and restaurants now donate cockles, mussels and scallop shells to me which are cleaned by boiling, scrubbing and drying in my kitchen.

I start with a plan, but then the mussels take charge, forming shapes by themselves that take on a life of their own. People have described them “like a murmuration of birds or shoals of fish or scales of a pangolin”. They shimmer and change colour according to the light. The bigger they are, the livelier and wilder they become. When placed on a wall simple lighting creates different moods with my mussel works. The colours and shapes change with the light of the day.

My large Mussel pieces were selected by ArtAngel to be displayed in their fantastic exhibition “Come as You Really Are” in London from July-October 2024 The exhibition celebrated everyday creativity as a lens through which each Hobbyist presented an alternative portrait of the UK https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/artangel/item/35c70ed9-…

I am self-taught, inspired by childhood holidays on the Isles of Scilly, where shells – fragile yet strong – left a lasting impression. During lockdown, I began transforming vintage frames and mirrors with cowries, periwinkles, whelks, limpets, and mussels, turning my home office into a studio and sanctuary.

I create intricate mirrors, frames, and sculptural wall pieces from sustainably gathered shells. Each work unfolds through a slow, meditative process, guided by the shells themselves, forming patterns that shimmer like shoals of fish or murmuring birds. Wild, rhythmic, and full of movement, my artworks capture the untamed beauty of the shoreline and the delicate intricacy of nature.