I am completely self-taught. My shell obsession stemmed from beachcombing on childhood holidays on the Isles of Scilly. Shells are such beautiful forms created by nature, some look so fragile, yet are very strong.

During Lockdown I decorated old picture frames and mirrors with my precious collection of cowries, periwinkles, whelks, limpets and mussels. My office became a studio and my refuge and haven. Shelling is a slow, meditative process sticking each shell in place in either a seemingly random or orderly pattern. It requires meticulous attention to detail to maximise the intricate beauty of nature’s legacy from sea, shore and plate.

This year's exhibition will be in a new, light, bright Archangel Studio, in the extraordinary medieval centre of the former vicarage in Cumnor. Sarah Bond will be exhibiting her vibrant mixed media landscapes and monoprints inspired by land and sea conveying the beauty and endeavour of renewable energy. 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-...