#1 Someone Made This Amazing Eagle Out Of Stones On A Beach In Devon, UK
Some people get so hooked on searching the beach for treasures that it turns into their hobby. Or something even more serious.
Take Gail Browne, for example. She is one of many artists and collectors who have succumbed to the lure of the sands in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The fisherman's village is a summer resort and a world-famous art colony where generations of painters have come to capture the elusive Cape Cod light.
Browne and her friend Amy Heller, a fellow artist who has been combing the beaches since she was a child, are inspired in their work by the natural beauty of Cape Cod as well as the treasures they uncover on its beaches, then display in their homes. The two women collaborated on a 2020 book that shares their beachcombing experiences as well as those of four other artist-collectors: 'Lost and Found: Time, Tide, and Treasures.' And last October, the Cape Cod Museum of Art also staged an exhibition about them.
Browne likes to approach the shoreline an hour before low tide, the time seasoned beachcombers believe to be the best for scanning around seaweed, rocks, and shells for a glint of man-made artifacts.
The thousands of relics she has uncovered so far are like portals into the past: 1700s English transferware shards, fishermen’s pipes, 19th-century clay marbles, a bronze oil lamp. You name it.
#6 Was At The Beach And Found A Shell With Barnacles On It That Makes It Look Like An Anatomically Correct Heart
#7 This Beach In Canada Is Filled With Crystal Blue Tide Pools And It's So Magical
#9 My Friend Found A Bottle Post On The Beach From A 5-Year-Old Boy, And Sends This To Him
These pieces of strangers’ homes and lives also artfully fill shelves, tables, and windowsills in her nearby townhouse, reflecting her own memories and stories.
"I have an obsession,” Browne, 74, told The Washington Post. “When I’m walking on the beach, I just can’t take my eyes off the ground.”
#11 The Town Next To Mine Just Installed An Accessibility Matt On The Beach For Wheelchairs And Strollers
#13 My Brother Found A Bunch Of Vertebrae Bones On The Beach And Put Them Back Together Like A Puzzle
Some territories are more generous than others, and Provincetown is one of those places.
Its harbor basically served as the town dump until the 1930s. "Everyone threw their junk into the harbor. It was pretty nasty," Browne said. "It all settled down, and what didn’t rot stayed behind and got covered up. Tides and wind shift it, and that uncovers it."
Provincetown's period as a major whaling and fishing center has also contributed to these riches of the deep.
#15 We Went To The Beach To Find Shark Teeth, So When My Daughter Yelled "I Found Teeth!" This Was The Last Thing I Was Expecting
#17 I Just Tried To Chill My Beer In The Sea, When An Octopus Stole It From Me
As you can see, all of these relics are beautiful on their own, but when massed into bowls or jars, or displayed on shelves, the objects can become the focal point of a room, and a history lesson for anyone who will listen.
No wonder collecting things from the sand has a long history. But the first appearance of the word "beachcombers" in print was in Herman Melville's Omoo (1847). The text described Europeans living in South Pacific islands, "combing" the beach and nearby water for flotsam, jetsam, or anything else they could use or trade.
#19 Sand Carving On The Beach. I Created Tools To Cut Into The Sand And Remove The Excess In One Motion. Orange County, California
