No 5. Sugar moulds, cowries & slavery
‘Having crossed London on the Tube wearing wellies (which always gets a few glances), I walked into Wapping through cavernous streets overshadowed by luxury warehouse conversions. When I reached the…
No 4. Fèves: a plastic wise man & a fish
The plastic figure below is one of the Bible's three wise men. I found it on the south coast of Cornwall, in a strandline tangle of seaweed and plastic left…
No 3. Light bulbs & the Phoebus cartel
‘We headed towards Warden Point – which is no longer a point – and the strange, unstable landscape felt almost immediately remote. On exposure to air, London clay weathers to…
No 2. Action Man body parts (1966-73)
This hand is around 50 years old and washed up on a Cornish beach during the February storms. As the strongest gales of Storm Ciara coincided with high spring tides,…
Bone and plastic combs, 17th-21st century
No 1. Bone & plastic combs (17th-21st Century)
Combs have been a favourite shore find of mine for years. I like that they’re ordinary, personal objects, as well as one of our oldest tools. The earliest known comb…