Beach luggage tag

Description of piece: I cut 2 pieces of white-on-white fabric in the shape of a shell and hand sewed them together with a layer of thick felt in between. Using a transparency in my ink jet printer, I transferred a photo to one side of the tag. I had taken this photo long ago in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The sea oat shapes I made from Sculpey clay, hardened in the oven, and painted with acrylic paints. I attached them to the fabric with hot glue. I used various kinds of beads on a tough acrylic/metal wire for the strap which attaches the tag to the art supply luggage.

Where will I travel? It took me less than a second to decide that my art supplies will travel with me to the beaches of the Outer Banks in NC, a magical place where I spent every summer of my childhood. In fact I have pictures of my first summer there, when I was a mere 4 months old. I am laying in my stroller while my older brothers stood barefoot beside me in the sand, clutching their shovels and buckets, interrupted from their world of castles and pirates to stand and smile for the camera. As I grew older, I remember my mother encouraging my craft projects: sand castings and macrame, painting on shells and driftwood. The beach was about family, too; racing my brothers to the ocean, my dad helping us build castles and catch sand crabs, playing put-put golf, walking on the sand dunes, listening to folk music  at the Ice Cream Tent. I remember at night lying in bed, windows always open, listening to the rhythmic pounding of the surf, and the soothing music of the sea oats. The magic of the beach held me under its spell, and it still does; and now, my children too have felt its wonder… I hope the colors (dusty pinks and purples , greys and light blues) illuminate this magic, this web of dream and imagination which is spun around the solid frame  of love and family.

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