Julie Oxley sees the beauty in discarded driftwood, sea glass and other items which appear washed up on her local beaches, collecting them and using her skills to turn them into beautiful bespoke items for the home.

Julie explains how Beachcomb Creations came about, with the support of her family

“I have always collected things from the beach but Beachcomb Creations came about in December 2017, when my family kept telling me I should be selling the things I make rather than giving them away. One of my daughters, Janine, suggested I do a Christmas Fayre in St Ishmaels. I needed a name and my son Jenson  helped me to brainstorm some ideas and he came up with Beachcomb Creations, because that is exactly what I do, I am always beachcombing and then turning all my finds into creations. I had a very successful Christmas Fayre and sold the majority of what I had taken, which was quite a lot!  I have since been to a lot of craft fayres.”

Julie works from her flat, collecting items of driftwood and other beach combing finds, turning them into beautiful creations that people want for their home. The process of preparing and storing her materials for working with is quite unique, as she tells me

“I have a very understanding partner, who often comes home to find a pile of drift wood soaking in the bath. The wood I use is always cleaned before I use it. My family are quite used to visiting and seeing a lot of driftwood piled around the flat! Plus, jars of sea glass all of which are sorted into a system nobody else understands!”

Julie explains that being creative and using wood for crafting, has always been an interest, and this has evolved over time and travel to her home in Pembrokeshire.

“I grew up on a wood yard in Staffordshire where my father worked, so I have always made things out of wood.  When I moved to Pembrokeshire (where I had spent many a family holiday in my childhood) and came across driftwood which is often in some interesting shapes I started taking it home. The first piece went up on the wall as it was such an interesting shape and I still have that piece some 27 years later. Then, I decorated a mirror and a picture frame and people would like them and ask me to do them one, which I did and gave them away, unless people just insisted on paying me.”

Julie’s interest began to expand beyond driftwood, when she spent more time on Pembrokeshire beaches and her ideas for projects developed further.

“I started picking up pieces of sea glass when just sitting on beach one day contemplating some decision I had to make in my life and soon became addicted to searching for sea glass as well as driftwood.

Searching for sea glass is very therapeutic and now all the family say the same. Even my 3-year-old granddaughter loves helping me. I am very fussy about what pieces I need though and I when picking pieces up I actually think what I will use it for whether it will be a piece for a Christmas tree on a decoration, a sea turtle, a seahorse, a starfish, a jellyfish for a picture or it may be used to decorate candle jars, the colours are just amazing and make such lovely decorations in the home.

I have also started making some jewellery out of sea glass after mastering the art of drilling through the glass. Everything I do is self-taught, so it’s always trial and error and we learn by mistakes. I also like pyrograph burning into the wood, and this is where some very interesting wall hangings started to be created. I am always looking to create different things. Everything I make is a one-off bespoke item, some things can be similar but never identical.”

She sites how finding a creative endeavour or using crafting skills can help with difficulties in learning.

“I have always been creative and I think because I struggled in school with the academics and been told this by teachers. I would never do well and then finding out I was dyslexic in my 40’s, it made sense then as to why I struggled and favoured swimming, sports and art and craft work. However, girls were not allowed to do woodwork when I was in school!”

For Julie, she finds the process of beachcombing, and then bringing the objects she finds back to her flat to create something lasting, very therapeutic. She creates hand-made items such as wall hangings, trees of varies sizes, designs and mirrors, and even jewellery, ornaments and gifts.

“When doing craft work, I just find it therapeutic, relaxing and a de-stresser from work and everyday stresses. I find pleasure in making something that most people just walk past or pick up to burn on a fire. Don’t get me wrong there, I love sitting around fire on the beach. It’s just that I have to check through the wood for the good pieces before its burnt! I am also not very good at just sitting still and watching TV, I just enjoy being in my spare room, come craft room.”

The environment and the impact Julie’s work has on this, is incredibly important to her.

“I do all my recycling like we do, but to be able to recycle beach finds, whether its driftwood, shells, sea glass or anything else that catches my eye, such as most recently the remains of some boat steps that were washed up on West Dale beach,. They were just 3 steps with the rope and fittings still attached, along with plenty of not very pleasant smelling things.

Anyway I stripped it down, cleaned it (yes in the bath) sanded and paint washed it, invested in a piece of rope for £12 and now have an amazing shelf unit on my wall.

It gives me a great sense of joy, pleasure, satisfaction and achievement that I have created an object of use, or that someone likes to look at it or to use, out of what most people just past on the beach. I often hear people say ‘oh I could make that’ and I often wonder if they do, because collecting the wood is hard enough, sometimes there can be loads and then nothing another day, I can spend hours searching for wood and sea glass and walk a lot of miles and a lot of huffing and puffing some days on a good haul. And anyone who comes with me knows to bring a bag lol!!”

Julie has been working on Beachcomb Creations since 2017 and she is still surprised by how popular her work is. Buyers are taken by the beauty of her creations, as well as the fact that she has created them herself, by hand, from beachcomb finds.

“I am still astounded that people want to buy the things I make and they do come back to me for more, or ask if I can make them a certain something. This could be a gift for someone or a wall plaque with certain words on and if I am given an idea of what they’d like, I usually manage create something. I have items I’ve made in Ireland and Australia.  I do take great pride in perfection and don’t let anything go on sale if I don’t think it’s good enough.”

Julie is always looking for new projects, working with a variety of designs and mediums and often undertakes commissions from people to create a unique gift for their loved ones or something for their own home.

“I always have a few different things on the go, and at the moment I am making a drift wood heart. I have a sea glass turtle setting in some clay waiting to be put together with some drift wood which I am pyro-burning ‘Welcome’ into to make into wall hanging, to fulfil a request, There are some lovely pieces of sea glass waiting to be turned into some necklaces and I have just finished a custom order of designing some beautiful recipe card boxes, made by my partner for a friend.”

Julie says that she doesn’t plan projects for the future as it depends what she comes across on the beaches of Pembrokeshire.

“I go by what I find, when I pick something up, I just see something it will be turned into in.”

In future, Julie says she would love to be able to have more time to focus on her craft work.

“Although I enjoy my job working in the Family Intervention Team for PCC, In the future, I would love to be able to make a living out of my craft work and have a little shop.”

Find Julie’s work on Facebook, Instagram @Beachcomb.Creations. There are also items on sale at the Johnston Garden Centre.