DRIFTWOOD ART
Driftwood Art
FOLK ART SERIES
by fh westaway
My driftwood art is made from things that I find washed up on beaches. This can be fishing line, nets, shells, seaweed, rope and driftwood. Most of my work is fixed together with fishing line and I try to avoid using any modern fixings. Each piece has a small brass plaque that covers a hole containing a scroll, which has a written message from me.
SEA GLASS ART
Sea Glass Art
FOLK ART SERIES
by fh westaway
George is a seagull that lives on my roof. When the tourist season is over the town is quiet and when food is scarce I occasionally throws scraps of leftover food to him, however it turns into a rugby match. My son is a filmmaker and I asked him for a small camera so I could film them. I find it fascinating, so I thought I would keep a diary of it.
It's a five year project and I will continue to do it until I have 999 six-second clips which I will then mint as one-off NFT's. Each one will be numbered and I will name them something that I think fits the scene.
Sea Glass Art
FOLK ART SERIES
by fh westaway
Sea glass are pieces of broken glass that have been in the sea for years and weathered over time. Green and white are the most common colour, apparently the darker the green means the older they are. Royal blue and red are like gold dust in my area.
I bind the seaglass together using silicon to make things like; hearts, lampshades and lighthouses. You need hell of a lot to make anything. Me and my wife Sheila spend hours on the beaches looking for it. Some days we can get up to 100 and other days we can get none. Just to give you an idea, the glass hearts I make require about 300 pieces and the lighthouse I made had over 12,000 bits!
Dancers
FOLK ART ORIGINAL
by fh westaway
One day I was walking on Shaldon beach and found a piece of driftwood that reminded me of a pair of trousers - and that's how it all started. After that, I found other bits on the beach that reminded me of body parts and soon I was fitting it all together like a jigsaw.
My dancers are my favourite piece, it reminds me of - me and Sheila dancing the night away. The mechanism that makes it spin came from some swivel chairs salvaged from an old mansion.
DANCERS
LIGHTHOUSE FOR SHEILA
Lighthouse for Sheila
FOLK ART ORIGINAL
by fh westaway
During lockdown 2021 my wife Sheila decided she wanted a lighthouse on the patio. I had an enormous box of scallop shells that I was planning to take to the tip and realised I could incorporate those into the design.
I also had lots of sea glass that I could use for the windows and the top tier, as well as some lead from stained glass window. Each window is different, it was a right game I had to find all pieces the same size - I went though thousands of bits of glass to make the windows.
In the top tier, I wrote a message to Sheila - something along the lines of "Love, love, love is all our gift"... and something about the tree of wisdom. The top also has the cardinal directions on for north, south, east and west. So we know which way we're looking.
The lights are crap that I bought from china and if you don't get the setting right they flash like you're at a mad rave.
