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The West Dorset Magazine, August 12, 2022
Down to earth
BEACHCOMBING with JO BELASCO BA Hons History of Architecture and Design
I will never forget the painting I saw at a friend’s house in Wyke Regis many years ago. The bleached bark and tangled white glowed in the sun and I was hooked on driftwood from then on. I suppose it already had associations of good times and hot summers as I had lived on the east coast of the US for a few years as a teenager. In the States, driftwood design is much more mainstream, being used in houses and swanky hotels a lot more than in the UK. A few years ago we found some fossilised wood at West Bexington. It has hung around since then but galvanised by writing this article I decided to see how easy it would be to turn it into a lamp! As Bridport Lighting is doing a 10% off offer for customers who mention The WDM that was my first and only port of call. Ann talked me through the various ways I could attempt to go about it but in the end I opted for the easiest solution – a switched bottle lamp adaptor, flex and plug. A bargain at less than £10 in white. My creative skills were rather curtailed by an unwelcome visit by Covid. But still, here it is – a
WOOD YOU BELIEVE IT? Driftwood framing a view of the sea, making a driftwood mirror and, right, a first attempt at a driftwood lamp
YOU NEED HANDS: A helping hand at Bridport Lighting and, right, Zelda at Pirates Cove
Feel washed up & damaged? You’ll enjoy driftwood craft driftwood beach lamp. A few years ago I framed a bit of old mirror in a found wheel hub. With rays of driftwood and some everlasting flowers it looked rather romantic. In truth it was just a slither of broken mirror I used and so not that practical if you wanted to see your whole face but useful to reflect
more light into a room. If you are looking for more ideas for how to use driftwood I recommend the group Driftwood Collectors Worldwide on Facebook. Driftwood is often used as a sales display for a variety of treasures and especially well utilised I think at Earth Design at Redlands Yard in Broadwindsor.
There are a quite a few large pieces of driftwood around Weymouth and along the Chesil beach where we sit, rest and take in the view. One such is at Pirates Cove where you can see Zelda keeping an eye on the crows while I roll clay beads. But I get ahead of myself… clay is for another time.
