We live in Victoria, BC, on the southern coast of Vancouver Island and enjoy every minute on the beach. In fact, we even check the tide charts and look forward to beach combing when the tide is way out. We've spent many a mellow hour, wandering up and down the beach, searching for bits of pottery, glass and driftwood.

So, of course, the jewelry we feature is made from all those little bits of beach pottery and sea glass we've found on our favorite beaches in Sidney and Victoria. Each piece of jewelry is hand made by Will.

Our shop is called FoundMadeArt because it sort of explains a lot about what we do as artists. Besides using beach finds to make jewelry, we love to find more materials at thrift stores and garage sales. Will is introducing more jewelry made from found re-purposed materials.

Though we both have an education in Fine Art and Design, mainly in the area of Painting, we are totally unable to constrain our efforts to just one medium. If there is one common element, it’s that we tend to incorporate both found and recycled items and ephemera into our artwork. One area of art naturally seems to lead to another. Almost every room in our little house has studio space in it. We have areas that serve as studios for all our artistics pursuits, from painting, mosaics, printmaking and collage.

Helen has been using scrap and found paper to create colourful and small but vibrant collages. They are the latest additions to the shop. She’s also been keenly interested in and experimenting with fabric collage and free motion sewing. Look for more additions in that field soon. It’s all part of our small contribution to upcycling and recycling, creatively.

We're just a couple of beach combing, garage sailing, thrifters who love making green art. To see and read more about all our artistic endeavours, we invite you to check out our website and blog listed below at summerhouseart.com.