Laura Edmunds - beach artist and owner of Serendipity Sea Crafts

From shells and sea glass to plastic and pottery - any debris that artist Laura Edmunds collects on the beach can find its way into the unique works of art she creates in her converted garage studio.

Laura has always been artistic but until fairly recently her endeavours tended to be centred around her work as a primary school teacher.

Then her regular walks on the beach saw her start collecting more and more rubbish. The odds and ends she brought home she cleaned and sorted, forming a treasure trove just waiting for a creative moment.

‘I started making a few pictures with them for a hobby, but then it started gathering momentum,’ said Laura, who took the decision to become a supply teacher when her daughter started school, giving her the flexibility to do more artwork.

‘Rockpool Trading was the first shop to take on some of my pictures and they went down really well and I found I was doing it more and more as a job, but also as therapy,’ said Laura, who suffered with post natal depression after having her daughter.

‘I’d had hypnotherapy which was really amazing, but the therapist said I needed to be creative and get more fresh air, so walking on the beach, finding things and making things was really good for me.

‘I started doing a few craft fairs and they went really well and before I knew it I actually didn’t have time to do supply work! It was quite a big decision, quite a gear change,’ said Laura, whose artwork can now be founds in shops throughout Devon and Cornwall.

Then Plymouth artist Brian Pollard contacted her - having been impressed with her pictures he invited her to join his new art group, Plymouth Colour Collective. She and the other local members were all set to stage their first exhibition when the Covid 19 pandemic turned the world upside down - it finally took place at the end of this summer.

‘Brian has been very supporting and very encouraging,’ said Laura, whose blossoming artistic career has also been featured on the BBC’s Countryfile programme, being interviewed by presenter Anita Rani.

‘Anita was brilliant. It was actually only a small section of the programme, but we chatted for ages,’ said Laura, who these days finds herself in a win-win situation. She is helping to keep beaches clean, creating works of art which make her and her family happy, to say nothing of the people who buy her pictures.

‘If I am bringing a bit of happiness to other people and can make a business of it, then that’s really the icing on the cake!’ laughed Laura.

She said any beach was ‘fair game’ when it came to cleaning and collecting. She also loves to think about the history of the items she has found - a glass bottle stopper could have been rolling around in the sea for many years and she finds it fascinating to imagine its origin, and the people it may have been in contact with.

Her husband and daughter both help with the beach cleaning forays, which can see a huge variety of objects making their way home for sorting, storing or recycling - they even found a complete set of false teeth on one occasion!

As a youngster she said she had always wanted to either be an architect, an interior designer or a teacher: ‘I did love teaching, but it’s a complete vocation, even when you are doing your shopping you are thinking of things you need to get for the next project with the children.

‘What I am doing now is completely different - the fact I get to make art every single day is wonderful though there is the flip side - becoming self employed has definitely been a learning curve.’

One aspect of Laura’s life she definitely didn’t see coming was being able to say she’d had a number one hit record - she was a member of the Military Wives Choir which caught the imagination of the public in a huge way in 2011 and which she hoped heightened understanding of the situation military families can face when partners are on deployment.

‘That Christmas number one was never on the radar,’ said Laura. ‘My husband came back from Afghanistan, the choir was on the TV one night and he was on it the next, it was really weird!’

You can follow Laura and her work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/serendipityseacrafts 

By Jane Honey