Beach Combing, Sunshine Coast, BC, Canada: Coast Chimes

Beach Stone Hunting

Sunshine Coast, BC

There are shorelines along the ocean here full of stones, such as the one below my home, but not the sort of beach stone I like to use. I really want rounded, smooth stones, and after about 30 years of using them, I now where to go.

During the warm summer days, I love to jump on my bike and ride to the best beach for the smaller flatter stones I need for the clappers, or strikers of my copper wind chimes. It's not that far, but some very steep hills. Beneath the sun, one gets pretty hot walking slowly up and down the beach finding the perfect stones, so after half an hour or so, it's time to jump in the water. Lovely!

After cooling off, it's great to sit in the sun for half an hour with a good book. Then time to load up the bike with the treasure, and ride back home. Below are some of the treasures brought home yesterday. And a detail picture of one of this type of stone on a copper chime.

You can find all the larger copper wind chimes with beach stone clappers on my website:

Beach Stone Clapper, or Strikers

Beach Stone Clapper

(the stone is very hard, so it resonates nicely against the soft copper)

My Type of Summer Holiday: Sunshine Coast, BC

Not Exactly Crowded
Beach Sunday, Sunshine Coast, BC

Being Fortunate enough to live in a very beautiful area, the summer attracts a lot of tourists. Going to downtown Gibsons or Sechelt any day of the summer, but especially on weekends, you would think it would be impossible to get away from the crowd. Not so!

Yes, if you just park your vehicle and expect seclusion, you will likely be a little disappointed. But pretty much take a five minute walk along the shoreline in any direction, and more than likely you will be away from it all. The entire shoreline is public property, so don't fret that you may be trespassing, because you are not.

Yesterday, Sunday, possibly the warmest, most beautiful afternoon yet of the summer, I zipped down to the closest bike rack near the beach, locked up, walked past the dozen or so people who did not want to walk for five minutes (or who don't mind a bit of a crowd) and around the corner found this lovely stretch of sand and pebble beach with not a soul in sight. I spent two hours reading, dreaming, swimming, sunning, and no one even walked past. So peaceful, so enjoyable.

This is my primary way of taking my summer vacation. No driving for hours, no hotels, no tents, just a relaxing few hours each sunny afternoon. I get up very early and work for around six hours, take my break, and then perhaps work for another hour or two. Rinse and repeat. As I said, most enjoyable.

Beautiful Natural Beach Stones: the Zen of Wind Chimes

Beautiful Freshly Collected Pacific Beach Stones

 Above, gorgeous natural beach stone. Below, Zen chime made from such stones: simple elegance.

During the summer, any day with even a remotely bright sky has me heading either by foot or by bike down to the beach. My new favourite destination is about a 10 minutes bike ride down steep hills from my home. It's a good loafing beach, a good swimming beach, and a great beach stone collecting beach. I always come home with at least a few prize stones.

I am very fussy when it comes to stones for my work. They need to be smooth and rounded, and they are not as easy to find as you might think. But easier on some beaches than others. It's just a question of finding the right beach for the right stone. A rather pleasant part of my work!

Find all my beach stone creations at Coast Chimes. And don't worry: although most of these are very heavy, especially those large ones with five copper chimes, you never have to pay a dime in postage when you order from the USA or Canada. I pay the postage.

Zen Beach Stone Chime
$75 Free Shipping at Coast Chimes

e-Bike Time, Specialized Turbo Vado

My Specialized Turbo Vado e-Bike
A Fun Way to Explore and Beach Comb

The Sunshine Coast, BC, Canada, is a very hilly (mountainous, in fact) place. While understanding how it makes ecological sense to bike, I personally started sweating just thinking of the hills here. So most often I walked, which was fine but limiting. To the post office and back carrying my shipments took a long time. 

I like technology, and suddenly got a serious urge for an e-bike. Never looking back! The steepest hills are suddenly easily conquered.

This recent acquisition has had an added bonus, in that I now enjoy checking out new places. It turns out some very fine places are not that far from my home. Yesterday, looking at Google Maps, I saw a little beach marked. Peddling over, I was absolutely astounded at this beautiful, secluded place. What charm! Even better is that when I walked along, I discovered this beach is perhaps the best I have so far found on the Coast for the type of stones I need for my beach stone wind chimes. My new Arkel panniers will get tested carrying home a few of these heavy stones.

Since getting my bike just a couple of months ago, I have already logged over 700 kilometres. I am sure our car has many fewer kilometres on its odometer. Not only is the bike an awful lot of fun, but it also feels good not to be burning all that fossil fuel.

New Beach Found, Thanks to e-Bike Exploring

Beach Combing, Part of My Job

Zen Natural Pacific Beach Stone Wind Chime
@ Coast Chimes

The plan today is to bicycle over to my daughter's place in Roberts Creek, and hit the beach down below her home for some beach stone and driftwood collecting. I absolutely love using these awesome natural resources in my works. It's a form of upcycling. The results are always something that seems so much in harmony with nature, perfect for any landscape.

Obviously, the final products are also extremely durable. How long will those stones last? Long!

These natural beach materials also seem to mesh so nicely with my copper and antiqued brass chimes. Like they were made for each other!

Oddly enough, even though there are plenty of beaches here made up entirely of beach stones with lots of driftwood, it is not all that easy to find those that are acceptable to me. They have to be the right size, and nicely rounded, smooth, etc. I'm fussy! But that does not matter too much, as what could be more enjoyable then a few hours hiking up and down a beach? Not a bad job!

See all my beach stone wind chimes on my website: Coast Chimes Beach Stones

Beach Ocean Pollution, EPS, Sunshine Coast, BC, Canada: Take Action!

Not Snow: Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) Pollution
Ban EPS Now!

It's been a rough winter. Rough weather with multiple wind storms, and rough on the environment, with many docks breaking up. The picture above is not lovely snow on the beach; it is EPS waste from docks where it is used as flotation: nasty stuff!

Large blocks of EPS are used to float docks. Sooner or later, these blocks fall apart, or escape during storms. They then quickly break down into tiny pellets. These pellets are not biodegradable. They will be floating around for generations (some studies say up to one million years). Animals eat the tiny pieces, and have their digestive systems clogged.

There are more environmentally friendly alternatives, so there is no excuse. New docks must not use EPS, and current dock owners must change over. The federal government should have acted years ago, but better now than later. Please email or phone your MP and urge immediate action (it only takes a minute). You can find the contact information for your member here: Contact Your MP

Broken Down Dock EPS, Sunshine Coast, BC Beach

Large Pieces of EPS, Gibsons, BC, Canada

Beach Comber's Wind Chime

Beach Comber's Outdoor Large Wind Chime at Coast Chimes

My daily walk often takes me along the shore of the Pacific Ocean, down below our home. Sometimes I get lucky, and find a wonderful piece of driftwood, such as the one featured in the wind chime above. Or maybe a lovely rounded, smooth, beach stone catches my eye.

While the beaches here are full of stones, and driftwood, most are not for me. The wood, the stone, they have to be just right for me to lug home. Often I come home empty handed, and that is okay, too. Better nothing than the wrong thing. And there will be another day, another hike, soon-- another chance to maybe find just the right piece of wood or just the right stone.

When I do stumble upon a piece of wood like the one I used in this wind chime, my day brightens. When I don't find anything, well, at least I get a wonderful walk!

Visit my website to see all my driftwood, beach stones, and artist-made sea glass wind chimes and suncatchers: Coast Chimes.

Home on the Sunshine Coast, Good to be Back

Beach, Gibsons BC, Canada

After a short camping trip into the interior of British Columbia, as lovely as it was, I am reminded on returning to the Sunshine Coast just how lucky we are to live here. I have been back and forth across Canada, and through much of the USA, and the Sunshine Coast is awfully hard to beat.

We had a long, dusty trip home, much of it on gravel roads. That back country is wild and awesome. But an afternoon reading on the beach back home, swimming, and maybe a short snooze, is just about perfect.

This picture was taken near Granthams Landing, which is just steps from the small town of Gibsons. There was no one else on this section of beach. And the water was super clear, and warm.

If you visit the Sunshine Coast, try to leave time to visit Coast Chimes. You can see some real west coast works of art, perfect for gifts.

Gibsons, BC, Sunshine Coast, Canada

Looking Back at My
Summer Afternoon Swimming Beach
Gibsons, BC, Canada

As a self-employed artist, one thing I learned very early is that discipline is important. It is all too easy to get sloppy, start later, finish earlier, read one more chapter. Then you end up not getting things done that need to be done, and it all slides downhill from there.

Before going to sleep at night, I typically make a little list in my head of what I will start with the following morning, what I will accomplish during the day. It helps a lot for getting going in the morning, and for sticking to it during the day. If I fall short of accomplishing all that is on that list, it's not the end of the world, but I feel a bit bad and resolve to work harder the next day. This works really well for me.

During the summer, Gibsons / the Sunshine Coast is the place to be. Not too hot, but hot enough to have a swim that feels great. Blue skies. It is very tempting to take a lot of time off. And I do take some time-- everyone deserves some holiday! But the summer is also the time where I do a lot of my main work, because the wood I work with is dry, the glass can be handled more easily, and there is a long list of things needing to be finished before the October Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, and Christmas rush.

The way I handle the urge to toss everything and spend the day at the ocean reading and swimming is to make that list in my head, and finish it before taking off. But almost every nice day, I do walk down to the local sandy beach (10 minutes stroll, and just happens to be one of the nicest ones on the Coast). It is a wonderful incentive to work hard and finish up: a treat, and it doesn't cost a dime.

If visiting Vancouver, or Vancouver Island, I highly recommend you take a side trip to the Sunshine Coast. Enjoy the slower life style, pick up a Purple Banner Guide of artists' studios and galleries (available on the ferries and in the tourists' bureaus). Make sure to drop by Coast Chimes (directions)-- I'm here everyday working (except for when I am down having a swim!) and would love to show you what I do.

Beautiful Gibsons BC, Canada

Lovely Light and A Rainbow, Near Gibsons, BC, Canada

People often ask me where I get the inspiration for my wind chimes and sun catchers. I think I could just show them this picture I took yesterday afternoon. Truly, I am fortunate to live in such a beautiful place.

This picture is snapped with an iPod touch, just a few steps down the street from my house. There was just one thing wrong with the afternoon— the tide was a foot too high and we all got wet feet walking to town! No one minded, as it was all just too beautiful to even notice.

These are the beaches where I collect the beach stones and driftwood that play such a significant role in the making of my wind chimes and sun catchers. I am grateful for the light, the scenery, and for the raw materials. Having traveled to so many different places, I know that it is not always possible to just pick up neat raw materials. You can see how I use beach stones and driftwood by visiting my website: Coast Chimes