Summer Spells: Beach combing for the hearth and home

The ocean is a powerful thing, a symbol of change, the give and the take. It’s long held for its ability to calm with just the sound of the crashing waves. So why not bring it into your craft too? Just like when you go on a nature walk for useful herbs and stones, you can do the very same thing at the beach whenever you hit the waves!

Sea glass makes an excellent worry stone, the smooth surfaces feel great along your fingertips when you’re really nervous or anxious. You can keep them aside for charms, or wire wrap them into jewelry. Quartz can often be found at the beach, I myself found a veritable ton of it at Misquamicut beach in Rhode Island. Be careful if you’re using it in a spell to make sure it isn’t actually sea glass, though honestly, they’re pretty easy to tell apart.

Sea shells were an obvious thing to add to my collection, however, I tried to be picky about it, as I plan to get crafty with them down the line. I have a few ginormous ones that I used to revamp my altar into a more water-themed setup. One holds my salt, another holds my necklace charms, and the last holds my charmed rings and bracelets. At its center is a really pretty shell-shaped dish from LadyUnlaced that contains all my stones which I carry with me everyday. I was on the look out for shells with naturally occuring holes in them to turn into windchimes for the porch, and some beautiful shells to turn into necklaces and earrings.

You can also find some weirder things if you’re feeling daring enough for it. I now have a large collection of crab heads, which have this beautiful red mottling that is really exquisite. Upon bringing them home I realized they matched the cherry quartz on the God point of my altar perfectly, so now there is a tower of crab heads in this corner. They look so freaking awesome.

If you’re at a rather nice beach, you might want to consider the stuff beneath your toes too. No, not the water, though I’ve seen shops selling it out to people, trust me when  I say thats a bottle you dont want to open in a week. However, I find out of my favorite additions to my altar is a tiny bowl of sand, from a bottle of the stuff I grabbed at a beach in St. Augustine, Florida. Its so soft and relaxing, I love to run my fingers through it after a long day, its just so perfectly relaxing and soothing. Trying making a bowl of sand with some shells and putting it at the center of room you feel needs to cool down a bit more than it has been lately, and if nothing else, it just looks really damn pretty!