What Beachcombing & Jewellery-Making Have Taught Me About Design
Note: this short piece of writing is part of a series where I jot down little sparks of inspiration that shape how I think about design.
6 years ago, I combined two long-standing passions - beachcombing and making jewellery. I started a small business called Bahari Blu, creating jewellery from the “treasures” I found at the beach.​ Today, Bahari Blu has shipped to 20+ countries, and it's only recently that I realised how much this business has taught me about the design process.
I started Bahari Blu while studying Sustainability at The University of Exeter, in a time when I felt a little lost about what career path to take, and long before I had even heard of ‘design thinking’. Only after studying UX/UI Design at Experience Haus and completing my first full-time role did I realise how much these two hobbies had been teaching me.
Photo: Making sea glass jewellery opposite a housemate at uni​.
The process of beachcombing involves wandering along the beach, scanning the high tide line for interesting finds. It is a combination of knowing roughly what to look for, yet being open to finding the unexpected. It requires an alert presence, but if you go in with rigid expectations, you’re bound to be disappointed.
​
It reminds me of the ‘discovery’ phase of the design process: you’re not looking for meaning yet, just staying curious, and there is an exciting element of surprise when you uncover a ‘gem’.
​
Photo: Collecting sea glass in Cornwall.
Once back from the beach, I lay the beachcombing finds out on a table, and observe what I have to work with. I then grab a pen and paper and start dreaming up ideas, before eventually transitioning to the ‘development’ phase of actually making a wearable piece of jewellery.
Jewellery-making mirrors the design process in so many ways: navigating uncertainty, working with assumptions, choosing the right tools, following structure in one moment and breaking it in the next, testing and iterating when things don’t quite work.
Photos: Jewellery in the planning stage and finished pieces.