Lynne Robertson
"Born & brought up in the Scottish Borders, my favourite place as a young child was Elie, in the East Neuk of Fife, where my family went for our annual long summer holiday for many, many years. I have such happy memories of times spent there - playing on the beautiful beach with friends, searching for blennies, shrimps, brittle starfish, hermit crabs etc. in rock pools & golfing, It was there, whilst looking for ubiquitous limpet & surf clam shells, that I found my first cowrie & turritella communis (auger/tower/cone) shells. I was hooked & beachcombing has become a life-long passion. Graduating to fossil hunting, finding ammonites & belemnites, whilst on a family holiday in Whitby as a 10 year old, I became a very amatuer palaeontologist. Later, as a teenager, stones from the Northumberland coast & gorgeous Iona greenstone (serpentine) & marble were tumbled & made into jewellery. When I was a student in Edinburgh these items - huge rings & driftwood pendants (it was the 1960s!) - very often sold when I was out & about in pubs & at folk singing, where they became a 'talking point'. Years passed & travels to far flung shores yielded exotic finds. Venus comb shells, pretty mother of pearl & in the desert, wonderful geodes (thunder eggs) & delicate sand roses. Coming full circle & lucky enough to be living close to the East Neuk of Fife & my beloved Elie, I discovered sea pottery & sea glass, crinoid fossils, cowries of course, driftwood & Elie Rubies (garnets - too small to make into jewellery). It was here that I started making jewellery again, experimenting with shapes, colours & textures. The exciting anticipation of turning over a piece of plain white sea pottery lying on the strand line & discovering a blue&white pattern on the reverse is ever present (even after countless pieces of white on both sides!). There's always a frisson of excitement with each piece I make & I'm passionate about my work. I hope you can see something reminiscent of our wonderful coastline & enjoy looking at my unique pieces of jewellery. Hakuin Ekaku's Song of Meditation tells us ..... 'If we only look down, we will never see the stars'. This is very true, but I have to add" ..... 'The treasures I seek are at my feet'.
The Jetty Gallery