Ceramic Skull Beads by Kim Foale

When I talk about my Skull beads in public, I very quickly get into character and I say in a theatrical stage whisper, “These skull beads are made using plastic pollution that has been retrieved from the bellies of DEAD ALBATROSS.”

I channel my inner pirate and wave my arms about a bit, my audience then takes a second or two to check that I am telling the truth. I nod enthusiastically at them and promise it is a true story and then the proper conversation really begins.

My scientist friend Dr Jennifer Lavers ,has this to say on her web page:

For years we’ve heard about the North Pacific Gyre (or Garbage Patch) where there is up to six times more plastic in the ocean than plankton. We’ve seen tragic photos of thousands of Endangered Laysan Albatross chicks that have died as a result of ingesting plastic on remote islands in Hawaii. And have watched eminent speakers like Captain Charles Moore speak to captivated audiences about our plastic addiction.

  What most people don’t realize is that the North Pacific Garbage Patch is not the only one of its kind. There are at least five others, fed by more than 20 million items that enter the world’s oceans each and every day (~6.4 million tonnes of plastic per year). The wind and wave patterns that lead to the development of Gyres (some with more than 26,000 pieces of plastic per km²⁾ redistribute this plastic around the globe, so that one country’s garbage washes up in anothers backyard. Its time to reconsider the infamous quote “Garbage Patch the size of Texas” and start thinking outside the box. Unlike Texas, ocean basins do not have boundaries. Our garbage is everywhere. Even in Antarctica.

Dr Lavers gives me bags of plastic pollution that she has removed from the bellies of dead albatross and I use them to make the marks in my work.

The eyes of these skull beads are made by pressing the spinny wheel thing of this cigarette lighter into the clay. The mouths are made by using either the balloon clip or the back of the lighter.

When people think about the scale of the plastic pollution disaster happening in the world’s oceans today, they think that the problem is too big, that nothing can be done by one person.

Heaps can be done by one person. I am one person sitting here banging away at my computer talking about pollution and you are one person reading my words. Together we can save the world, you and I. Easy Peasy.

Just think of one item of plastic that you personally can remove from the garbage chain and stop buying it. Say no to one item of plastic. I say no to plastic water bottles.

Don’t let people tell you that your actions do not have any affect on the pollution problem, because your actions do count.

They count rather a lot.

And if you would like one of these skull beads all you have to do is send me a stamped self addressed padded envelope and I will send you a skull bead.