Meet Sea Bre

But there wasn’t much glass to find, so I turned to collecting different materials that were more abundant, like tiny seashells.

One day on the beach, I unearthed the very first purple shell that I had ever found. It was eye catching, with a nearly perfect rounded rectangular shape and a flawless purple gradient. It was the first time I had ever seen such beautiful purple hues, and as I looked around me, I began seeing more small, worn pieces of shell I had not noticed before, all with perfect hues and patterns.

Around the same time this was happening, I was also very much into the adult coloring book trend. I spent a good deal of time with my best friend, creating our own custom line art and coloring it. Once, my friend brought over a set of fine line Micron pens. By now I had acquired a small collection of beautifully worn shell pieces, and as I looked at them – many of which reminded me of journal paper with their brilliant white color and ridges like lines - I wanted to try my hand at writing something onto one of the pieces.

To my surprise, the pen glided perfectly over the shell’s surface, leaving what looked like a perfect, tiny story on its surface. A lightbulb turned on - I’ve always loved to write, and I’ve also always loved making connections with others. So I figured, why not combine my passion for writing thought-provoking and inspirational quotes with my shell collection?

And thus my “word shells” were born, which mark the real beginning of my adventure and quickly became the core of what I do. Now, whenever I would go to the beach, if felt more like I had a real purpose for being there. Strangely, my luck at the beach began to change, too. Now, I was seeing the shells everywhere. Not that they weren’t there before, but now I was actually seeing them, sensitive to their presence everywhere around me.  

Once I had a good sized batch of word shells completed, I sealed them with clear nail polish to protect and give them a finished look. I started taking them with me when I went for walks, and placed them where they would be found by others. From a distance I would watch how people interacted with them, as if it were some sort of social experiment. Sometimes, people who found them would read the shells then put them back, while other times people would simply take them. It brought me so much joy to see my word shell creations begin to have a positive impact on the world around me. 

Thinking back on my love for coloring and creating color book art, I knew that one of the things that bothered me most about it was spending so many hours designing and coloring a piece only to have it sit on a shelf with very few eyes to see them. But the word shells were a different story; they caught peoples’ attention, so I decided to see if I could draw one of my colored designs on a larger shell piece. 

As it turned out, the markers I used for coloring worked just as well as the Micron finelines, and this gave me the opportunity to practice my drawing in a way and on a medium that felt less intimidating than a traditional sketch book. I’ve always felt a little strange when drawing because while I loved to do it, I wasn’t that great at it, and definitely not like my brother, who is unbelievably talented. I knew success wasn’t going to come as naturally for me, and I was going to have to spend a great deal of time improving my craft. 

Considering this, turning my talent into a business had not even crossed my mind. But I continued making more and more pieces, and I even broke out my old stained glass machine to shape the pieces. With each new design I tried, I got more ideas and learned new techniques, and turning it into my own business naturally, if not unexpectedly, became the next step.

About two years into my journey in 2018, I decided it was time to go to my first live event. It was a small, local craft show run by my downstairs neighbor’s church, and while I personally felt the only reason I got in was because I knew the neighbor, the show turned out to be a huge success and my crafts were very well received. I started getting more involved in the show scene, attending more events until COVID hit and all my shows were cancelled.

I spent the next few years during the COVID period continuing to practice my techniques, learn new styles, and express more of my ideas. It has been a natural evolution for me, and it continues to prove true that as I learn more, the more the ideas come. 

- Breanna a.k.a. "Sea Bre"