My name is Emma Bagnall-Oakeley, I live on the beautiful island of Tresco having arrived 6 years ago to complete the Studley Scholarship in the Abbey Gardens. Like many, I've been coming to the islands my whole life, learning to walk on Pentle Bay and utterly falling in love with the place.
The materials I use are anything I come across on the beach but I focus primarily on plastic. I try to make time to do a quick beachclean most days although having three dogs and a 1 year old in tow adds slightly to the challenge. I make a range of pieces from sea life collages and flatlays, to woven bowls with collected fishing rope. Being a terrible hoarder, I'm constantly trying to find ways to reuse anything I find and much of the plastic is so colourful and worn by the sea, it is in its own way rather beautiful.
It is my hope that by making art out of ocean plastic, it will raise awareness of the problem we are facing and focus minds on reducing consumption and finding alternatives.