It’s hard not to be inspired by pebbles. You pick them up, you look at them and they speak silently to you in ways that words can’t describe. They are inexplicably powerful. Sometimes you pick one up, hold it and carry it with you for a while on your walk. Other times they get dropped and moved around by our actions as well as that of the waves, rivers and other geomorphological processes.

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Some pebbles have white lines – bands of quartz – within them. Jessica’s Nature Blog has some fine examples. In the above photo, you can see that I have cheated and added a white line with an acrylic marker pen. A more gentle and natural alternative would have been to scratch the line with another stone. Likewise white chalk can be used for temporary work and experiments.

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To spend time on the beach in warm summer sunshine, picking up pebbles and playing with them is special. It can be a calming and almost meditative experience. The ideas in this post came from seeing photos such as this one by Andy Goldsworthy.

In the photo below, I had to measure the length of each white line comparatively. The spiral is created from putting the the stones in a rough order from largest on the outside to smallest in the centre. This required some thinking as the lines are painted horizontally as well as vertically on the stones. So it was a bit like doing a jigsaw and fitting the pieces together.

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It’s perfectly enjoyable simply playing around with pictures and possibilities of one straight line on each pebble. However, think about the fun which can be had when right angles are introduced…

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Suddenly the shape-making properties of the simple line are increased. So what happens when T-Bars or two right angles are added into a shape…

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Or how about some Y-angles – the value of acute and obtuse angles. There is no need to stick to regular shapes. You can just enjoy laying out the stones and seeing what happens. This helps little children learn a lot about how a change of angle, changes direction and thus the shape of any given piece of work.

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Naturally the teacher-within-me surfaced and I just had to make a letter from the alphabet…

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Of course, when you look at straight lines, you have to consider the opposite possibilities and see how curved lines  work. Perhaps my curves are too squiggly…

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When investigating lines and patterns the world of art and maths delightfully merge and dance together. What do you think? One thing I’ve found is that white seems to be the most powerful colour. Coloured lines do not seem to feel right. I’ve no idea why this is the situation. Have a go and find out for yourself this summer, should you be at the beach…

This post was originally published in July 2014.

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