May 12, 2008
Monday

Ketchikan, Alaska - The Plaza held its third annual Beach Combers Show on May 3rd. The show had two separate categories in which items could be entered: Best Beach Find and Best Art Made From Beach Finds. Six items were entered in the "Best Beach Find" category and there were thirteen entries in the "Best Art from Beach Find" category. First, second & third place winners for each category were selected by the Peoples' Choice Votes made during the show.

Daniel Klose who had 41 votes for his Carved Beach Comber's discovery was awarded first place in the Best Beach Finds' category. Photo courtesy The Plaza

Best Beach Finds:

Daniel Klose who had 41 votes for his Carved Beach Comber's discovery was awarded first place in the Best Beach Finds' category. The Klose family was enjoying a day on the beach at Stone Rock on Prince of Wales Island. They started a fire and young Daniel was looking for fire wood amongst the drift. A small portion of wood was sticking from the sand and he pulled it up to throw on the fire and discovered his find.

The object on the head appears to be an armadillo. A Plaza news release noted that internet research indicated that armadillos are in North America and South America. The research also turned up information on objects of this size from South America which often incorporated animals hunted by the region's Native tribes. The idols were placed under the bed pillow as good luck for hunting. It was suggested in the news release that this idol may have originated from South America or Mexico and rode the ocean current to our Alaskan shore.

The second place winner in the Best Beach Finds category was Ramona Ferry who had 29 votes for her entry of vintage toy cars which were housed in a wooden cubby shelf labeled "Rent a Dent Garage". Ferry owns a local shop called Lucinda's Collectibles which is full of items Ferry has collected over the years from her beach and treasure hunting excursions. If you pay a visit to her shop on a day of an extreme low tide you're likely to find the shop closed and the door bearing a sign noting that if the tide is low she is beachcombing.

Ferry's toy treasures were collected during more than one trip to a local beachside pre-nineteen thirties dump site.

The third place winner in the Best Beach Finds' category was Jan Ross who received 16 votes for her entry of a Ram Burl. The slice of burl from a drift log is a beautiful piece. The ram appears to be resting in the Alaskan sun. If you look closely you can even see its eye amongst the beautiful wood grain swirls.

Judy Swiger and Louie Wagner shared the fourth place Best Beach Finds spot. Swiger brought in her collection of Messages in a Bottle found on Mexican beaches. Perhaps this message in a bottle really traveled to Mexico, sent on the ocean currents by a Hollywood star as stated in the letter.

Louie Wagner submitted an unusual find of a Glass Float Fishing Lure. The lure found exactly "as is" is made of bits and pieces of various size wire one of which is shaped like a hook, a piece of plastic, some frazzled bits of poly rope and has a twine tow line. A bit of coral and small drift debris is naturally attached to the plastic portion. Let your imagination take you to a far remote island where some marooned soul has attempted to make a fishing lure from bits and pieces of debris to catch some fish to eat.

In fifth place was Cindy Wagner (not about to let husband Louie be the only one to find something unique) with her entry of a PVC container. Louie told her that people would make these containers and attach then to their boat and store items such as emergency flares in them. Wagner has never attempted to open the container. A little shaking of the item reveals that it contains something that sounds similar to a match stick rattling around. One would wonder if curiosity will ever get the best of her.

Best Art Made from Beach Finds:

First place winner in the art category with 25 votes was Pam Peterson's "Ghost Net". The beach diorama made of several drift pieces, shells and beach rock has a beaded drift net full of marine life including a killer whale, coral, various fish and crabs. The scene depicts the impact of lost drift nets on marine life. Drift nets have been banned from high seas fishing but many nets still linger in our oceans and are washed ashore on our beaches where they continue to trap and kill wildlife such as otters and birds. Peterson's intricate attention to detail was very impressive.

Second place winner was Deidre White with 20 votes for her Mahogany Boat Hatch Cover Coffee Table. The coffee table was made by Snapper Carson. The hatch cover was found thirty years ago floating in Cordova Bay and only recently turned into this coffee table for White.

Third place in the Beach Art category was shared by Sherry Wick and Cindy Barber. Wick submitted a set of beach glass pictures. Colorful bits of glass worn smooth by the ocean and beach sand were set into plaster and framed to make these pieces.

Heron by Sherry Wick Third place in the Beach Art category. Photo courtesy The Plaza	Frog by Sherry Wick Third place in the Beach Art category. Photo courtesy The Plaza
Bluejay by Sherry Wick Third place in the Beach Art category.	Rockfish by Sherry Wick Third place in the Beach Art category.

Cindy Barber's entry "Pirate Rock" was humorous and enjoyed by many attending the show.

Punky Howe, a woman to be admired for her tenacity of combing the beaches looking for shards of pottery and beach glass to create her one of a kind beach glass murals took forth place with her entry titled "Mountains and Sea".

Howe's inspiration from her studio window is Deer Mountain and our beautiful Tongass Narrows. Don't be surprised if while walking on a south end beach you run across a tiny woman with only her legs from the knee down sticking out of a large hole (one of my fondest beach combing excursion memories.) That would be Howe digging deep in the sand for buried treasures.

Warning, fifth place by Patty Fay Hickox titled "Plate Glass" could make you a bit hungry for cheese pizza loaded with green peppers.

Sixth and seventh place art entries were Theresa Heitman's Cork Float Night Light and Beach Art Lamp.

Theresa Heitman's Beach Art Lamp. Photo courtesy The Plaza

Heitman's lamp inspired many show attendees who exclaimed now they knew what to do with all those beach combed treasures the kids bring home. Bits of driftwood, shells, and pretty rock rest in the clear glass base while drift pieces adorn the shade.

Pam Peterson's Beach Glass Mirror placed eighth.

Ninth place was shared by Laura Plenart's Beach Treasure Planter Pot, Terry Ramsay's Window Charms, Theresa Heitman's Jar of Wired Beach Glass, and Dawn McInturff's Driftwood creatures, an elephant, a Star Wars Creature and a Driftwood Wizard.

Plaza Operations Manager Penny Eubanks said, "Well I hope the Beach Combers Show got you thinking about what you can make or might find on the beach this summer to enter in next year's Beach Comber's Show!" She said the annual show takes place during Saturday Market, the first Saturday in May 2009.

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Ketchikan, Alaska