DAY 4

26th July 2026

Bracelet Bay, Swansea

DYDD 4

26 Gorffennaf 2026

Traeth Bae Bracelet, Mwmbwls

GWYL CERFLUN TRAETH 2026

Artists /Artistiaid:

SARA HOLDEN,

TINA MARIE CUNNINGHAM,

JENNY CHISHOLM

Photographer / Ffotograffydd Prosiect:

PHIL HOLDEN

The fourth destination in our Beach Sculpture Festival was Bracelet Bay in Mumbles. Bracelet Bay is a small, rocky beach near Mumbles Head with beautiful views of the lighthouse and the Bristol Channel. It's known for its mix of sand, pebbles and rock pools, with some areas accessible at low tide. Its a popular beach with children for rock pooling and exploring the rocky areas surrounding the bay. There is a lot of materials here to use for making sculptures such as different coloured pebbles, shells, feathers, seaweed as well as sand. The weather continued to be hot and sunny as the artists set up the site with flags especially designed and made for the Festival by school children. Families soon started to arrive ready to take part in their artist led workshops and some amazing sculptures began to take shape on the beach. Their experiences are recorded here in photos and words.

These young boys were delighted with the crab that they helped make in their artist-led workshop.

Our creativity was definitely enhanced through the workshop - previously we found being creative challenging. Events like this are worthwhile as they have a low impact to the environment and connect us with nature. The children really enjoyed being creative at the beach - it whiled away an afternoon in a delightful way. It was a great way to learn about the natural environment.

The sculptures are so impressive!

A Sand Lizard is created as a sculpture across the beach.

We were extremely happy with all the sculptures we made - starfish, turtle and lizards and would never have thought of using seaweed covered rocks from the rockpool for the green lizard! We learnt about how the sand lizard has been reintroduced to Wales. It was lovely to use the natural materials and its been a fab day! Diolch.

We made lots of different sculptures and spent a couple of lovely hours being creative at this lovely summer activity!

Two beautiful seahorses made by these two girls.

It was great fun making the seahorses. Thank you!

We enjoyed making our sculptures - the girls learnt a new skill. The festival taught the kids to be more resourceful and was accessible to all ages.

We absolutley loved making our starfish sculpture and being in nature using our imaginations. Events like this are so worthwhile as they foster creativity with the benefits of being outside.

Due to the shift of sand and pebbles through seasonal tides at Bracelet Bay, the Festival was held in the middle of the beach where sand still remained in quite a small space. Although it was a small beach area, there were a large amount of participants! It was great to see so many people meeting up and sharing the beach activities.

We had a great time learning sand sculpting techniques. Environmental art events like this are great to teach young people about wildlife, conservation and art!

Creative learning outdoors at it's best!

Events like this are definitely worthwhile - kids need to interact with nature!

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Participants enjoyed exploring the shore line to find natural resources, shells, stones, sticks. They expressed feelings of calmness being in the open air on the beach.

This is a fabulous event that allows you to meet people, get out, have new learning experiences, do new stuff, have fun, be happy and get off screens!! Diolch!

A youngster enjoys looking at the stone birds balanced on the rocks overlooking the lighthouse at Bracelet Bay.

Love it! Beautiful weather too!

Sculptures made from stones and based on different turtles were delightful.

It was wonderful fun, especially working with all the different materials!

The groups of children and young people were very excitable and buzzing with ideas.They stayed a long time and were eager to learn about creatures in their local environment. Participants enjoyed collecting materials to make their beach sculpture and enjoyed talking about the marine animals whilst creating. They were proud of their creative journey and often spoke to others about their achievements, which were celebrated through taking family pictures with art work.

Participants enjoyed the sensory aspect of building and manipulating the sand into shapes for their chosen species. They enjoyed building with stones and filling with wet sand.

We enjoyed exploring for different materials and it was so lovely to see everyone being so creative.

THANK YOU TO OUR KIND SPONSORS FEATURED BELOW:
Diolch i bawb am wneud ein gwyl cerflunwaith flynyddol mor llwyddiant unwaith eto.

We always come to this festival and we enjoyed making our sculptures.The girls loved using a variety of natural found materials. Such a great event!

It was calming to be in nature learning about marine animals through the art and being with others. It was great to connect with nature at the Festival.

It has been very creative and fun! Just like last year it was absolute pleasure. Great to get the kids thinking creatively!

An octopus is created from the red-brown and grey pebbles found on the beach by this young girl.

It was fun to learn how to make sculpture and base it on marine animals. It was a great way to tech the younger generation about the environment too!

The festival activity really inspired children to look carefully at their surroundings and use their imaginations to make their sculptures as well as building an empathy with marine species! Our participant's creativity and wellbeing was enhanced through the festival - they came with excitement and eagerness to discover things and try out new ideas for making sculptures. It was a perfect day for the artists, helping people take their beach sculpting skills to the next level. Days like this are so important for making happy childhood memories and for reminding us all to take special care of our beautiful beaches. As The artists reflected on a successful day and packed away all the festival flags and displays ready for the next day at Blackpill Beach.

To see Day 5 of the 2026 Festival at Blackpill Beach - click the link at the bottom of this page

I weld tudalen 5o 2025 Gwyl Traeth Blackpill - cliciwch ar y ddolen ar waelod y dudalen hon