Wads are used to encase shot inside a shotgun shell and are one of the most pernicious pieces of plastic that we find on the beach. We have thousands of them in our collection. The walls of the wad protect the pellets from the charge, restricting the shot pattern to a more coherent pattern. They shoot out of the gun and remain in the landscape long after the ducks and the hunters are gone. They float their way down rivers, from the wetlands to the sea. We have never been to the beach when we don’t find these in great numbers. Historically, they were made of compressed paper, but with the advent of cheap polypropylene, they are now made exclusively of plastic.
Our very first show, in 2001 at Gallery Route One in Point Reyes Station titled One Year One Beach: Disposable Truths, showcased what we, two people as a collaborating team, collected from Kehoe Beach in one year.
During that year, we found wads — over a hundred on a typical day of collecting. We wanted to express the awe we felt in finding so many. At first, we thought of a wall mandala made of a thousand wads, but it spun into a Spiral Nebulae seven feet across, a galaxy, a gyre, a focal point for One Beach, One Year.
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| Spiral Nebulae |
For (Processing) at the Worth Ryder Gallery in Berkeley, we asked visitors to help us identify mysterious pieces of plastic. With curiosity sparked, there was fun aplenty with dramatic plots about its elaborate history as a vintage wetlands object. Could it be a jellyfish hat or a piece of a spaceship?
Surfrider Foundation has been pro-active, blogging about the environmental impact of wads, and lobbying for wads to be made from paper/cardboard. We have participated in their data collection. Post your pics on Instagram.
Shotgun Wedding is a LOL story of Judith's wad and tampon necklaces purchased for the Yale Art Museum collection. Just one of many of her fashion statements on her Beach Plastic Jewelry site.
