Larking by Janet Clare for Moda - Shop

Did you know that the River Thames is tidal through London? The muddy foreshore that is revealed at low tide is home to long-lost buried treasure, medieval tiles, glass bottles, coins, clay pipes, and hundreds of ceramic chips from long-broken tea sets. The search for these fragments is called intertidal archaeology, but there is a much more romantic name for it: ‘larking’. One can ‘lark’ anywhere, and Janet Clare does! In her garden, on dog walks, at the beach, and over the years, she and her family have collected hundreds of tiny pieces of china from broken tea sets, putting them for safekeeping in their pockets until they get them home to be washed and admired. She just loves the patterns, colours, and the glimpses into past lives these larked, once mundane treasures offer. What stories they could tell us!