How did Z.ART tides come to life?

How did Z.ART tides come to life?

Z.ART tides didn’t simply come from the idea of opening a small webshop. When I think about it today, the story behind it actually began much earlier.

Because somehow, the sea had always been there.

The sea has been part of my whole life

Long before Z.ART tides was even an idea, the sea already had a permanent place in my life. My mum is a diving instructor, my grandad is a passionate ship lover – and I can hardly remember a time when ships, beaches and the sea didn’t play a role in my life.

But creativity was just as naturally present too. In my family, people were always trying things out, creating and exploring all kinds of creative hobbies. So from an early age, I grew up not only looking at things, but really noticing them and wanting to create something myself. My father is a photographer, and I probably also learned from him to have an eye for small details, unusual perspectives and the things you might otherwise simply walk past. He also took this photo of me back then – long before anyone could have imagined that exactly this love for details, images and the sea would one day become part of Z.ART tides.

For as long as I can remember, I was either spending time on a ship or somewhere on a beach. And whenever I was at the beach, I could spend hours collecting shells. Not five minutes and then moving on. Really hours.

For as long as I can remember, I was either spending time on a ship or somewhere on a beach. And whenever I was at the beach, I could spend hours collecting shells. Not five minutes and then moving on. Really hours. I searched, compared them, took the most beautiful ones with me and got excited about special shells as if they were little treasures. While other children were building sandcastles, I sat with my chin on my knees in the places where there wasn’t fine sand, but rather where there was actually something to find. Between stones, underneath seaweed. Of course, back then I had no thought of ever making something out of them. I simply liked them. Every shell looked different, every one felt different and somehow I could never just walk past them.

When I look at Z.ART tides today, it almost feels as if something that has accompanied me throughout my entire life eventually found its way into my art completely naturally.

A lot of things in my life have led to the fact that my mind is rarely truly quiet. Fears, thoughts, ideas, worries, plans, memories – somehow there is always something going on. Only by the sea is it different. There I can sit for hours, walk, look at the water or search for shells and at some point notice how everything in my head becomes quieter.

Maybe it’s the wind. Maybe the steady sound of the waves. Maybe it’s this incredible sense of space, where suddenly many things that seemed huge before become a little smaller. I don’t know exactly what it is. I only know: I find peace by the sea. And that is probably exactly why so much of it has found its way into Z.ART tides.

Creativity existed long before Z.ART tides

The wish to work creatively wasn’t completely new to me either. Back in Germany, there was already Z.ART Atelier. There, I created creative activities and workshops for groups and had already found a way to share my creative side with other people.

With my move to the Netherlands, however, a lot changed. Simply continuing seamlessly with what I had built up in Germany suddenly didn’t feel quite so easy anymore. There was the language. And there was my own confidence, which first had to grow again in a new country. Leading a creative group, explaining ideas and guiding people through a creative process is something different when you don’t yet feel completely confident in the language yourself. So first I had to figure out what creativity could look like in my new life. At the time, I had no idea that the answer would be waiting for me in exactly the place that had already accompanied me throughout my entire life.

A creative afternoon at the beach

Sometimes the most important ideas don’t appear when you are desperately trying to find one. But simply along the way.

In 2025, during a creative afternoon at the beach with friends, we painted together and used what was right there around us: salt water and sand. It was simply about spending time together, experimenting and being creative. And it was exactly there that, through my friends, the inspiration came up to try decoupage with oyster shells. Actually just a small idea in a completely normal conversation. But it stayed with me. I started experimenting.

One oyster became the next. One technique led to new ideas. Other colours were added, other materials, other shapes and eventually more and more possibilities. Shells, charms, and at some point even artworks. And suddenly something developed from it that I had never planned at all:

Z.ART tides.

An absolute full-circle moment

Today, I find this origin especially beautiful. I had already worked creatively with Z.ART Atelier in Germany. Then came the move. A new country. A new language. Uncertainty about how and whether I could continue with the creative work I had been doing before. And of all places, it was during a creative afternoon with friends at the beach that the idea arose to create something new from oyster shells. If someone had told me back then that two years later I would really have my own webshop, or even be standing at markets, I would never have believed them. But the idea grew, all the way to my decision to move abroad for love in 2025. To a place that has given me peace throughout my whole life. A place with shells that I already spent hours collecting as a child.

For me, this is now an absolute full-circle moment. Z.ART hasn’t disappeared. It has changed.

Z.ART Atelier was joined by Z.ART tides

Maybe I didn’t have to continue seamlessly where I had stopped in Germany after all. Maybe something new was simply allowed to emerge from it. Something that fits my new life. Z.ART was allowed to stay – but something new was added: tides. The tides. Movement, change, coming and going.

And somehow there could hardly be a word that fits this time in my life better. Because Z.ART tides itself also grew out of change. Out of letting go of something familiar and trying to find my own way in a new environment.

Beach finds became little works of art

From the first oysters, more and more new ideas gradually emerged. Painted oysters, little trays, jewellery, charms, artworks and decorations. I started experimenting with different colours, textures and materials and kept trying out new possibilities. Not every idea works. Some things look amazing in my head and suddenly not at all once they are on the table. Some materials simply don’t work together. Sometimes I invest hours in something and realise in the end: this just isn’t it. But by now, that is also part of Z.ART tides for me. It isn’t about perfect mass production. It is about experimenting, developing and continuing to find my own style. And I never wanted everything to look typically “maritime” either. To me, the sea does not automatically mean blue, beige, anchors and classic coastal décor. It can be colourful. Bold. Elegant. Playful. A little crazy. Sometimes minimalist and sometimes exactly the opposite.

Shells – but make it art.

That sentence actually describes pretty much exactly what I want to do with Z.ART tides.

More than just a small shop

The longer I work on it, the more I realise that Z.ART tides has become much more to me than the products themselves. It connects an incredible number of parts of my life. My connection to the sea. The hours on the beach. My family. Z.ART Atelier. My move to the Netherlands. My creativity. The quiet in my head.

By now, I have shown my work at markets, built my own stand and spoken to complete strangers about my art. I have had conversations in German, English and Dutch, received compliments, sold my first pieces, made mistakes and learned something new at every single event. The very things – language and confidence – that were among the reasons in the beginning why I didn’t know how creativity could continue for me. And with every one of these moments, it isn’t only Z.ART tides that grows. I grow a little too.

So why Z.ART tides?

Maybe Z.ART tides didn’t begin on one particular day at all. Maybe it already started with the little girl who sat on the beach for hours collecting shells. With a mum who was a diving instructor. With a grandad who loved ships. With Z.ART Atelier and my joy in being creative together with other people. With the courage to leave part of my old life behind and start again in another country. When I connect all these dots today, suddenly everything makes a surprising amount of sense.

Z.ART tides is a full-circle moment for me.

Something from my past wasn’t lost, but found another form in my new life. The sea that has always accompanied me is now part of my art. The shells I couldn’t leave behind even as a child are now lying on my worktable. And Z.ART Atelier didn’t simply become a finished chapter. It continued to develop.

Into Z.ART tides.

A piece of me – from then, from now and from everything that is only just beginning.

From the shore to you.