Sculptor who spent 16 years throwing 1 million pebbles into the sea for artwork gives up halfway through

Some people like to take pebbles from the beach. Pete Codling likes to take new ones to the beach and leave them there. The sculptor has been doing so in the name of art for 16 years and was hoping to add a million clay pebbles made by himself to those fashioned by nature. But his pebble dream has been dashed after the funding dried up, leaving him 500,000 pebbles short of his target.

Mr Codling, 40, has been making clay stones in a kiln at his home, numbering them and inviting people to decorate them before throwing them into the waves off Southsea beach, Portsmouth, since 1994. The aim, he said, was 'to create a handmade monument to the people by the people for the people'. He called the artwork which has dominated his life One Million Pebbles and estimates it has so far cost tens of thousands of pounds, with funding from the Arts Council, local authorities and sponsors.



But with no more money coming in, Mr Codling will trudge down to the beach tomorrow and throw the last few buckets of his pebbles into the sea. Yesterday he said it was 'disappointing' to fail to reach his target, but insisted the project had achieved what it set out to do. 'The aim was always to involve hundreds of thousands of people in one artwork and it has done that. Schools and all sorts of people have joined in decorating them with everything from babies' fingerprints to dogs' paws to intricate designs by senior citizens.

'Overseas visitors have written their names on them. When the pebbles get washed up on the beach people who find them can put their own value on them and decide what to do with them, keep them and take them home or throw them back in.' Mr Codling, of Hayling Island, Hampshire, added: 'The pebbles have built up in the layers of the beach. Some could take 100 years to wash ashore and some will just get worn away. The idea is it would be subversively hidden there on the beach for other generations to find.'

There's a photo gallery here.