The work was then in the form of advertising banners, but she bought the signage at a refuse store this year and began sewing it into shapes for Sculpture by the Sea.

''I'm not sure what was on them,'' the artist said. ''I was more interested in the colour.''

She doesn't really know what they are, either. It doesn't really matter. ''They're sort of sea slugs, they're sort of cunjevoi. They're sea creatures - I'm leaving it fairly open, I suppose.''

Ms Sampson is mostly a jewellery designer, but she has exhibited in Sculpture by the Sea seven times since it began in 1997.

''Having a dialogue with half a million people is a pretty amazing thing,'' she said. ''A lot of people who would never go to a gallery go to Sculpture by the Sea.''

David Handley, the show's founding director, agreed. The sea has a lot to do with it, he said. He was as excited, yesterday, by the pods of whales passing up the coast as he was by the sculptures being installed.

''People love the surprise and delight of some of the works. And, if there's a particular sculpture they don't like, they just walk straight past them,'' he said.

''They don't feel as if anyone is looking over their shoulder and saying they don't have what it takes to understand the show. That's a big part of it. It's the beach. People don't wear much at the beach - we let our guard down. People can walk past. It can be a bit confronting for the artists, I suppose.''

Sculpture by the Sea will feature more than 100 works when it opens tomorrow, including sculptures by Ken Unsworth, Ron Robertson-Swann, Bert Flugelman and Anne Ferguson - the first time all four artists have exhibited in the show together.

The show also presents 25 international sculptors, including Anthony Caro and the Chinese sculptors Chen Wen Ling and Wang Shugang.

Sculpture by the Sea runs along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk from November 3 to 20.