As the days get colder, memories return of lazy, sun-drenched days relaxing on a favorite beach. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could carry a piece of that memory around with you all the time?

Pay a visit to Kate Clark, who makes jewelry out of beach sand at her shop on Ocean Street (of course) in South Portland.

She keeps a collection of sand that clients have sent her from all over the country, and that she’s gathered herself, so she may already have your favorite beach on file. (See the list on her website, beachdashery.com) Or you can send her the sand yourself – she needs only about a tablespoon full.

Once Clark has the material in hand, she sandwiches it between glass and metal to make earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings.

Clark estimates she receives sand from three or four new beaches each week. If friends goes on vacation, she asks them to bring back a sand sample, as one friend did recently from a trip to Ireland.

“I have so much sand, it’s incredible,” she said. “Pretty much every beach you can think of, I have sand from there.”

The color and texture of sand is different from beach to beach. Bar Harbor sand has a greenish undertone and looks like it has been sprinkled with pepper, while sand from Kettle Cove in Cape Elizabeth has traces of garnet that make it look red. “Some of it is really fine and light in color,” Clark said, “and sometimes it can be really dark and coarse.”

Clark said she never takes sand from protected beaches. National parks, for example, are off limits both legally and personally. That means she’ll never be making sand jewelry from Sand Beach in Acadia National Park.

Clark’s shop, Beachdashery at 79 Ocean St., is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Her jewelry is also available online and in lots of gift shops, including Lisa-Marie’s Made in Maine in Portland, the Daytrip Society in Kennebunkport, and Beachology in Old Orchard Beach. Earrings range from $22 to $32, necklaces from $28 to $39.99, and bracelets from $28 to $30.