Hand painted beach necklaces

A look at what I worked on today,
a little beach scene

Then I used my one inch hole punch and popped a couple out.

Then decided they would look good in a silver pendant tray, secured with a sealer and glass dome.

Wa La, super cute! A great way to spend a Saturday! And what did you do today?

Conch Whelk Seashells

We found this small spiral sack on the beach and brought it home, I told the kids it was full of
baby conch shells. I don't think they would have survived if we left them on the beach, they were washed all the way up by the high tide line and already dried out.

It takes years for the conchs to grow big, usually the bigger the shell the older the conch is.

The conch's I hand paint have no living snail inside when I collect them, I only pick up the empty ones. They are only found (here in New Jersey) on the coldest days in the winter usually after a huge storm has passed up the coast.

They are beautiful left natural too!

~~~~Celebrate~~~~

Come and take a second to celebrate with me! Time, patience and persistence has really paid off this week for me and my Sea Shell endeavors. I made sales! 7 in the past 4 days! Two were off to North Carolina to be included in a beach wedding ceremony, and 5 are off tomorrow morning to Texas! We can't forget the black and gold conch that went out last week too and found a new beautiful home in California, thank you Therese :) You can see it here, on her super duper treasure hunting blog http://ladolfina.blogspot.com/ she has an amazing sea shell collection to, scroll down to see how she displays them, La Dolfina truly has inspired me.





Don't forget to feed the fish, and follow :)

A Light Lesson on Sea Shells

Clam shells consist of a wide variety of bi-valve shells in many shapes and sizes. Some are edible and some produce pearls. Most live in shallow waters and the species can be found in either fresh or salt water.

An example:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38054922

Edible oysters are the most commonly known throughout the world as a popular source of seafood. Their shell is porcelaneous and the pearls produced from these edible oysters have little value. Other types of oyster shells include the p earled oyster shells, thorny oyster shells, and jingle shells.

An example:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=37917278

For my work I prefer Clam Shells to paint on because of the semi smooth surface. I do work on oyster shells, I think they make for great ornaments once drilled. Most sea shells can't pass my drilling process, they are fradgile and crack with to much pressure. It has been a learning process to know exactly where to drill and how each shell is diffrent and requires diffrent amount of pressure. Many a drill bitt I have broken learning this.

Thanks for looking, don't forget to feed the fish and follow :)