Shell Craft Candleholder
Miniatures for Tealights

A shell craft candleholder can be used all around the house. Place small groupings around a larger candle. Use scented tealights and add fragrance to your home as you enjoy the soft glow the sand adds to the light.

Place two or three of these miniature shell craft candleholders around a figure (statuette?) that you'd like to highlight (keep a few inches away from the statue and make sure there is nothing flamable over the candles themselves). Add tealights and sit back and enjoy the show.



Materials:

Glass Votive Candleholder
Seashells
Sand
Glue (Elmers all purpose or equivalent)
Polyurethane
Hobby Brushes

Optional:

Newspaper - 2 or 3 sheets
Coral pieces
Rhinestones
Pearls
Shell Pieces
Cut shells
Tealights

Getting Started

Make sure you have all the needed supplies plus any accessories you want to add handy. I keep everything in see thru plastic boxes and bins - all within arms reach.

Clean the votive candleholder. Use soap and water and rinse well, or wipe with alcohol on a rag. Either way make sure the glass is clean, oil free, and dry before you start.

Select a group of seashells, around 20 or so. You'll use these to set up your shell craft candleholder design. The seashells should be smaller than you would need for a vase or larger candle jar.

Try the shells out against the glass and keep the ones that fit nicely on the glass. Each glass votive will have it's own unique curvature so that a shell you can use on one glass nicely may not necessarily fit another. Just try them out, one by one, and keep the ones that fit. Save the others for a different project.

Once you have a nice collection of seashells for your arts and crafts project, take a look at what else you may have available that you would like to use on your shell craft candleholder. This can be shell pieces, rhinestones, pearls, pieces of coral, or even colored glass (sea glass?).

Beginning the Design

Lay the glass for your shell craft candleholder on its side. I use a bit of foam I received with a bottle of lotion I ordered. It has a hole in the middle that allows me to position the glass at different angles.

You can also try an empty egg carton - I have and it also works - or an old towel that can be fluffed up around the glass to hold it in place. I usually use the towel with the bigger projects but it should work here also. Try it out.

Pick up a shell or two and place it on the glass. Make sure it doesn't slide off. Once you get the glass situated so the shell doesn't fall off, apply glue to the seashell's edges and place it on the glass. Move it around, if needed, until you have positioned where you want it.

Depending on the design you have settled on, you may be able to glue another shell in place. If it is possible to do without having the shell slide off the glass, then do so. Give the setup a few minutes to dry. Depending on the glue you have used and the humidity in the air, this can take 10 minutes or more.

Once the glue is dry enough that the seashell won't fall off turn the shell craft candleholder and add another shell or two. Keep doing this until you have placed all the shells you want on the glass.

I have found that the easiest way is to turn the glass 180 degrees, once the glue has dried, so that the seashells I glued on face away from me. This brings a new face of the votive glass candleholder into view. Once this face is set up, I turn the votive 90 degrees, either left or right, and set up this face of the glass. Finally, I get to the last face by turning this 180 degrees.

Adding Accessories and the Sand

Once you have all the seashells set and glued on your shell craft candleholder consider the addition of some accessories. This can be colorful rhinestones - red, yellow, blue, green, purple, even clear - or pearls of various shades.

You can also add shell pieces, either found by you or made by you from unwanted shells, and small pieces of coral. It all depends on what you have available and how fancy you want your design to be.

I like to use accessories to add to the seashell designs. Rhinestones especially add color to the natural shades of browns most seashells and sand have. Of course, some seashells are very colorful - I have seen, and you may have also - naturally colored scallop shells that range from yellow to bright purple.

After you have added your accessories and let them dry it is time to add the sand to the candleholder craft design. Pick a spot on the glass to start. Carefully add some glue to the bare glass and spread it around with a brush. Try not to get too much on either the seashells or the accessories.

Pour sand over the glue you just spread out over the glass. I try to do a quarter of the glass at a time - it depends on how intricate the design on the glass is. Once that bit of glass and glue is covered in sand, I move on to the next bit of bare glass. Continue adding glue, spreading it around, then adding the sand.

Did you remember to put the newspaper under the glass to catch the sand? Otherwise you have a mess on your hands. Regardless, collect up the loose sand and return it to your container for future use. Once done, set the shell craft candleholder aside to dry.

Once the candleholder craft project is dry pick it up and lightly shake off any loose sand. Take a look at your seashells and accessories. If there is excess sand stuck to them first try using a dry brush to get the sand off.

Next scrape off any offending sand. I use a combination of my small pocket knife and a pair of tweezers to scrape and pick off the sand that is stuck where I don't want it. Plastic tweezers or even a small plastic piece that can be used as a scraper will probably do the same job with less chances of accidently cutting yourself.

If the shell craft candleholer project is to your satisfaction it is time to apply some protection and brightener to the seashells, coral, and sand.

Bring out the polyurethane and a hobby brush to apply it with. I prefer the liquid over the spray because there is better control over where the polyurethane ends up. The poly has a tendency to make dull things shine, and shiny things dull. Try not to get any on the rhinestones and pearls.

Cover all the sand, the seashells, and any shell pieces and coral you may have used. Go all the way around. I usually start at a specific shell that I can remember easily and then work my way around the glass until I'm back where I started.

Set the whole thing aside to dry. An hour or two should do. Now add a tealight and enjoy your work.

Photo Gallery

Check out the Miniature Candleholder Craft Photo Gallery. See the beautiful art I’ve created to inspire you in crafting your own shell craft candleholders.

Try Another Candleholder Project

Project 2 - Palm Tree
Project 3 - Reef
Project 4 - Island Reef
Project 5 - Sculpture

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