Shell Craft Seashell
Sculptures - Project 1
Welcome to this shell craft project - the first in this series of shell craft sculptures. As you can see from the photo, you can make some very nice seashell arts and crafts with the right seashells and figurines.
You’ll need some materials to work with, so let’s make a list of items you can use:
Materials:
1. 4” round wood base
2. sea shells
3. a dolphin figurine about 3 inches tall
4. sand – beach sand if possible
5. white all-purpose glue or something similar
6. oak stain
7. polyurethane - gloss or semi-gloss
8. fine sandpaper
9. brushes
10. newspaper
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First thing to do is prepare the wood base. You can probably pick one up at your local craft store. Try to get a round one that has a 4 or 5 inch diameter. Use the sandpaper to take any patina off the wood and to smooth out any rough edges. Remove any sand dust you create.
Apply the stain to the wood. You do not need to stain the area of this shell craft that you will cover with your design or sand, but you can if you want to. Won’t hurt anything.
While the stain is drying, take a couple of larger clam type seashells and glue them together. The insides of the shells should point away from each other. This will form a platform or “island” for your globe. Take a look in a craft store and see what kind of round glass or plastic objects they have that could fit in the shell. The glass globe used here is about 2” round and I found it at a garage sale. I had 5 of them at one time. The last of them is on this seashell sculpture.
Once the “island” is ready, position the island and the dolphin figurine on the base to check for fit and position. Just make sure you like the way they look before you glue them down to the base.
Next apply glue to the exposed surface of the base. Spread it around using a small brush until the glue covers all the places you want to add sand to. Then pour some sand over the glue. Give it about an hour or two to let the glue set, then you can gently tilt the sculpture over to remove the loose sand. Just be careful not to knock things off.
Now pick out some seashells from your collection. Find places for them in a pattern you like, with the larger ones toward the figurine and “island.” The smaller ones should go in front so you can see them.
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Add seashells wherever they fit. As you can see in this photo, I placed some at the back part of the shell craft sculpture. They filled in a hollow.
That’s all there is to it. Add sand where you need it to hide bare spots or glue. Use the clear polyurethane (gloss is best) to cover everything except the globe. Set aside to dry.
Sculptures can be placed on tables, mantles, or shelves. You can place it near a shell craft candleholder and enjoy the play of light across the sculpture. Have fun making your sculpture and don’t get hung up on finding exactly the same dolphins or globe. Just use what you can get.
Enjoy your sculpture. Come back, and try one of the other Shellcraft projects.
the Shellcrafter
Shell Craft Sculpture Project 2
Shell Craft Sculpture Project 3
Project 4 – Leaping Dolphins at Sunset
Project 5 - Owls at Beach
Return to Shell craft Sculptures Main Page
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