Shell Craft Passed On!

When I was a little girl, my grandparents went on their holidays to Salthill. For those of you who don't know; Salthill is a seaside resort west of Galway city. They would spend lots of their time there on the beach and always took home lots of lovely shells. In Ireland, it's mostly cockle and mussel shells to be found on our beaches.
 

 

When they got home, I watched in amazement as they used these shells to create beautiful lamp bases and plant pots.
They would get empty oversized whisky bottles and cover them in what I think was Polyfil to stick the shells to the bottle. When dry, it would get a layer of varnish which would give it a lovely aged look. They added a light fitting and a shade and you got something a bit like this...
 

So, years later, I decided to give it a go.

I had this horrible, cabbage-like framed mirror that I got as a gift. The frame accidently broke (no, really) so I couldn't hang it up.

 In addition to my shell collection, I picked up some extra small shells and some resin star fish from a craft store online. I got some polyfil from the hardware and got to it. Firstly, I had to fix the crack in the wood with some glue. Then, I spread a small section at a time with polyfil and starting sticking. It's more difficult than you might think. You have to work fast as the filler dries so quickly. I had to enlist help from Mr. Auburn. I was not built for speed when it comes to crafting!!

After a couple of coats of vanish, this is how it turned out...



One thing I simply had to include was a little gold charm. In my grandparents' house, high on a shelf in the kitchen was a shell covered plant pot they had made. There, glistening from between the shells was a tiny gold spinning wheel charm, it fascinated me as a child. So, I sourced some tiny ships wheels on eBay for my mirror...

My shell mirror has pride of place...

 

in my vaguely nautical themed upstairs bathroom...