​I decided to add a few more cards to my selection. Seems I was in a fishy mood. I pulled out my water color paints and pastels to liven up the backgrounds. Then I used sea glass, pieces of tile and cork for my design. I even found one broken piece of pottery that instantly looked like a sea doo to me so of course you know I made that happen! Always a fun day when I start creating.

#seaglassartist #seaglasscards #seaglasscollector #seaglassaddict 
​#myrockpaperart #seaglassbirds #seaglassseadoo #seaglassfisherman 

​These shells were passed on to me after Joe passed away. He made many unique pieces and I recently had a good look at them. He was a very creative artist and I've picked up some ideas from his work. 

I'm busy getting my seashell area all organized! Every time I go out to work on sorting I send a special thank you up to Joe for all the hard work he did sorting and organizing the shells and for all the time he's saving me. There are currently 30 bottles on the table (with about 6 more still needed) that contain select pieces of shells - either for shape, color, size, whole, partial - I didn't know there could be so many ways to sort shells, LOL. I still have to sort through all the shells on the floor but it's kind of fun because every so often I see a "treasure" that I had picked up or that came from Joe and I marvel over the beauty of nature.

As many of you know I make Christmas trees using the sea glass that I collect on the beach. I'm thinking that I will expand my trees to include ones made with shells, since I have so many shells now. There was a neat idea Joe used in some of his pieces where he took a shell that had a hole in it and fitted a piece of sea glass into the hole. I'm thinking that would look really cool as a Christmas tree and with the lights inside illuminating the glass inserts.  Now I just have to figure out how to build these trees. Good thing I have all year to work it out.

​Sometimes I see a piece of sea glass, a broken tile or a shell and I instantly can picture in my mind what it will become.

In this case I was sorting through some shells I was given and came across the center piece of a shell. I immediately said this would make a cool pen. So I made a pen, rather fitting for me I think. I simply took the ink barrel out of a regular pen and set it into the curve of the shell and up around inside the top to hold it in place at the top. At the bottom I glued it into place. 

I love this pen! And when the time comes I can simply remove the ink barrel when it's empty and insert another one!

Happiness is having people around town who appreciate my art and support me in various ways. One way is to share with me the  sea glass and/or seashells that they collect on their beach walks. A lot of people like to pick it up because it's fun to find but they don't really have a use for it. That's where I come in. Between my sea glass trees, bowls and cards and now my seashell bowls I'm always happy to accept contributions to my creativity.

Today I was blessed - we'll see how blessed I'm feeling as I'm sorting all this - to receive an abundance of shells that had been collected by a gentleman, Joe, who is no longer with us. His friend told me that Joe used to create castles and such with the shells and he felt that Joe would love that I receive his shells to continue to create beautiful things with them.

​


It's time to start creating some Valentine's cards. Living in a small fishing village means there's nothing like a stationery store around where you can easily pick up a card for all the yearly celebrations. I like to make a few for each occasion to have on hand for the people of the community.

My hubby had suggested that I should have some ready for when I did the market this past Friday but I said there was still lots of time. Don't you know that I had a gentleman stop by my display asking if I had Valentine's cards? LOL I told him I was making some this week so to stop by next Friday. Needless to say I am now creating cards this week to have available at the market. Stop by if you're in the need.

 #watercolourvalentines #myrockpaperart #watercolorartist #watercolourartist #handpaintedcards #handdrawncards
#handmadecards

Back to playing with my sea glass. Creating more fun cards.

#mansbestfriend #doglovers #foreverfriends #girlfriends #seaglasscards #myrockpaperart #seaglassart #cheersgirlfriend ​

My latest endeavor was to try to create bowls using the sea shells I have found on the beach. I've made 2 so far and am very pleased with the results. The first one I made I used all the flat pieces of shells I have collected and an oyster shell for the base with the outside of the shell on the inside bottom of the bowl. I had to put the bottom this way to create a stable base to the bowl. The shell itself is much prettier on the inside but that was also the most level surface so it had to be on the down side.

Then I went one step further and decided to make a bowl using shells that I have found that are not broken. I have a lot of beautiful fully shaped shells. Since I'm building these over an inverted bowl to help keep the shape it's more difficult with entire shells as there is no flat area to go against the bowl so getting a perfectly rounded bowl is much less likely to happen. But really that's okay because it creates more character to the bowl. It's also tricky to get the right shells side by side so there is a contact point where I can glue them all together. The full shell bowl turned out very well but was interesting to create. I had enough clam shaped shells and some other spiral type shells then I had to find a bottom for it. I remembered that I'd found this big shard from a conch shell but it was larger than I thought I would need. However when I tried it, it worked quite well. There were only 3 touch points to the shells on the sides of the bowl so I glued those into place and then I worked from the inside and fitted some smaller shells into the bowl to create more touch points to glue everything together.

My brilliant husband took one look at my bowls and said you should turn them over and put a light inside of them! I instantly grabbed my twinkle lights to try it and I love the results!!  

So whether you're looking for a unique bowl for your small keepsakes, for a conversation piece on your table or you want an interesting light feature, these bowls can fit the bill.

​I took some time off over the holidays but I think I'm about to get back to it. I haven't been feeling the urge to do any art which is very unlike me. I usually have some art happening every day! I know I need to replenish my supply of sea glass cards and I need to get some Valentine's Day cards ready but knowing it and doing seem to be 2 different things for me lately.

However I have had this idea floating around in my head and today seems to be the day I'm going to try it. Any of you that follow my art endevours know that I recently started making sea glass bowls. It was a fun project and people seem to like them so I decided to take that idea one step further. I have lots of interesting shells, some whole and some just pieces so I'm going to try to make a sea shell bowl. I might even do 2 as I have these pieces pictured here which are small to medium sizes which are what I'm going to start with. But then I also have some really small ones, mostly entire shells and I think they would make a really cool bowl I'm just not sure I will have enough of them. After my first bowl I'll spread out my smaller shells and see if I have enough for a bowl. Watch for a future blog with the results of my attempt.