Sea shell bowls....

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.

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